Friends, hello after a long break. In this post I wanted to share the experience I've gained with bike carriers. In fact, with this post I'll share with you, all in one place, many things I researched but couldn't find after deciding to buy a bike carrier. With working life, I no longer have free time the way I'd like. Naturally, that makes it harder to get to the places I want by bike. To include the bike in my short trips, I settled on carrying the bike by car. When things got to this stage, many ways of doing it came up.
WHAT ARE THE WAYS OF CARRYING A BIKE?
Cars actually aren't designed for carrying bikes. Most of them have no place where a bike can be fully mounted. That's why, to take bikes anywhere, we need these carrier accessories. We'll look at the options shortly, but I'd like to point out that each method of carrying has its own advantages and disadvantages. Of course, the important thing is carrying the bike; in this sense, after the post, I recommend you choose whichever method seems least disadvantageous to you.When carrying a bike, security, that is the chance of the bike being stolen, is one of the most important issues. For example, you have an early morning trip and want to load the bike the evening before, or while travelling you'll leave the bikes on the car and go sightseeing...
Come on, let's look together.
INSIDE THE CAR - IN THE BOOT
If you have a big enough boot, a little dismantling when putting the bike in the boot will be enough. Just by removing the front wheel you can easily put the bike in the boot.
Advantage: Carrying the bike is very safe, it's easy to load, and there's no extra cost.
Disadvantage: Most of your boot space is used.
REAR CARRYING - BOOT/HATCH RACK
I think the most popular way to carry a bike is rear carrying, that is carrying on the back of the boot. It has a simple structure with straps and hooks. In general it puts the weight on the boot, and the bikes need to be placed between small projections. It can carry 2 or 3 bikes. It depends on the brand you choose, but a medium-quality product comes in at about 50-80 €.
Advantage: The bike is easy to load, it has less effect on fuel consumption than roof carrying, fitting and removing doesn't take long, it folds for storage and it's cheap.
Disadvantage: An extra security lock is needed to prevent theft, it blocks access to the boot and the back of the car, it hides the number plate and lights, and it needs a lot of care for safe driving (the bike will stick out across the car's width). The points in contact with the car need to be very good quality, and if it's not loaded carefully there's a very high chance of damaging the bike and the car's paint. Also, on long journeys you may need to stay under a certain speed.
TOW BAR - TOWBALL RACK
First of all you need a solid tow bar, and your car needs electrical connection outlets, usually used for the lights.With a towball carrier at most 2 or 3 bikes can be carried. For safe carrying, the bikes need to sit rigidly on the carrier. In our country this system is a more expensive way of carrying a bike than the others. The fee for registering the tow bar on the vehicle registration and with traffic, at an average of 1000 TL, should be considered as extra. It depends on the brand you choose, but a medium-to-high-quality product comes in at about 550-850 €.
Advantage: : It attaches to the car very securely. It has less effect on fuel consumption than a roof rack, fitting and removing is very quick, it allows rear access, and it's solid and rigid.
Disadvantage: An extra security lock to prevent theft, usually light and number plate fitting work, and storing the carrier when you're not carrying bikes takes serious space. The tow bar has to be entered on the vehicle registration, and in general it's very heavy and expensive.
ROOF CARRYING - ROOF RACK
The roof carrying solution is a very reliable method we're used to seeing on team cars in big tours. For roof carrying systems, you first need roof bars on the car.There are two kinds of design; in the first rack there's an arm that holds the bike steady. In the second solution you need to remove the bike's front wheel and mount it.
Advantage: : Depending on the roof bars and bike carrier you use, it lets you carry up to 4 bikes. The bikes don't damage the car's paint in any way. The roof bars can also be used to carry things like a roof box, ski racks and so on. It's safer than the other systems. The risk of the bikes being stolen is very low because bike carriers have special lock-and-key systems. If your car is low, it's very easy to load.
Disadvantage: At low underpasses you may have to take the bikes down to get through. In terms of fuel consumption it has some effect compared with the other systems, even if small. But it's not a huge increase in fuel. If your car is tall, it's hard to load. It costs a bit more than the inside-the-car and back-of-boot systems.
Carrying on the roof
After describing the 4 carrying systems above, now on to my choice;Friends, since I wanted to carry bikes on my 2016 Ford Fiesta without taking any risks, my choice was roof carrying, the most solid and stable solution. First I bought roof bars and then I ordered a bike carrier for the roof bars. You can also choose models that suit your own car on the Fordaksesuar site, which Ford set up at the start of 2017.
Since bike carriers are universal, most are made to fit most roof bars. The real reason I chose the Fordaksesuar site is the outrageous prices of the 3-5 bike shops that have taken over the market. Really do detailed research on this; I bought the products I use for half the market prices. In all this research, the Yenibosna Otokoç branch helped me a lot. I'd like to thank them once again here.
There are plastic- and aluminium-based versions of roof bars, priced around 150-200 TL. But their load capacity is limited and they're also not very durable. For roof bars, my choice was the Thule Roof Carrier suitable for post-2013 Fiesta models, product code 5K Fiesta MCA 1 831 618, and it cost 600 TL. This price may change with the exchange rate (150-160€).
A folding bike or a city bike, what do you think? Details here..
After sorting out the roof bars, it was time to buy a roof-mounted bike carrier. You have plenty of options here. The models I can recommend are Thule FreeRide 532 (50€), Thule ProRide 591 (80€) and Thule Expert 298 (90-100€). Recently Thule brought out the 598 model in place of the 591. Its price in bike shops is around 175 €. My first choice was the ProRide 591, and when buying my second carrier, because it was no longer on the market, I bought the Expert 298, which is almost its equivalent.
After fitting the carriers I did test drives, and I even took my bike on most of my coastal rides with this carrying system. I had no problems at 120-130 km/h. Depending on the wind, there may be some noise on the road you use. The reason is a small aerodynamic change on the car, but this change comes from the roof bars rather than the bikes.
If you want to carry your bike with peace of mind, choose the roof carrying system without a second thought! The products come with a minimum 5-year guarantee, so don't worry about problems like wear or rust. As I mentioned above, since the lock mechanism comes with it, when you take a break or park while going somewhere with the bike, you can leave your bike on the car with peace of mind.
You can also reach my post on carrying a bike by plane from the link.