Tandems on roof bars

[wuverley]

Hello. I'm new here and after some advice. I've fairly recently taken up riding a tandem with my partner and although cycling round here is pleasant it would be good to take the tandem further afield. On the roof of my car, it's not big enough to get the tandem in it.

I've got some roof bars but don't fancy (haven't got much money) spending quite a bit of money on a tandem roof carrier.

Is lying the bike on its side and just strapping it to the bars a viable approach? How do you stop it sliding about? I'm up for a challenge but don't want to see the bike go flying off the roof bars if there is some sudden braking.

Has anyone here done it? Any advice would be welcome.

Cheers

 

[Tim Hall]

Creative use of bungees, plus a bit of handlebar twisting and maybe a bit of pipe lagging where it will do most good and you'll be fine strapping a tandem onto roof bars.

 

[Bonefish Blues]

It would be a bit of a struggle but doable. Set up an eBay alert for a Pendle carrier too?

 

[Sharky]

In the days before special carriers, we used to turn our bikes upsidedown and rest the brake levers on one of the roof rails, secured by a couple of toe straps. At the other end, the saddle rested on the other roof rail, with a sponge or beret to protect the saddle and another toestrap to secure it.

So could you use the same method just securing the front handlebars and front saddle and leave the rear saddle unsupported.

 

[Heltor Chasca]

In the days before special carriers, we used to turn our bikes upsidedown and rest the brake levers on one of the roof rails, secured by a couple of toe straps. At the other end, the saddle rested on the other roof rail, with a sponge or beret to protect the saddle and another toestrap to secure it.

So could you use the same method just securing the front handlebars and front saddle and leave the rear saddle unsupported.

You should be thanked for a great idea and a good excuse to purchase a beret.

 

[Sixmile]

What kind of car is it and what weight is the bike. A Seasucker rack might work.

 

[Bikepilot]

Hi, when I picked up our tandem, second hand, met the guys who fetched it off roof of his car which I think was a Golf Estate...he offered me a length of wood he'd made I think to extend a standard cycle carrier to fit the tandem...from memory if was over a metre long, about 5 cm wide with a channel cut in it so the bike was carried wheels down. I declined as if I ever move it I removed wheels, mudguards, rack and handlebars.

 

[Dave 123]

We are very lucky. We bought our 1st tandem second hand, it came with a Pendle roof bar. We sold the tandem a year later to buy a new one. We sold the 2nd hand one for what we gave for it a year earlier, but we kept the Pendle rack!

It is solid, and worth the money if you can stretch to it. I'll happily sit on a motorway at 70mph (90 in reality)

 

[wuverley]

Thanks everyone. While I'm sure it would be easier to use a purpose designed carrier I'm becoming more convinced that strapping the bike frame to the roof bars is doable and reasonably safe... hopefully.
We got a bargain secondhand Thorn tandem and I can't stretch to paying nearly as much for a carrier.

Thanks again

 

[biggs682]

I have never tried to even lift our tandem on to the roof of the car as i can imagine it would take a fair degree of lifting and man handling , so my answer is to remove both wheels and remove the rear seats from our C Max and slide it inside , ok it means that only 2 of us can travel at the same time .

This idea works for us , plus its out of sight as well once parked up .

 

[Alex H]

With our first tandem, I put a couple of 2m pieces of 5cm x 5cm wood on to the bars.

At least that way there is no metal to metal rubbing while you're driving along.

 

[swansonj]

The Tandem Club website still has the Tandem Club Guide to taking tandems on cars. It was written in 2003 by some idiot with too much spare time and a missionary zeal to spread the word that you don't have to spend a fortune if you are willing to do some DIY. Unfortunately it is in their member-only section.

 

[wuverley]

I still haven't tried the tandem on the roof bars yet. But the day is getting nearer, I'm sure of it. Cheers

 

[jongooligan]

Been thinking about how to get our tandem on the car roof cheaply and easily. Cheap meant it would have to be a home made solution. Easy because we don't want to knack ourselves getting it up there. A bonus would be if we could come up with something that we could use to lift the canoe onto the car roof as well.

Here's a picture of the prototype.

The tandem is easily lifted onto the hooks and fastened to the frame using toe straps. It's then it's simply a matter of lifting the ends of the cross members and sliding the frame across the roof. The blue cord looped around the top spars is to prevent the whole thing falling towards you when the tandem is hooked on. There are more elegant ways to do this but I couldn't think of anything simpler.
Once the frame is on the roof it's then strapped to the roof rack using one of our canoe straps and the blue cord is slipped off. I've tried it and it works. It needs some fine tuning though. The pedals are perilously close to the roof and the handlebars are touching the windscreen so I'll need to add some thickness to the longitudinal spars.
I'll post another pic when it's finished.

 

[Alex H]

That's a wooden version of the Helton carrier.