Fitting a Fiamma Bike Rack
This was another project born out of the recent Lockdown. We have been in two minds recently whether we will take bikes away with us in future. Margaret is not that confident cycling on road regardless of how quiet they are. It's different in Europe where there are many more off road cycle ways. So why on earth am I fitting a bike rack that may never be used for its intended purpose? Good question and the answer to that is that it gives us the opportunity to fit a Back Box for extra storage. Having recently moved to a smaller motorhome it would be handy to have some extra external storage rather than having to store in the van and move once set up.
Before deciding on the rear panel mounted rack we did explore other options. One was to have a chassis mounted rack fitted. The advantage being that the bikes would only 30/40 cms off the ground. But the quote of £1600 rather put us off. Another option suggested to us was to have a tow bar fitted which would allow either a tow bar mounted bike rack or storage box. The difference in cost between that and the chassis mounted rack was minimal. The advantage of the Fiamma option is that cost wise it only costs just over £200. Obviously adding a Back Box will be rather more expensive and depending on size that could cost an extra £350/500.
Something else to take into account, especially if you intend to fit a bike rack yourself is whether your motorhome has pre-installed mounting bars. This might well make the difference between a DIY job or a dealer fitting. Fortunately Bailey motorhomes seem to all come fitted with the pre-installed bars which makes it a relatively easy DIY job.
You also need to establish which bike rack is suitable for the distance between the horizontal mounting bars. I took advice from Agent Fiamma where I purchased my rack. Having told them the distance between bars was 80 cms they recommended the Bike Rack Pro M. Because this rack is longer than say the Bike Rack Pro C it has an additional cross strengthening bar.
The fitting process is relatively straightforward. The rack is basically kept in place by four pins in the mounting bars. Rather than go through the detailed fitting here you can follow this link http://www.davidklyne.co.uk/fiamma_bike_rack.html which details the fitting step by step. The tools require are a Star/Torx screwdriver, and couple of small spanners and an electric drill. The latter is used to drill a hole for a bolt through the main frame tube.
Comments
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Just thought I would update this story, this morning I took the motorhome out for a short run just to test the integrity of the fixed bike rack and all was OK. I have also adjusted the top bar which the bike blocks are fixed to and now have a clear rearward view from the camera. Because the reversing camera looks down you do still get some obstruction but not as bad as I thought.
David
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