Supports For The Car

[Gelsemium]

I am considering buying supports for my car to carry the bikes (4 total), but I've heard that this changes the consumption of the car a lot even when the bikes are not there?! Anyone with experience on this? Also, are the roof supports better or the ones behind the car?

 

[CAMPYBOB]

Any and all roof racks, cross bars, trays, etc. add aerodynamic drag in some amount. Some rigs are significant in the drag figures at 70 MPH and some less so. Adding a fairing or spoiler helps...until you get bikes up top. Four bikes up top at freeway speeds will put a hellova dent in fuel economy with or without a spoiler.

Any of the major players manufacture aero bars, locks, uprights and fork mounts. They all offer spoilers and partial fairings.

Pepper your angus. They we all lighten your wallet enough to buy gas for a year or two for a 4-bike roof rig. Vehicle-specific roof racks seem to be the most expensive option, but I like them.

The choice of a roof rack or a trunk mount or a hitch mount is tied to the vehicle type and personal preference. Every location has some benefits and drawbacks. In all location categories there are very good products out there.

 

[Gelsemium]

Thanks for the post campy and yeah I am still considering the possibility of putting that on the top of my car because I go out for weekends fairly often and taking the bikes along would be great. I've been told that I would save more if I bought 4 bikes more and left them at the other place, I find that hard to believe.

 

[CAMPYBOB]

"I've been told that I would save more if I bought 4 bikes more and left them at the other place, I find that hard to believe."

It's not to hard to drop $1,500 on a Yakima or Thule. Seriously.

I just priced Thule cross bars for one of my SUV's: $520
4 fork mount trays add: $200 to $250 per bike so there's $800 to $1,000

Add in locks or other accessories and yeah, a guy conceivably could stash bike at a couple of locations. As a matter of fact, I do just that. It saves the headache of loading and unloading. There's no worries about drive-thru's or garages. No concerns of bikes flying off the roof when you hit 90 MPH in Wyoming or Montana. No air-blasting bearings full of water after a 6-hour run South through a storm front.

No, can you get away with a cheaper roof rack? Possibly, but FOUR bikes put a lot of stress on a roof rack when running 65+ MPH or running something like the Blue Ridge Parkway or Dragon's Tail. Do you want to cheap out with $2,000 to $10,000+ on the roof?

That's why (in addition to the high costs and lifting and stretching to load/unload a roof rack) hitch mount and truck/hatch mount racks are so popular. It's pretty easy and fairly cheap to go buy a Reese style hitch and most shade tree wrenches can bolt it the vehicle in under an hour. It's brain dead to go pick out a decent hitch rack for $50-$300 and be done with it.

The tray type hitch mounts are awesome, but you do get right back in the higher price range with some of those. I think Saris has a new model out that might be worth looking at.

 

[Gelsemium]

Yeah, I don't want to save when buying them, I've heard of cases that people bought the low end models and end up with their bikes on the road, so nothing like investing a little, it's worth it in this case.

 

[gavinfree]

I prefer rear supports rather than top supports, but they're both going to affect your fuel economy in some manner. It's a noticeable amount most of the time, especially for multiple bikes, but that doesn't mean it's going to make you wish you were driving a Prius or electric vehicle. The convenience is hard to ignore, though, compared to stuffing a bike in a vehicle.

 

[Gelsemium]

From all I've been reading and informing myself I am really not that looking forward to buy the supports because I don't use the bikes away from home that much atm. Let's see in the summer if I change my mind.