I just recently got a car and the next step is a full time roof rack. Does anyone know of any good Bike Racks for Cars that can hold both unicycles and bikes with out much trouble. Ive been looking at Thule and Yakama racks mostly.
Chex
Unis can fit inside of most cars in the trunk or on a seat.
Sorry I don’t know of any bike racks that could do that. All the ones I’ve seen don’t look like the could hold a uni safely.
The Yakima bike reac looks like it would work well, since it secures at the tire, and fork…
Here is the bike rack.
IE:
I’ve got the Yakima racks but I don’t put bikes up there. Just canoes and lumber and stuff. I prefer the ease of TRUNK RACKS for b*kes and unicycles. Everything is right there at chest/belly level.
Also, I put 3 bikes and a Coker on it so the whole family can go for a ride. Roof racks only carry one machine per.
Lucky me. With only one or two machines on the rack, I can still open the trunk and weight distribution is such that it stays up. My car is a Camry.
the conclusion of a thread a few months ago was a tow bar or rear-mounted rack. that would allow almost any combination of 1 or 2 wheeled cycles
The Sportworks racks are great for bikes. Quick to load up and remove. And you keep the front wheel on the bike.
I don’t know how well their system works with unicycles. I have seen unicycles on a Sportworks rack so it can be done. They have special kits to handle bikes with fat DH tires like the Gazz. Should work for a muni with a Gazz. You’ll want to try fitting a unicycle on the rack at the store so you can see how it works with a unicycle.
I just throw my unicycles or bike in the back of my car so I don’t actually use a rack.
I don’t think a roof rack is an ideal solution for unicycle carrying. Back when I had a car and a few more unicycles, I used a removable trunk rack for unicycle toting. I was able to hold four or five unicycles with little difficulty.
What’s you reason for wanting roof racks? They cost a lot more, decrease your fuel efficiency, and can be loud when you drive.
Also, a little off topic, but what kind of car did you get?
Daniel
The car I bought is a 97 VW Golf so a trunk rack would also limit the ability to pop the hatch and get at anything in the back of the car (including the CD changer)
I think I’m fairly set on a roof rack, the reason is that I want a rack that is there all the time. I mostly plan on using the roof rack for bikes but it would be stupid for me to get one that can not hold unicycles for trips where I could use the extra room.
I’ve used a hitch mounted rack in the past. It was hinged to swing to the right to allow the hatch to be opened without having to remove the rack or its contents. Of course, the vehicle came with the hitch already installed so I didn’t have the additional cost of buying and installing a hitch. Odds are that you don’t have a hitch on your '97 Golf. VWs aren’t generally known for towing capabilities - not even my '04 Passat turbo diesel wagon. Maybe the '05 V10 turbo diesel Touareg . . . .
Re: Bike Rack for Unicycles
Checkernuts wrote:
> I just recently got a car and the next step is a full time roof rack.
> Does anyone know of any good Bike Racks for Cars that can hold both
> unicycles and bikes with out much trouble. Ive been looking at Thule
> and Yakama racks mostly.
Any boot mounted bike carrier will carry a unicycle securely, with
appropriate use of bungees.
For roof mounting, I’m very happy with my Thule 510’s. They are no
longer available, the nearest equivalent now seems to be the Thule
FreeRide 575:
<URL:http://www.thule.se/frames.asp?id=8590>
The 591 looks like it may be better for unicycles, though.
–
Danny Colyer (the UK company has been laughed out of my reply address)
<URL:http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/danny/>
“He who dares not offend cannot be honest.” - Thomas Paine
The style of rack that have a bar that clamps the downtube of a bike work well. You secure the uni tire as you would the rear bike tire and the uni leans forward untill the clamping bar can clamp around the seat post or seat tube. The only uni that I had problems with is the Coker, which would sometimes want to lean over since the wheel is so tall and heavy.
Mojoe
Now that’s a quality drawing!
We sell one that is absolutely ideal for unicycles, it will take 3 Cokers on the rack and “snaps” on to the ball hitch. So fitting it on to the car takes about 10 seconds… putting the unicycles on about another 15 seconds and you are ready to drive off. It also folds down to almost nothing. Sorry, I have not got a photo of it but people who came to the red bull or the blackpool ride saw it and the conclusion was… yes.
Here is the link. http://www.unicycle.uk.com/shop/shopdisplayproduct.asp?catalogid=629
and I will try and put a picture up of it tomorrow.
Sorry to rave about it so much, but I am really impressed by it.
Roger
uni rack
i bought this rack for $20.00 at a local hardware store it holds
2 bikes or 1 bike and my coker or just my coker. i ve been to fl and back and neaver had a problem. and the best part is all the stares i get.
I’ve been driving minivans since 1995. Everything goes inside, out of the weather, and much safer from thieves. Fuel economy does not degrade when they’re in there, but on the downside, the frontal area of the car is always fairly large. Much of my car’s driving is to work and back, for which the large size is not needed. But it’s real handy when it’s time to take a bunch of people–and cycles somewhere.
Before that, I had a Subaru wagon. Hard to fit in all the stuff (and people) along with a 45" big wheel and an artistic bike. So I got one of the earliest of the hitch-mounted racks. It was a very primitive design, but it worked well. As Tom said, if you don’t already have a trailer hitch it could be a problem. That was the biggest hassle with mine, as I had to get a hitch installed. But the rack worked fine and went on and off easily.
Otherwise I highly recommend you try any racks in the stor first, to see what works and what doesn’t. Be aware of fat tires that might have trouble fitting on there.
I think this is what Mojoe meant…
http://gallery.unicyclist.com/album382/Burton_Dassett_Muni_0001_1024
The car has 4 Thule racks on - only using three here. My Onza, Simon’s KH, and my daughter’s Pashley.
I bought a used 20 litre lockable plastic roof carrier for our station wagon and we are able to fit 7 unis including trials, muni and a griraffe using pieces of foam and leg and arm armour as padding to prevent the unis from getting scratched. Also this is with all of the pedals and seets still on (except for the tall uni which we remove the seat). We have a performing juggling troop so the wagon is full of props and sound equipment. The roof carrier turned out to be the answer to all our space problems.
Carl