Bike transport

[greyfox69]

I have a works Ford Transit connect, my scott esub sport will not fit in it without taking the front wheel off, if i take more than one bike. however out of sight ?? might be a bit more secure ?? the downside is I have just attended a speed awareness course, caught doing 57mph on a 60mph dual carriageway cos i forgot i was in the van,

 

[denwyn]

That’s something I hadn’t considered, could cope with the dearer insurance, but the speed limit would be a problem,not that I’m a speed freak.but keeping to down at times would be a problem. Motor home is not a route I fancy, there expensive, and I’m not into the motor home lifestyle at all. Nothing is ever straightforward.

 

[shiftspark]

I know you don't want to take the wheel off but a Galaxy will fit them in and they have floor mounted adapters to fit to.

 

[The Bear]

Wheel off is only a 10 second job with quick release, and means you don't have to spend hundreds/thousands changing your vehicle.

 

[Ocsid]

I fit an Agguta step-through plus my 700 wheeled hybrid in the rear of our Discovery 4, but secured via home made front fork clamps on a heavy plywood spreader. A rock steady option and configured to "nest" the bars taking up surprisingly little room allowing two of the three second row seats to be occupied if needed.
I realise you are specifically against removing the front wheels but with bikes designed for that it really is only a sub half minute task removing and again refitting them. That requirement IMO really screws up your otherwise much wider range of options.

 

[georgehenry]

A Word of warning.

Until the last week or so I have been running an increasingly disheveled Peugeot 406 HDI diesel estate. The old Peugeot was simplicity itself to drop the rear seats and throw my Haibike sDuro Hardseven 2015 Yamaha in the back on the relatively few but necessary occasions I needed to.

With a number of expensive jobs looming on my pretty much worthless Peugeot and a £4000 part exchange scrappage scheme on offer, and with what I thought some excellent haggling on my behalf a further 15% knocked off the price of the car I had in mind I decided to go ahead and buy what I thought was a slightly bigger modern Peugeot equivalent.

The weekend arrived to swap the Peugeot for my new car. It just so happened that I had used the Peugeot to drop my Haibike at my local bike shop for a minor renewal of a part.

So I took my new car to collect my bike. Now my new car is What car estate car of the year and really very very big. However as I found out when I tried to put my Haibike in the back the handle bars combined with 650b wheels and tyres made it too wide to allow me to slide the bike in as I was accustomed to in the Peugeot as there are two storage bins that reduce the width near the entrance to the load area. The total load area is significantly bigger than the Peugeot but those storage bin intrusions meant I had to take my front wheel off.

The car in question is a Skoda Superb Estate, and is so massive that I had not even considered that my bike could not be thrown in the back.

In fairness the handle bars on my Haibike followed a trend when I bought it of being very wide, the widest bars on a bike I had owned up until then, and I had considered reducing them a bit when I first got it to make it easier to get between trees etc in tighter off road situations and had clipped my bar ends on a few occasions. But I never got round to it and have sort of got used to them.

Now if I am to continue to enjoy my lazy approach to car bike transport I will have to dig out my hacksaw.

Actually as stated above taking the front wheel off is really very easy but I had got used to not having to do so.

I did spec a tow bar on the new car as I had on the Peugeot so it might be time for one of those trendy tow bar carriers, but that would need a new thread to provide me with recommendations.

 

[Russelliow]

I can get my ebike in the back of my lwb Shogun without removing the wheels. You might get two in there without removing wheels but you would have to invent some sort of shelf system or maybe tie one to the roof lining.
These 27.5 plus bikes seam much bigger than the old 26 inch bikes.

 

[Auxtail]

I have heard of a liking for old XC90 on Singletrack forums. Not sure how big your bikes are, but reckon that could swallow a large load.

 

[Charliefox]

We have a couple of Whisper 705 T bikes, and up till now carried then on a Thule tow bar rack. Three times we have caught people fiddling with the bikes and rack. Ok the bikes have not been stolen, but neither of us are happy leaving them unattended on the car anymore, also can't say I feel happy driving with them on the rack. We rarely left them for long. My car is due to be changed and I am thinking of getting something big enough to to put the bikes in the back, what sort of transport does everyone use, I would think of a van if needed,as there are only two of us, just need some ideas on what makes to search out, I seem to remember there are some people carriers which are tall enough to take two full size bikes, don't want to have to take wheels of bikes to fit in. So vans and car recommendations would be appreciated..thanks. oh and the Towbar rack is definitely not an option I will use again

I have been using Berlingo's since 2002 bought specifically to carry 2 bikes inside. I used to drop the left hand double back seat and put the first bike in diagonally, handle bar first with the tyre touching the side door. then after a bit of foam tubing on the LH fork leg and rear stay, put the second bike in alongside but facing backwards so the handlebars fit over the first bikes saddle. strapped down to the boot floor D hooks, I have carried them for thousands of miles no bother. The original Berlingo had lots of wipeable plastic so mud was easily wiped off. The 2011 Peugeot Partner I am now using is a bit plusher so the handle bars can push into the headlining a bit, but what the hell it's a van with windows. If you have 29" wheel bikes, like a mate of mine, it is better to take out the double seat entirely, easily done in seconds on the post 2008 models, as it's hard to close the back door otherwise! Citroen Berlingo/Peugeot Partner and Fiat Doblos are cheap as chips but reliable too. All are tall enough. I doubt if the same can be said your average people carrier or SUV where you would have to lay one bike on the other and perhaps have to whip off the front wheel as well. I DID loose an MTB from a trailer, despite a padlock which pushed me into what I have now. Nice driving position too. They must be good,as very few owners ever sell!

 

[Charliefox]

The problem with a transit type van is that they are constantly getting their doors peeled back by scrotes looking for power tools. Quite expensive to repair, with increased insurance premiums if you claim.

I drive a LR Defender and my Cube Reaction Race fits inside if I remove one of the rear seats, but now that I've put bar ends on, it won't. Im now about to use a Saris fork trap which I will bolt to a length of wood. Remove the front wheel, drop front forks into the strap and tighten up. Keeps the bike nice and stable as well.

Hah! Made something similar for our caravan. 4 angle pieces in pairs with long threaded rod held in place with bolts and screwed to a wood batten cut to just fit across the caravan betwwen fridge abd heater, The forks where held on with wing nuts. Cost pennies but must say yours LOOKS better!

 

[The Bear]

Sadly the Saris fork trap isn't suitable for my bike. I hadn't realised until I took my front wheel off that my forks can't just drop onto the clamp, instead I would have to remove the clamp bolt and feed it through the axel and clamp. But in anycase, my forks are too wide for the clamp, so it will be going back to Halfords.






But with one of my rear seats removed, along with the front wheel my bike fits easily inside my Defender. The bar ends I've fitted make it a very tight fit with them catching on the headlining, even with them removed the Purion display rubs on the headlining, so from now on i will remove the front wheel...

 

[denwyn]

We went out this morning and looked a VW T5 Campervan, and a VW Transporter, we could get both of the bikes in either, of the two the transporter seemed a better buy price wise, the beds and kitchen in the campervan were of no real use to us. It seems the Transporter is classed as a car, so insurance and speed limits are better, but I will need to get this checked out as the dealer was a bit vague about it. I wouldn't be buying from him anyway as his prices are a bit on the high side. I think I will contact the DVLA to get some guidance on this. Both of us found the VW easy to drive and very comfortable.

 

[EddieH]

I drive a Ford Tourneo and my Mountain Sport fits in nicely with some of the back seats down or 7 seats without the bike. (Mind you I have had it for over 2 years and not done 2000 miles yet as I normally use the bike instead)