Salad Dodger
Guru
- Location
- Kent Coast
We have a towbar mounted bike rack on the back of the campervan. Not one of these flimsy little "V" shaped things, but a great big solid 2 bike rack, made out of lots of box section tubing and spare parts from a suspension bridge, by the look of it.
It will carry either 2 x mountain bikes, or 2 x electric bikes (we take the batteries off in a token attempt to keep the weight down on the towball). It has served very well for 6 or 7 main holidays, plus many weekends away, and is still going strong.
A couple of years ago, on the last day of our holiday in France, we set off from the campsite on route to Eurotunnel. A misunderstanding with the sat nav over which exit to take at a roundabout caused us to go down a little lane, instead of the next exit at the roundabout which was the larger road. "No problem" thought I. I can reverse round the corner of the first side road I come to, and go back the way I came. Unfortunately, I misjudged the angle of the reverse round the corner. The back of the van ended up going up the kerb, the bike rack made contact with a "stop" sign on a pole, severing it at ground level and leaving it hanging on the back of the van.
Luckily no one was about, so I freed the sign, laid it at the side of the road and beat a hasty retreat.
Well, when I say no one was about, I mean no one except an elderly gent on a racing bike, who cycled past just as I was disentangling the sign from the van. To say he looked baffled by what he was seeing does not do justice to his expression. He was, as the French might say, nonplussed.....
We drove the remaining 250 miles to the tunnel in total silence. My wife only spoke to me once we were clear of the UK side of the tunnel, and we had not been arrested / imprisoned / deported / summonsed.
Damage to the bike rack? One slightly bent wheel support arm.
It will carry either 2 x mountain bikes, or 2 x electric bikes (we take the batteries off in a token attempt to keep the weight down on the towball). It has served very well for 6 or 7 main holidays, plus many weekends away, and is still going strong.
A couple of years ago, on the last day of our holiday in France, we set off from the campsite on route to Eurotunnel. A misunderstanding with the sat nav over which exit to take at a roundabout caused us to go down a little lane, instead of the next exit at the roundabout which was the larger road. "No problem" thought I. I can reverse round the corner of the first side road I come to, and go back the way I came. Unfortunately, I misjudged the angle of the reverse round the corner. The back of the van ended up going up the kerb, the bike rack made contact with a "stop" sign on a pole, severing it at ground level and leaving it hanging on the back of the van.
Luckily no one was about, so I freed the sign, laid it at the side of the road and beat a hasty retreat.
Well, when I say no one was about, I mean no one except an elderly gent on a racing bike, who cycled past just as I was disentangling the sign from the van. To say he looked baffled by what he was seeing does not do justice to his expression. He was, as the French might say, nonplussed.....
We drove the remaining 250 miles to the tunnel in total silence. My wife only spoke to me once we were clear of the UK side of the tunnel, and we had not been arrested / imprisoned / deported / summonsed.
Damage to the bike rack? One slightly bent wheel support arm.
