Cycle carrier

[PeterH]

Anyone any experience of carrying a bike on a Spitfire?

All I can think of is to fit a tow-bar and use a carrier that fits onto that.

 

 

[mishmosh]

Our towbar carrier is a bit bouncy on the herald but works ok. Puts a lot of weight way back so max two bikes.

[mishmosh]

Our towbar carrier is a bit bouncy on the herald but works ok. Puts a lot of weight way back so max two bikes.

[rlubikey]

What, a bit like this?

 

 

Well, it may be a bit wobbly but it's waaaay better than a bootlid mounting bike carrier (had one on my Dolly). You can reduce the wobble by adding extra straps from the bike to the bootlid (red straps in picture) or, better still, cockpit and bumper.

 

The main thing as you can see is that the swing-spring suspension sags with the weight so far back. My new Spit has Monroe Max-Air ride-height air-assist dampers on the back so I can get out the old pump and pump the car level again!!!

 

Richard

[PeterH]

Richard

That looks good. How does it attach to the tow-bar?

 

Peter

[rlubikey]

Peter, it's a Thule ball-mounted one. It seems most of them are these days because modern cars have swan-necks without the mounting plate. The few mounting plate mounted cycle carriers I found weren't EU approved (I was thinking of continental touring) so I went with the Thule. This is all about 10 years ago so the situation may have changed.

 

Richard

[Mjit]

Not having/feeling like fitting a towbar just to carry I bike I bought a Saris Bones 2.

 

Just about fits if you ignore their 'place lower feet on back of car and NOT bumper' as that's written based on modern cars with squidgy bumpers, not our iron girders.  Takes a bit of juggling to get the different bootlid hooks in place without getting trapped and think I'd apply some form of vinyl sticker to go between the boot lid foot and paintwork next time, more for the fear of it scratching the paint than the reality.

[PeterH]

That's more like I was after. I didn't really want to fit a tow-bar. (Not sure you can get one for a Mk3).

There's an online video, but its unclear where the bottom struts go - Mk3 has no centre bumper for them to rest against.

[Mjit]

Another option I saw online while searching was to fit one of the standard boot luggage racks, then mount roof rack bike cariers to this.  If I remember correctly the person had used the type where you take the front wheel off and had the rear wheels stuck out behind the car.

[rlubikey]

If the "Boot Rack" feet are too hard, it sounds just like my old boot rack. I searched and found those suckers that fit on the end of tubing. More paint friendly and stays in place while you get the straps tightened.

 

Richard

[PeterH]

Thank for all your comments. I like the idea of the 'Bones' but not sure about the bumper question. The boot rack doesn't sound too clever - all the weight bouncing just on the boot lid ?

 

I might buy a 'Bones' and see if I can rig something - perhaps a piece of angle iron or similar between the two bumper section.

 

Peter

[Mjit]

I think the Bones would work - you basically have 2 legs to give points of contact then a series of straps to clamp it to the car.  2 go to the hinge edge of the boot lid to pull it forward, then 2 to either side of the boot lid to stop side-to-side movement, then the final 2 go down to somewhere low on the back of the car (bumper in my case) to hold things down.

 

On a Mk3 it may work with 1 foot on the boot lid and the other 2 against the rear valance.  Will be a bugger to get it to balance on your own while you hook all the straps on as it won't free stand but once tight the hinge edge straps should pull the lower legs in against the rear valance.