Transporting Bicycles, What do you use?

I use a tailgate pad made for bikes with velcro tie downs. works great, inexpensive, and I run a cable from cargo hoop to cargo hoop. I can hold 6 bikes across the back.

 

I have a setup like his but I use three mountain bike trays from Thule and remove the wheels. I was looking into the Tonneau option and there are several companies that make Tonneau covers that work with the Thule roof mounts. They have specific instructions on where to drill into the covers to maintain the strength and prevent leaks. I'm moving that direction soon $$$ permitting so I can get 4 across.

 

I think some of you guys overthink things.

I just lay them on their side but then again I only transport one bike at a time.

 

Maybe so, but depending on how much you spent on them combined with actually caring about them.. it makes sense to want to treat them better than that..

If it was a $70 Huffy, chuck it in there but a $1000+ bike no thanks.

 

Concur you will never find my carbon s-works bike laying on its side.

 

That was the only way I was transporting bikes before I bough my hitch mounted rack and I still do that when I go somewhere for a day. I only use my bike rack when I need to leave the bikes in the truck for some time unattedned so I have them locked or when I go overnight and use my bed to store gear instead. My bike has upgrades over the years so total cost for me is over $1000 by now and my buddies bikes are usually more expensive than than. I know what you mean, I do take good care of my stuff, but I never had anything happen to them yet, except maybe a tiny scratch here and there which isnt anything that wouldn't happen on a trail anyway. Sometimes I use a ratched strap or bungee cords to hold them in place.

Edit:

Now thinking about it again, owning a seriously expensive machine as such I probably wouldn't do it either...

 

I use two of the rocky mount ones, not a single complaint.

 

My FS MTN bike is a modded $2,500 GT Force. My road bike is a modified Cannondale Synapse ($1,500) and I have another $1,300~ POS old mid 90's hardtail beater bike.

I do lay down an old blanket for the road bike but the other two I just lay on the side. only thing that touches is the aluminium bar ends and pedal cages. I'm pretty anal about my stuff and if they were getting booger'ed up, I wouldn't transport them that way.

I would like to get a hard tonneau but the FS bike has really wide bars and I'd have to chop a total of 3" off the bars, unless I take the front wheel off and that's with the bars turned 45 degrees. And the Synapse has carbon forks and it's not a good idea to use those fork clamps or they could go snap.

 

Sounds very MacGuyver...If you get a chance, would you please post some pics?

 

V3.0 of Taco bike transport system:


Looking for tonneau so I'll have dry storage beneath for gear. The Yak bars should carry 4-5 bikes no problemo and a have a 3 bike hitch rack to add when needed.

 

Currently, I am using the same system that I used with my Xterra. I would like to move the bike into the bed, but I can't use standard mounts since the tonneau covers the front third of the bed. I like this pretty well though, and its very secure.

 

Not my own but same set up pretty much.....both skewers lock to secure bikes....you can mount them any where in the ned rail system....I have seen some sideways for max bike capacity....

 

I just had the oem toyota one that I ran a cable lock and then a kryptonite lock to a D-Ring

 

here is another pic of how i transport mine...not the best but it was like 30 bucks and i already had the strap. im trying to think of another way but im thinking about a dakine pad or something

 

I would be interested in seeing bikes mounted on the sides as opposed to the front.

 

i like the bed mounts but due to convenience and number of bikes, i think i'll be going with a yakima hitch mount - DoubleDown 4. out of curiosity, can anyone tell me if when the rack is tilted can you open the tailgate? really wondering if this applies to all racks, not necessarily this brand/model.

 

i use my hitch carrier when i have more than 2 bikes with me and when i fold it down it opens just enough for the tailgate to become close to down ut not all the way down

 

I just tossed two bikes on their side in the bed, botta boom botta bang. No need for all that fancy shit. It cracks me up seeing all of your bike holder contraptions. I guess if you have more than 2 bikes to haul but otherwise forgettabout it! I keep it simple.

 

That would be fine for a Walmart bike, but when you figure that there are quite a few bikes I've seen posted here that cost well into the 4 digits, you don't want to do a whole lot of tossing.

 

I guess if I had a really expensive bicycle I might just "place" it in the bed on its side carefully as opposed to tossing it back there but I never owned a bike over $1k and quite frankly I don't see the point in owning a bike that costs as much as a motorcycle, I'd rather have a motorcycle. Cheers!