Bike racks inside the MH Garage

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

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!

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 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

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

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

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