I hate driving my bike anywhere. HATE IT!
There was a time when it seemed like such a simple thing to do, and over the years, it was. Sorta.
It began for me with a trailer hitch mount on the back of my Ford Explorer, but not the kind of hitch mount you’re thinking of. My Explorer had a round hole where one could bolt in a hitch ball.
In retrospect, since I never really asked, I’m pretty sure that wasn’t to actually hitch on a trailer of any weight if I wanted my rear bumper to remain attached to the truck.
But the hitch mount worked really as long as there was absolutely no need to open up the back hatch! So it pretty much rendered the cargo space worthless.
Besides, all you needed was a wrench and, poof, my bikes would be for sale in New York City.
Next up, since my wife wanted to take her bike on her Honda Civic, was one of those strap on the trunk racks. I hated the fact that its entire success was based on the weight of the bike pulling down on the straps.
It took a lot of convincing to get my wife to trust it, too, not to mention trusting it wouldn’t scratch up her car. So that was rather short-lived experiment with Newton’s law of gravity.
Enter the roof rack phase. Perfect for my road bike days. Not so great for my 35-pound downhill mountain bike days. Or for my wife.
The real trouble with a roof rack, of course, is its inability to slip into the garage while in use. I’ve yet to own a garage that doesn’t have molding damage. It’s like I’m marking my territory. CRUNCH!
Aside from that, I’ve had one bike completely fly off the roof rack and nearly destroy a pickup following behind. I’ve had a mountain bike simply slump over and fall when its fork cracked on the freeway, and had two mountain bikes completely flip over backward only to be held on the roof by their back wheels tied down. (Most of those have been detailed in Hey, Just Ride columns).
Next, I decided the hell with it, especially once I got fancy expensive bikes, and just stored them in the back hatch of my Santa Fe. Of course, that started scratching up the interior and marking up upholstery creating issues with my wife. I offered to strap her old gravity rack on the back, and that cooled her jets.
Then I worked at Bike Friday for five years, and only carted around folding bikes in the back. That is a great benefit of a Bike Friday. I always had my bike with me. I once carted eight Bike Fridays including a tandem to a bike show in San Francisco in the back of my Saturn Vue.
Now I have a pickup truck for the first time in my life, and I see the popular front wheel hanging over the tailgate option, but since we travel a lot with our travel trailer in tow, that option and hitch options and roof options seem out of the question.
Then, VOILA! What should appear on craigslist FREE category? Thule trays for the back pickup bed. We’ll see how they work.
This week’s question, what’s your bike transport system and what failures have you experienced in the past?
I find mini-vans to be endlessly useful. It’s my car, so no worries from my wife about scratches, etc. Yes, in the past, I’ve lost a great bike that mysteriously flew off the roof, yes, my garage moulding has scars. Bike inside is nice. Although not “cool”.
Roof all the way for me for a few reasons. First having a centered exhaust on my car makes fitting a hitch rack a difficult proposition and/or nonstarter. Second, as much as I love the convenience of a rear rack the one time I had one it was stolen. Lastly, my aforementioned car has a low roof line so lifting even heavy bikes onto it is not that big of a deal.
I have in fact knocked a bike off of a roof rack when attempting to pass a low overhang at an entrance gate. Not only did the rack get trashed, but so did the bike as it was knocked completely off to the rack I backed over it. I rented my friend a bike for our ride that day and then bought him a new bike. Sucked, but I learned that I hated SUV’s (still do) with high roof lines (and in general) and that there is no such thing as being too vigilant.
The racks to go with today IMHO are those from 1-Up USA. https://1up-usa.com/product-category/racks/roof-bike-racks/
Knock on wood- I’ve had no big failures. Started with a rack that hung on the spare tire of our Jeep then a strap rack on the hatchback. Then a Saris tray rack held all my bikes securely but it weighed a ton! Shortly after purchasing a 1up (dreamy light!) I grew uncomfortable with the vulnerability of my bikes behind the back bumper, so they are carried inside the vehicle now.
Aha! The spare tire rack!! I completely forgot about my Suzuki Samurai days and the racks that bolted into the holes of the spare tire hub on the back. That was one of the better performing racks. Definitely the most fun vehicle I ever had