Bike racks inside the MH Garage

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. 

LINK

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!

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.

"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.

OK, sorry, I missed those few words but I’m sure you can see where I'm coming from with the phrases I quoted.

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. 👍

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

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