Putting e-bike on Thule bike rack

[Caroline]

I'm about to buy a Cube Touring Hybrid Pro 500 with a trapeze frame (i.e.. lady's style) and want to work out how to carry it on my exisiting towbar-mounted Thule bike rack. The problem is that the bike rack operates partly by gripping the bike's cross bar, which works for my existing bikes but not for the lady's-frame Cube. The standard solution seems to be to use a cross bar converter that gives you in effect a temporary cross bar - but both the Thule bike frame adapter and Halfords' false cross bar say they are for bikes up to 15 kg, and the Cube weighs about 23 kg. (There is also a Peruzzo cross bar converter but nobody seems to know what the weight limit is for that.)

Does anyone know what the solution to this is? I imagine that lots of people want to carry step-through e-bikes on a bike rack, but it's not clear to me how it's done.

 

[kangooroo]

We regularly carry my Oxygen e-Mate step-through, Carrera Crossfire 1 ladies non-electric and a folding e-bike on this rack with no problems at all. The strap fastens around the upright on the Thule frame and the crossbar equivalent on each of the bike frames. Next time we use the bike rack I'll try to remember to take a photo of it is use and loaded.

 

[Caroline]

Thanks, Kangooroo - although I'm not sure my Thule rack matches what you are describing. It's of this sort: https://www.thule.com/en-gb/gb/bike-rack/towbar-bike-racks/thule-velospace-xt-2-_-938021 (although not that exact model), so has "arms" to grip the bike crossbar. It doesn't have any straps others than the ones that go through either wheel, so I can't actually picture how things work with your rack.

 

[Jonah]

I have a similar bike rack and have carried a variety of bikes on it without any problems, including step thrus. The arms can be attached anywhere, they aren’t taking the weight, just keeping the bike in place. I don’t think you’ll have a problem. You won’t need a false crossbar.

 

[kangooroo]

Aha.... We use the 3-bike version of this one.
https://www.roofbox.co.uk/scripts/rbvehsel4_tab.php?37594&gclid=Cj0KCQiAjszhBRDgARIsAH8KgvckX2Heqw44TumkSEuz1huAM6g4-fud_GlAaXcE0x2GUhj57GfIWPkaAmAzEALw_wcB

 

[Adamski]

I have the Saris Bones rack, will it be safe to carry two bikes on this?

 

[Gubbins]

My supercharger can't be fitted using a crossbar mount so use the seat post tube.

 

[Gubbins]

And bought these from halfords for a bit of insurance

 

[MikeS]

Yes - it's not immediately obvious but those clamps on arms (a short one and a long one) easily remove then can be threaded through the bike frame and attached to the inverted u-shaped frame at any point - along the top or up either side. It would be surprising if there wasn't some kind of vertical or near vertical tube to clamp them round.
mike

 

[Andrew K]

It's no problem attaching the bikes using seat tube or down tube.

 

[Gubbins]

I am using a piece of pipe insulation to avoid any frame scratches...

 

[Caroline]

Thank you - you are all so helpful. The photographs are very useful, as is the idea of the additional retention straps. I hadn't appreciated that the arms on the bike rack could be moved about so much, so I shall experiment once I have my e-bike, which should be in the next day or two. I've decided that it's best not to drive to the shop (it's about 8 miles away) with the rack to collect the bike - instead I'll get the bus there, ride the bike back and then have lots of time to experiment with getting it on the rack on future for future occasions.

 

[MikeS]

Thule sell a ramp so you can wheel your bike up onto that rack. After I managed to strain my elbow ligaments lifting the 26kg bike on, I thought I should buy one. However after a few experiments I realised that I could lift the front wheel on easily then roll that wheel over to the other side of the rack and no ramp was necessary. You have to lean the bike towards you so the pedals don't collide with the frame, but you'd have to do that with Thule's ramp anyway.
Mike

 

[Gubbins]

Just as an update. I used my Thule easyfold 2 yesterday and drove around 80 miles in wet and rainy conditions. I am 69 years old with a back injury and having removed the top battery I had no difficulty lifting the supercharger on or off of the rack, but more interestingly the bike hardly got wet and certainly did not pick up the general road grime that normally swirls around the back of the car which I put down to the solid bottom of the Thule rack diverting this muck underneath and away at the back.
During the bike ride the car was the only vehicle left in an unattended country car park until after dark so I was able to utilise a bonus of the Easyfold which was to remove it and put it in the car. Out of sight so out of mind.
Expensive, but a 5* buy

 

[MikeS]

Yes - the more I examine my Thule folding tow-ball rack the more stunned I am by the attention to design detail that Thule have made. Mine is slightly different from yours in that the upright part doesn't fold quite so neatly. TBH I haven't often bothered folding that part down as it makes a useful handle for carrying the rack, and it fits into the car without needing to be folded down.
I believe this rack has made a major contribution to me getting fit. The fact that I can, within 3 or 4 minutes easily be ready to go cycling in any of 5 national parks near me has meant I actually get on with it.
Mike

 

[Caroline]

Now that I've actually got my e-bike I find that the manual says "This bike may only be transported inside a vehicle". Grrrrr... do they expect me to buy a bigger car just so that I put the e-bike inside it?