Recommend me a bike rack...

[Hard-Drive]

Can anyone recommend me a decent bike rack please?

The car-2008 BMW 320 4 door saloon

The bikes-up to 2 mountain bikes, full suss

The catch-it's a company car so fitting a towbar ain't allowed! I want something decent and up to the job (not wishing to deposit a few grands' worth of bikes at the edge of the first roundabout) but not silly expensive.

Thanks!

[PomBstard]

Can you fit a roof rack, or is that in the same category as a tow bar? I use a Thule bike carrier on a roof rack for a dual-sus and it perfectly stable at motorway speeds, and seems to deal pretty well with, ahem, enthusiastic driving too.

[custardkid]

some thing like this which holds the bikes apart..

back in the day used to sell loads of Rhode gear racks which looked simialar. quick to unfold and mount.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/ProductDetail.aspx?Cat=cyc...

custard

[BOR]

Either Thule, or BMW's own roof bars + bike carriers, which is what I use, all be it on a Touring.

[Hard-Drive]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Bones...looks quite neat, does the C shaped bit fold down? Liking that a lot...

Roof bars are OK, the car has the bits in the roof for them to fit although I suspect buying the BMW bars would be bloody pricey for a car that is of course not mine. I guess the only concern is that I would be a bit worried about lifting a muddy bike onto the roof of a brand new car, plenty of opportunity for thousands of quids worth of damage, and TBH I don't think the other half would manage (or want to do) it...boot option seems better.

Guess I'd need to wire in a lighting plug though which should be easy enough to do and remove without anyone noticing at the end of the contract...

[GHW]

Hard-Drive said:

Bones...looks quite neat, does the C shaped bit fold down? Liking that a lot...

That C-shaped bit is made up of two arms which you can position in any angle you like - it is a very neat design - I have one.

However I also have scars in the paintwork on the back of my MX5 where the feet sit on the bumper and the boot lid. I tried using it to carry two full-suspension bikes (one fairly lightweight Marin and one pretty sturdy Muddy Fox) and it was just too much for the poor rack to handle. It was bouncing around so much that I didn't even get to the end of the road. I had to turn around and go home.

With just the Marin on, it was fairly stable, but after a couple more journeys it was still leaving marks on the paintwork, so it's been retired to the back of the garage. I'll never be using a rear-mounted bike rack again, unless it's bolted on to a tow bar.

[custardkid]

one of these?

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/ProductDetail.aspx?Cat=cyc...

keeps the car clean and means you can stop at the pub and not worry about some one running off with your bike

custard

[Hard-Drive]

GHW, thanks for the warning, probaly best steer clear of that then. I'm sometimes a little worried about plastic trying to do a metal job (unless it's carbon of course!)

Bike bag is a non starter, Beemer is a saloon and the seats don't go down...

[deckster]

Hard-Drive said:

GHW, thanks for the warning, probaly best steer clear of that then. I'm sometimes a little worried about plastic trying to do a metal job (unless it's carbon of course!)

To be fair it's more likely to be that the Bones doesn't quite fit his car. Mine certainly never made any marks on my old Fiat Coupe even 3-up, although I was pretty obsessive about cleaning any grit from the contact points. The key thing was that it really fit the car well, had good contact all round and felt totally solid. Conversely I've only ever used it on the RX8 once as I just can't get it to fit well and it wobbles all over the place. It's a case of try it and see really, but I can thoroughly recommend it if it fits.