Recommendations for bike carrier?i

[Paul_L]

Booked a cottage in Norfolk in the summer and plan to take mine and my son's bike.

I've no idea what i need or what the options are.

I have a Ford C-Max (new style 2011 model).

I have the roof rails for it, so i'd have thought a roof mounted carrier would be better, but am slightly concerned by the height the bikes would end up being and whether that would make it a pain in the arse to put on and take off, although i am 6ft tall. I'm also mindful that any low bridges / barriers could be a recipe for disaster!

Rear mounts may be an option but we travel with small children and inevitably need access to the boot on long journeys, so i'd have thought this rules rear mounts out?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Broadside]

IMO the best option is to fit a removable towbar and then put a decent Thule or Altera bike carrier on it that will fold out of the way so you can open the boot. The bill to do this on my Galaxy was about £700 so I didn't bother!

We put the roof bars on instead and use Thule Proride carriers. Far cheaper but has lots of drawbacks, fuel economy, restricted headroom etc but worth it for the saving. Gettings the bikes on top of the Galaxy is a bit tricky but for a C Max I would imagine would be quite easy. I would recommend using the Proride carriers as once the bike is up there securing it is a doddle and saves lots of time compared to a cheaper carrier.