Bike racks inside the MH Garage
Hi,
Just taken delivery of our Burstner MH and we are very pleased with it. Now onto the interesting part, fitting out the Garage! We both have electric bikes so a fair bit of weight but well within Payload. I have been looking at the Fiamma Garage Standard and Garage Plus but to be honest a) they don't look up to the job of restraining what must be two 25kg bikes and b) I am worried about drilling holes in the floor, no insight in what to do in the Manual. I have used Thule for decades on various car roof's and rear towbar's but they don't seem to have an 'in Garage' solution that I can see easily online.
So firstly has anyone a good suggestion and secondly what have others used to screw / bolt these things to the floor in a firm and solid way?
Any advice will be really appreciated!
Thanks
Derek
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I am puzzled as to why you think that the Fiamma racks are not up to muster. It seems to me that would be ideal for securing bikes in a motorhome garage. On my previous van I had two 22 kilo ebikes on a Fiamma Pro bike rack for a number of years without incident I can't imagine you would have any difficulty inside a garage? Thule do this system which I imagine is more expensive (?) but it seems to do the same job as the Fiamma.
David
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I've got two racks bolted through the floor of my Carthago Compactline with penny washers. They were in the van when I bought it, so I don't know the make. They each have a pair of struts that swivel up from the rack channel with a quick release clamp mechanism that grips the main crossbeam of the bike frame. Keep my two folding (20Kg) Ebikes secure. I've done a cursory Google search to try and find the make without success.
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Is there anything to be taken here from the technique we use transporting an E bike and a conventional, in the extended boot of our Discovery? It would form the basis of my initial thoughts, if facing carrying them in a HM garage.
Cut a piece of decking plank a close fit across the boot, and fixed the bike racks to that.
Here I envisage two well spaced planks might be used, much like railway sleepers.
A further permutation in our case, the bikes travel without the front wheels in place, using a pair of fork clamps bolted to the “sleeper”. Doing this minimises the height, for us that is essential. Each rear wheel is simply strapped down, which could be to another "sleeper".This just only illustrates the mounting concept, but note there are differing axle systems and therefore, for each the appropriate clamp are of course required.
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Thank you chaps, most helpful. I appreciate your experience and willingness to help. I guess my concern over the Fiamma was just that these new bikes seem so heavy compared to my old MTB and I just felt the bikes might be too much for it. No dealers anywhere near here that actually have one to go and see (they all have the book though!) so will investigate the Thule System David but I might be tight on the Hight. Cyberyacht I think the idea of bolting through and securing below is a great one, I just did not like the self tapper idea and I thought OCSID your setup looked great so will investigate that too. Thanks once again!
Derek
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Hi Derek, We dont have a MH but have recently been looking at how to carry an ebike.
Due to the weight wished to avoid a roof mounted rack, which we have used up to now, but looking at Thule info shows that almost all their racks are not rated for the weight.
Then spoke to the bike shop and they were very clear that, in their opinion, the only roof mounted rack suitable is the Thue Upride.
So looked at other options but,as we tow, using a tow ball mount is out and MAXXRAXX options are a possibility but very expensive for my non flange towbar.
So that has left carrying in the car, not ideal but as we have a roof box can use that to offset the lost space and the set up that ocsid mentioned is what we have considered however, i would have a concern/question re using in a MH garage.
The concern is that the bike shop concern was due to the lateral forces when cornering being too much, and resulting in damage to the bike and/or car, and these would likely be far more prevalent mounted across the MH than 'inline' on the car roof.
My question is, why do you need a rack?
Is there not enough room to simply put it in and secure them?
My bike is just over 19 kg with the battery removed and I would rather have the flexibility, if possible, of not being restricted to a fixed position within the garage.
Our MH friends had a flange mounted towbar fitted to take a suitable, weight capacity, rack.
Let us know how you get on!
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A&J, Dellers is not seeking a bike rack as you know it but needs a rack system to secure his bikes inside the garage of his MH.
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I was trying to show how I arrived at considering the set up that ocsid described, and Dellers said he liked, and the potential issues of mounting a bike on a thru fork mount.
Mitchell Cycles, which you will likely be aware of, have made it clear that, in their opinion, fork mounts are unsuitable for the weight of ebikes, due to the lateral forces which, it would seem, will be greater with a bike mounted across the vehicle rather than inline.
If the bike can fit inside without taking the front wheel off it might be possible to secure it in a satisfactory manner-but, equally, maybe it wont or there are other reasons for Dellers wanting a rack.
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I see. You made no mention of Ocsid's post and it was your words
"My question is, why do you need a rack?
Is there not enough room to simply put it in and secure them?"
which led me to think you had the wrong end of the stick as Dellers is trying to do exactly that - secure his bikes in the garage by means of a purpose designed system.
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"So that has left carrying in the car, not ideal but as we have a roof box can use that to offset the lost space and the set up that ocsid mentioned is what we have considered however, i would have a concern/question re using in a MH garage."
As above, I did mention ocids post and was wondering if the 'purpose designed system' might have issues not considered by Dellers-I was quite happy to consider using a thru fork mount till the concerns were made clear to me.
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I think you will be fine with a Fiamma Garage Plus system to be honest. Fiamma equipment is very robust, we carry two ebikes on back of our MH with no problems on a Fiamma rack, and the in garage option looks very similar. I am sure some retailers will offer a fitting service if you don’t fancy doing it yourself. Transport the batteries elsewhere to spread the load whilst on the move. It will be easier getting bikes into garage without them anyway.
One thought before you buy.... you are still going to have to lift bikes up into garage, or rig up a little ramp. You might want to check you are ok with this and the weight before buying garage system. Hope all goes well👍
Edit. Just watched little video of Thule velo slide. If you are ok lifting ebikes weight up onto that rack, it does look a better option. Fiamma racks are good, but Thule is a better quality product, better fittings by far. Our MH came with Fiamma rack fitted, and it’s fine. But when we wanted something for back of our car for everyday use, we opted for Thule.
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OK, sorry, I missed those few words but I’m sure you can see where I'm coming from with the phrases I quoted.
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Once again thanks to all of you for the thoughts and suggestions you have really stimulated my (very) grey matter! Up until 6pm yesterday and Boris et al wading in we had decided to trundle down to Exeter and see the Fiamma dealer down there subject to them actually having something we could see but can hardly claim its a critical trip in the light of Covid.
I think one of the ramps is a good idea, just one more way to ease the strain.
I have had many Thule products over the decades and indeed still have and use my very first roof rack system from them so that's 30+ years but must admit when I saw various offers for the Veloslide around £700, er gulp!
I will continue my search and not discounting anything at the moment!
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Yes Thule products ain’t cheap😁 But usually work very well. We bought a tow ball mounted tilting system that goes on back of our Jeep Wrangler, the tilt still allows you to access rear space without having to uncouple everything.
The one thing we have learned about transporting bikes is that you want things to be as safe and simple as possible, otherwise it just becomes a chore. So a lot of money, but it’s been worth it for us. 👍
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Hi Derek,
I've just bought a Burstner Ixeo 680g, picking it up next weekend, and I was wondering whether the garage is big enough to fit two ebikes. Can I ask what Burstner you have?
Thanks
Graham
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Hi Dellers,
I have been off the air for a while and have just spotted this one, which we have had a lot of experience with. We converted from caravan to MH just over 4 years ago and have a Volvo bike rack, which is a Thule re-badged and excellent quality. I wished I had ordered a tow bar on my MH when we ordered it at the show, which would have cost £595. To have one fitted afterwards would cost between £900 and £1200. Instead, from the outset we had the Fiamma rack fitted in our garage by our dealer, Highbridge Caravans. However, our two Flyer Swiss e-bikes weighed 24kg each without batteries and are quite bulky. We found that with the two bikes in the garage there was no room for anything else and it was awkward to get even small items into the garage. We then had a Thule rack fitted to the rear of the van (£125) and carried one bike in the garage and one on the rear. But we were still worried, even with just one bike, about damaging the rear of our van.
Our van has a heavy ALKO long chassis, which stretches to the rear of our van and provides good support for the garage. I had investigated the ALKO (Sawiko, now owned by ALKO) bike rack but worked out the price to around £2,700. The tow bar then came back into the frame and I shortlisted three suppliers with a firm in Poole my favourite but at a cost of £1200. At this point my wife had a go at pricing up the ALKO rack again and came up with a much better price of £1370 plus £250 for supply and fitting by our dealer. Two years ago we ordered this rack and had it fitted while the van was in for its Hab’ service in January. The rack fits into the ALKO chassis and is secured by heavy bolts. My van was already pre-wired for 13amp electrics to the rear so it was easy to fit the elec’ socket. The rack fitted is very low and makes loading the bikes very easy and convenient and we have our garage back to carry all the other junk we think we need! The rack has a full light rack included and folds up neatly when not in use. We didn’t opt for the Sawiko locking system and instead just use our ABUS flexi locks, which the insurance company is happy with. We use Brittany Ferries who charge us £8.70 for the rear bike rack on the Poole/Cherbourg route.
We can’t wait to get on that ferry and head for the sun, with our bikes.
BillC
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Bill
Interesting that you mention the Sawiko bike rack. Road Pro do something similar (made in Holland) and I got a quote from them but was a bit surprised when it came to £1600 which is similar to your quote. I am a bit reluctant to spend that sort of money because we tend not to use bikes in the UK and we haven't been abroad since 2016 so I am not sure we would get the value from it?
David
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Hi David, we are the opposite, we use them all of the time. Except for the last 9 months we get across the channel 2/3 times a year for about 16/18 weeks in total. Since July we have spent 8 weeks at Black Knowl in the New Forest and use the bikes most days.
I think LNB in Bristol sell and fit racks that come from Holland.
BillC
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