How To Carry a Bicycle?

[Tomterrific]

How To Carry a Bicycle?

Loretta wanted her bicycle along on the last trip. I did not have a good way to carry it so it ended up on the bed in the camper, 4x8x4. This is a clumsy way to carry something big and dirty with lots of pokey parts. I have not come up with a good idea. Some ideas but I'm not sold on any. I need a group brainstorm to figure something.

Here's the skinny.
Pickup with a bed cover over supplies.
Two inch receiver hitch.
Very light trailer with a weak C shaped tongue.

I had thoughts of standing the bike upright on the bed inside the camper but we never went to the trouble. I would like to mount it outside but safe.

Tt

[John61CT]

Either put in a hitch capable of adding a bike rack above the trailer connection

or put a bike rack on the front of the trailer

or the back.

[working on it]

inexpensive bike hauler mod.jpg (91.13 KiB) Viewed 4847 times

* I was considering these, before I tried biking on one trip...my knees are so bad, I've never used the bike again (now, I normally wear one hinged knee brace, sometimes two, just to be able to rise out of a chair).

[halfdome, Danny]

We carry 2 bikes in a bike rack on the rear hitch receiver of our teardrop.
Some friends have folding bikes that go in a bike bag and carry them wherever they fit, be it the tow vehicle or the trailer.
Danny

[mary and bob]

Those double hitch extenders are heavy (I have one, used it once) and according to specs on some they reduce the capacity of your vehicles receiver by 50%. Probably not an issue with a light trailer. They will prevent the truck tailgate from being opened with the bike on. I've tried a few ways of carrying bikes, on the rear of a trailer, which will affect tongue weight and possibly cause sway. You need a rack rated for rear use on a RV (most are not), I had one rear mounted rack bend with two bikes on it. I tried a rack mounted on the tongue of our teardrop and that worked fairly well but did affect turning radius. Now our tow vehicle is a full size pickup with a 6 1/2 foot box and a cab height cap. We use bikes with quick release front wheels so I have two fork clamps bolted to a piece of plywood in the pickup bed and the bikes ride standing up and out of the weather. Best solution for us. Tried riding a folding bike, but didn't like the way it handled with the small wheels.

[Tomterrific]

The hitch extender might work okay for us. We have two 1 1/4" hitch mount bike racks. It will be a pain to get into the bed. The tailgate must be dropped before the cover can be unlatched.
I thought about mounting a receiver on the rear of the camper but since we couldn't see the bike I'm not liking that as a solution.
Perhaps a tongue mount but how?

Thanks for all the good info guys.

Tt

[tony.latham]

On our last teardrop, I installed a receiver at the rear for a swing-away bike rack.



We did a 21-day trip to the southwest setup like that and it was too much bounce and weight back there. Even with the swing-away, the bikes were in the way. I don't think that system is a good solution.

With this new teardrop, I installed a receiver just ahead of the tongue box.



The final rig will look like this:



The Thule that I will use folds up so that once we have the bikes unloaded, we can access the box.

That's my plan and I'm sticking to it.

Tony

[halfdome, Danny]

We have been using this set up for several years now, without any issues.
The bike rack is attached to a factory made 4' hitch receiver that's welded to 2 cross members.
I can see the tire of each bike in my rear view mirror.
The only hassle is when we travel a long distance the ratcheting hooks that hold the bikes on get very tight so I carry a large pair of Channel Lock pliers to release them.
I also run a locking bike cable through the bike frames for an extra measure of safety and to prevent theft.
I even welded a piece of angle iron to hold a LED 4 function tail light.
With this set up we don't bother removing the bikes to make meals but eat out, darn.
Danny

[mary and bob]

I prefer the type racks where the bike wheels set in loops or on a tray. I did adapt a Thule tray type rack to the tongue of our son's pop-up camper. It has a arm that swings up and clamps on the bike frame. Bikes on the rear can obstruct the tail lights, so when we did use a rear rack I had an extra set of lights on the rack. Also on both of our fiberglass campers, Casita and Uhaul, I installed a high mount tail/turn/stop light, mainly because the driver of a big truck, following close in traffic, can not see low mounted lights over the hood of the truck.

[booyah]

So my TV is a Kia Sorento.

I usually carry bikes on a roof rack on the car, or on a hatch carrier on the back of the car.
If I use both I can carry up to 4 fullsize bikes easily enough. Nice thing about this is then my bikes arent tied to the camper, so if we wanted to go somewhere else to ride I can easily to it.

YMMV

Hatch mount carrier

https://www.amazon.com/Allen-Sports-Del ... B00TRTSAZM

Roof carrier
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008D6YGE4

[mary and bob]

That roof carrier is what I mounted on the tongue of the pop-up camper

[Modstock]

I have a roof rack and we used those "fork mounts" . Just pull front wheel off and insert, tighten down.
Also use another ratchet strap to help hold the bike still and assist the fork mounts.

Cheap, can find em almost anywhere.

Just remember to bring the front wheel camping with ya.
Actually left one home once .

Sent from my H1611 using Tapatalk

[kmack67.km]

If you have room for side rails on your truck bed, you can fit roof racks across them and then do the fork mount thing on the racks. That was my plan before I got a truck cap instead of the tonneau cover.

Kevin

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

[Cosmo]

For me the simplest, cheapest way to transport the bicycles is to remove the wheels and pedals. and stick it in the trailer. The threads on the pedals are reversed on the left side (looking down). If the top of the wrench is at 12 oclock to loosen is always towards the rear direction on both sides.

I have a folding bicycle. In actuality its is not much smaller than a regular bicycle with the wheels and pedals removed (on a standard bike) and a folding bicycle makes lots of compromises compared to a normal frame bicycle.
I own them because I got a super deal on them and if they were to be stolen it would be less of a loss then the other bicycles. Folding bicycles are sometimes more welcome on rail lines and other modes of public transport.

I use roof racks on my Subaru Outback if I don’t have room inside the vehicle. This works for me because I often drive to a location to bicycle ride. They are out of the way on the roof and the locks are pretty good. The roof rack and bicycles lowers fuel economy but it’s a compromise I am willing to make. I purchased a universal bike tray which mounts on most roof rack cross bars. I avoid car specific mounts. The mounts usually last longer than the vehicle and I can use them on the next vehicle. I also try and get matching keys on the mounts for simplicity. https://amzn.to/37Bjwty

Having a bicycle along makes all my trips more enjoyable.

[rjgimp]

Can you mount a receiver on the front of the pickup and use a bike rack there? Our Hummer H2 has one in the front as original equipment intended for a winch.