We have a TT, roof mounted bike racks (on a Mondeo Estate) and also a towball mounted rack that can theoretically take four bikes. However we don't use this for four bikes when towing the trailer tent....even with the drawbar at full extension the bikes would clip the TT when turning and also there is of course the towball weight limit to consider. We have used it with two of our most lightweight adult bikes while towing though, if we've wanted to take more than four bikes. If you take pedals off and trun the handlebars flat to the frame then you can snug bikes up quite closely to the car.
A roof rack is a better option and means you don't need to offload the bikes before you can set up. They don't bend the wheels, no. We've been using Thule roof mounted bike racks for many years and never had any damage to the bikes.
You can get bike/luggage racks that fit on the top of a Conway TT. Look on Ebay for second hand ones. Remember though that any load on a top rack has to be included in the payload weight of your TT which in the case of a standard conway is around 100Kg. Given that an adult bike can weigh up to 15KG, this doesn't leave much weight allowance over for other stuff to be packed in the TT. You've also got to add in the weight of the actual rack.
You can strap bikes directly onto the trailer using lots of padding and lots of rope. It's not an ideal solution though not least because it can wear holes in the top cover. Once again, a roof rack is a better long term option.
As an example of some of the problems above, this summer I left booking the ferry so late that we couldn't get an overheight vehicle slot. The booking advisor suggested we strap our roofrack carried bikes onto the top of the trailer just for the crossing so we decided to go with this. We were carrying four solos and a tandem so we drove to the ferry with two bikes on the back rack and two bikes and the tandem on the roof. At the ferryport we put all four bikes (pedals removed and handlebars turned) on the back rack and strapped the tandem to the top of the trailer. I repeat...this was only for driving a few hundred yards onto the ferry and a few hundred yards off, when we reversed the process. We still managed to put a big scratch in the back of the car boot on a very shallow turn where the TT pushed a bike pannier rack along the paintwork, and the towball grounded on the ferry ramp at the bottom due to the weight on the back axle of the car. Argh. Put it this way, I'm not going to repeat this particular system of carrying bikes!
|
Topic: Bike racks.. what are the options?
