QUESTION: What’s the advantage of a bike rack? I have a Subaru Outback and I usually just put the seats down and put the entire bike in the back. I don’t even have to take the wheels off. But every time I go to a big event, everyone has all these super fancy roof racks and rear hitch racks. —Sam D.
RBR’S STAN PURDUM REPLIES: The main advantage of racks is for those whose vehicles don’t have as much interior room as your Outback, or who transport other riders with them and thus have to accommodate two or more bikes. But there are reasons that even some solo riders with roomy cars still choose to use a rack.
One is that using a rack saves wear and tear on your vehicle’s interior. Bikes have several protruding parts, including the handlebars, luggage racks and especially pedals that can catch on, scuff or scratch your car’s inner surfaces. I drive a Ford Bronco Sport, and I can lay my bike in the back if I put the seats down, but invariably, whether loading or unloading, the pedal on the downside slips down into the space where the seats fold and stops the bike from being fully inside or fully outside the car. I then have to go around to one of the rear doors and dislodge the pedal and then return to the hatchback to continue moving the bike in or out. By the time I do that, I could have my bike already mounted on — or dismounted from — my rear rack.
It’s also possible to get grease from your chain or road grit from your ride on the vehicle’s carpet. Of course, spreading a blanket out in the back of your car can help to protect it, but don’t be surprised if the blanket gets dragged out as you unload your steed or bunched up as you load it. A large piece of cardboard might work better.
A rack can save wear and tear on the bicycle too. Things like mirrors, bar-end shifters, handlebar-mounted computers and lights can get knocked around, bent, misaligned or even broken off as you are manhandling the bike into or out of the car.
Yet another advantage is that as we get weaker and stiffer with age, it becomes physically easier to lift the bike onto a rack mounted on the rear of your vehicle than to heave it inside. (This advantage does not apply to roof-mounted racks!)
All of that said, there are two advantages to putting your bike inside your vehicle that racks cannot compete with: protecting your bike from bad weather and minimizing the chance of it getting stolen while you’re out of the car. If you’re using a roof rack, there’s a third advantage to putting it inside your car: you won’t destroy your bike by forgetting it’s on the roof while driving into your garage. (My brother has done this, and while it’s funny to picture, it left him feeling crappy.)
Depending on my destination, I either put my bike inside my Bronco or use the rack. If I am traveling to a vacation site, for example, where I will be on the road for a day or more, I remove the bike’s front wheel and stand the bike up in the back with the fork locked into a cleat I have mounted on a board. In fact, when I have another rider with me, I can put two bikes in the back, standing them up with the front wheels removed. It takes more time and effort to situate the bike(s) that way, but the length of the journey and the possibility of bad weather en route make it worth it.
If I am merely driving a few miles to a ride start point, however, I use the rack. It’s just easier.
Stan Purdum has ridden several long-distance bike trips, including an across-America ride recounted in his book Roll Around Heaven All Day, and a trek on U.S. 62, from Niagara Falls, New York, to El Paso, Texas, the subject of his book Playing in Traffic. Stan, a freelance writer and editor, lives in Ohio. See more at www.StanPurdum.com.
IMO protecting my bike from the weather and road grime is more important than protecting my vehicle interior from the bike. My bikes have never been on a car rack.
A rack is not worth it. Keeping the bike inside the car is very simple and saves hundreds of $$$!
Another downside of rear-mounted racks in this age of the distracted driver.
Being rear-ended by a driver paying more attention to a screen rather than the road ahead of them.
Especially in this era when replacing a bike can cost thousands of dollars!
Another downside of rear-mounted racks in this age of the distracted driver.
Being rear-ended by a driver paying more attention to a screen rather than the road ahead of them.
The conversation has centered mostly around getting to some place to ride. Not much said about getting home. If your ride is on nice clean, dry roads then it doesn’t matter much if you use some kind of rack or use the vehicle interior.. However, if you get your bike filthy and can’t clean it, you cannot beat an exterior rack.
With a wee bit of foresite, one can bring a rag to wipe down their bike before putting it in a car. When I say I transport my bike in my vehicle, it’s actually in the back of my truck which has a camper shell on it. Dirty bikes don’t matter to me.
I just said this on your other article about bike racks:
Even if they have great, sturdy locks, don’t leave them where you can’t see them, if you stop for lunch, etc. Overnight, bring in to hotels, house, garage., etc. We’ve had many friends who have had their bikes stolen from their locked racks.! One couple ran in to use the restroom and came out to find three bikes gone!
Unless I can be with my bike every second, it goes inside the car! Too many friends have had their bikes stolen off their locked racks and it only takes minutes to steal!
If you have ever seen bikes damaged beyond repair in the breakdown lane of the highway , those didn’t fall out of a vehicle.
I’ve used a trunk mount, a roof rack, and now have a hitch. It’s a question of using the proper tool for the intended purpose. If you’re hauling more than one bike, then putting the bikes into the trunk (even a station wagon or small SUV) along with the gear for two becomes unwieldy. I can easily get 2-3 road bikes up onto the roof, but the ebike is simply too heavy to get up there, hence the hitch.
Here’s another disadvantage to carrying bikes on a rack that I’ve never seen mentioned anywhere else. The air resistance of the bike can have a noticeable effect on the car’s gas mileage. I’ve noticed this numerous times — whenever I carry my bikes on a long highway trip, my car’s fuel economy drops significantly.. Cars are designed for air to flow smoothly over them (and so are bikes, to some degree), and when you hang a bike on the car, it disrupts the carefully-planned airflow, creating turbulence and drag. This ultimately makes the car less efficient and it uses more fuel.
Thanks, Steve. This is good info I hadn’t thought of it, but I think you are right. Air flow is the reason so many cars these days have spoilers, and a bike on a rear mounted rack likely does interfere with the intended air flow. Another factor the can affect gas mileage is the weight of the rack, especially those that are hitch mounted. Most strap-on racks are fairly lightweight.
I’ve always been a bit of a mileage geek with my automobiles, so I notice when something affects it. The effect is not subtle — I think it’s been greater than 10 percent, in my experience. (I haven’t done a long highway trip with my bikes hung on the back in a while.)
I use a Saris Bones 3-bike rack. It’s at least 10 years old. The current one weighs 11 pounds, but I think mine is much heavier.
One easy solution to the hassle of loading one bike in and out of a vehicle is to remove the left pedal, and reinstall it when you get to your destination…and keep the removed pedal and pedal wrench together by the bike. If your pedal is difficult to remove, then it (they) may have been initially overtightened, so after removing, add silicone grease as needed, and only hand tighten.
Good suggestion. Thanks.
The pedal manufacture MKS makes two similar but different quick releases for pedals. They are called Ezy Superior and Ezy. Both make quick pedal removal and reinstallation a simple hand job – no tools required.
I’ll chime in with another vote for always carrying bikes inside your vehicle. When I buy a car, I specifically look for vehicles that can accommodate at least two bikes and refuse to compromise on that.
We now have a small motorhome and I picked the floorplan we have because there was a seat that I could easily remove and replace with a two-bike vertical rack that I built. It takes me about ten minutes to switch between the seat and the bike rack, and a pair of road or gravel bikes fits perfectly, without being in the way.
I’ve used a mover’s blanket to cover the deck of my car, a wagon, for many years. It protects the bike and my tailgate when I sit on it to get ready. The blanket does not slip when I move the bike as suggested in the piece above. When we travel, I stack our bikes with an additional mover’s blanket between them. If it’s a long trip with other cargo, I remove the pedals to stack the bikes a bit more neatly.
That’s what old station wagons are for.