Bike Carriers

[Charlie French]

hello all

I am a student at Northumbria University studying Transport design. For our final project we have been set the task of designing a new cycle carrier for on cars

I would be greatful of any insight people could give of experiences you have had in this area, and if it is possible, email me so i may send you a short questionaire to complete.

Any information would be a great help

thanks

charlie french

c.french91@btinternet.com
charlie.french@northumbria.ac.uk

 

[summerdays]

I'll post my answers here if that's OK... since you put up the doc...
Name: Summerdays
Age Group: 41-50
Ride a bike: 4-6 days a week
Reason: commute, Family activity, shopping (you didn't put that one on)
Own a car: Yes
Transport bike by car: Rarely I would say
What accessories: Tow bar mounted rack
What issues do you face transporting the bike:
Well family of 5 - and only 4 fit on the rack so the smallest for now goes in the car - so we don't take the bikes on holiday with us because then the inside is full. It takes a long time fitting on the rack and putting all the bikes on, doing up all those little straps for the tyres, putting in pipe insulation between bikes to stop them rubbing against each other, getting them to fit beside each other (handlebars/seat heights etc). Then when you get to the other end you have to find somewhere to park that allows you to have an extra couple of feet sticking off the back of the car. Basically its a lot of effort so we don't do it very often.

 

[Piemaster]

The questionnaire is displaying very oddly in OpenOffice so I'll follow Summerdays an post here
Name: Piemaster
Age Group: 41-50
Ride a bike: 2-4 days a week
Reason: hobby, fitness,Family activity, shopping (you didn't put that one on)
Own a car: Yes
Transport bike by car: Rarely I would say
What accessories: Tow bar mounted rack
What issues do you face transporting the bike: As Summerdays says, its a fiddle and time consuming to load it up. Family with 4 adult sized bikes, which is also an issue with the towbar nose weight of my car (an Alfa 156).
IDEA: towball is of removable swan neck type that just pushes into a socket, bike rack then clamps onto towball. Why not just have the rack plug straight into the socket - would be a more secure and stiffer arrangement.

 

[Armegatron]

Might as well follow suit with posting on here. One student to another, I hope this helps you out

Name: Mike Pembo
Age Group: 22-30
Ride a bike: 4-6 times per week
Reason: Commuting, Hobby, Fitness & Family Activity
Own a car: Yes
Transport bike by car: Once per month
What accessories: None, bike in boot.
What issues do you face transporting the bike: Slipped disk in my back causes me a struggle to lift the bike into the car, hence its not done often. When I do put the bike in / out of the car I have help from whoever is with me at the time, and dismantle as much of the bike as possible to reduce weight (ie both front and rear wheels, accessories etc).

I have a Skoda Fabia hatchback so the rear seats still need to go down even after the bike has been stripped of the wheels, hence I can only transport 1 passenger and hence only 2 bikes.

I have a plastic sheet in the boot to keep the boot clean after doing any off roading, and I also pull the sheet over the rear bumper when loading to prevent scratches.

When I have bikes in the boot and need access to anything that is stored in there (such as spare wheel, hivis jacket, warning triangle, jack, compressor etc) I would have to remove the bike(s) first.

I have used a bike rack that hangs off the boot but found that it dented my car, was more awkward to load up, reduced visibility out of the windows, increased width of the car as the bikes never sat dead center.

 

[Charlie French]

hi guys, thanks for replying, all very useful information.

 

[Downward]

· [FONT=&quot]Name:_Downward______________________________________[/FONT]

· [FONT=&quot]Age Group: under 18 19-21 22-30 31-40 41-50 51-60 60+[/FONT]

· [FONT=&quot]How often do you ride a bike: [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Every day □[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]4 to 6 times per week □[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]2 to 4 times per week □[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Once per week □[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Once per month □ [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Rarely □[/FONT]

· [FONT=&quot]For what reason do you ride a bike: [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Commuting □[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Hobby □[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Fitness □[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Family Activity □[/FONT]

· [FONT=&quot]Do you own a car? [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Yes □ No □[/FONT]

· [FONT=&quot]How often do you transport your bike by car? [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Every day □[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]4 to 6 times per week □[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]2 to 4 times per week □[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Once per week □[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Once per month □ [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Rarely □[/FONT]

· [FONT=&quot]What accessories do you in this process use? [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Tow Bar Rack □[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Rear Mounted Rack □ [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Roof Mounted rack □[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Trailer □[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]None □ (put bike in car boot)[/FONT]

· [FONT=&quot]What issues did you face while transporting your bike?[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]____________________________________________________________________[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Well at the moment for 2 bikes on the roof rack it's fine. When the kids are older with their own bikes not sure what we wil do then. Rear mounted racks restrict access to the boot and don't think 4 would fit on the roof.[/FONT] This is assuming the wifes car has the roofbars on however. Boot wise neither car is big enough. I have transported mine in my car with 1 wheel off in the back but couldn't get it out when i parked at work !
[FONT=&quot]____________________________________________________________________[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]____________________________________________________________________[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]____________________________________________________________________[/FONT]

 

[Theseus]

• Name: Touche

• Age Group: 41-50

• How often do you ride a bike: 4 to 6 times per week

• For what reason do you ride a bike: Commuting
Hobby
Family Activity

• Do you own a car? Yes

• How often do you transport your bike by car? Rarely

• What accessories do you in this process use? Rear Mounted Rack

• What issues did you face while transporting your bike?

 

[Shaun]

I like the idea of posting replies into the forum, it gives everyone at CC a chance to get a feel for the results.

Good stuff ...

 

[Norm]

Name: Norm
Age Group: 41-50
Ride a bike: 4-6 days a week
Reason: [FONT=&quot] [/FONT]Commuting. Hobby, Fitness, Family Activity (and shopping)
Own a car: Yes
Transport bike by car: Once per month (probably more than this but not as much as once a week)
What accessories: Tow bar mounted rack, boot of car (and back of pickup)
What issues do you face transporting the bike:
Not too many. The tow bar mounted rack we have (Thule 9503) is easy to load and convenient, and it is one which pivots out of the way so we can open the tailgate without problems. It has only a marginal effect on fuel consumption and obviously doesn't reduce the load capacity inside the car. The main downside is that the extra length means we need to use the "trailer parking" in service stations, and that not every car has a tow hitch. Oh, and that it's not very secure as the rack isn't locked to the car and the bikes aren't locked to the rack, although I think locks are available to sort both of these.

 

[mr_cellophane]

• Age Group: 51-60

• How often do you ride a bike: 2 to 4 times per week

• For what reason do you ride a bike: Fitness

• Do you own a car? Yes

• How often do you transport your bike by car? Rarely

• What accessories do you in this process use? (put bike in car boot) - I also have a roof rack if transporting more than 1at a time

• What issues did you face while transporting your bike?

rear bumper is not designed to accommodate rear mounting carriers.

 

[Tigerbiten]

Name: Tigerbiten
Age Group: 41-50
Ride a bike: 2-4 days a week
Reason: Commuting. Hobby, Fitness, (and shopping)
Own a car: Yes
Transport bike by car: Rarely
What accessories: None, back of car.
What issues do you face transporting the bike:
I ride a recumbent trike. I've a Suzuki Jimny, by dropping the back seats down and pushing the front passinger seat fully forward, I can get the trike in with only the fairing and the rear mudguard removed.
If I'm going to carry anything else, the trike needs to be more dismantled.