Personally in my opinion bike racks on towbars are best suited to pedal cycles.

Unless you have a landrover - noseweight 150kg

1.4 polo with me my mum in the front and my dad and a 4 stone english bull in the back and a 35kg sound system in the boot and a 67kg bike on the rack and never noticed the differance. 50kg nose weight of a polo is a load of garbage as i perposely overloaded it to see what i can push to its limit.

Nose weight is important (legally) but in my experiance you won't notice the bike on the back. I've travelled half the length of the country on a few occations in different sized cars with racks and all have been fine and handled well. The other advantage of a rack over a trialer of even van is you're not so restricted by speed limits.

Now 150kg is safe, I didn't know that some vehicles can have that which in that case would be fine and I would be happy to transport with a bike rack.

I would be worried that I could be pulled at anytime and dished out a fine because my car wasn't safe due to the load, at the end of the day if it's a dangerous load I wouldn't want to be driving I would rather get to a place safely and not have to worry about anything, again just my opinion.

I will be getting a one bike trailer for myself when I get a bike.

Everyone has different ways of operating after all so it's what ever suits you.

most family cars have between 50 -75kg on nose weights, thats from polo to mondeo size cars, (newer mondeos i think are allowed 90 kg) if you want to be safe as well as legal with a bike rack you need have a 4x4 of some type as these normally have nose weights of 100kg+ also remember that you have to allow for the weight of the rack as well as the bike, i use both racks and a 1 bike trailer,,, best bet on short distances is a trailer, but as im going to Fort Bill next week bike will be going on Rack (nissan x-trail 100kg on nose)

PHB yeah that's probably best, I can't afford a 4x4 so I have a small car and will only be travelling about an hour maximum to any trial so a one bike trailer I would be happy with even doing 50mph.

The racks are heavy in the first place never mind putting a bike on it. If I could have any transport I would have a Mercedes Vito they look good when they are kitted out.

having 2nd thoughts about this rack now. Ive just had a practise run at loading the bike on my self and what concerns me is when its tightend down it leans into the car abit to much for my liking. Is this normal or have i gone overboard on the straps with tightening?

cheers tom

Mate - that's all wrong.

Stand the bike upright with the rear wheel upright and against the post and then secure it with a strap to the post. Use a strap from the right handlebar (near the bend) to the rack post to the right of the back wheel - and a further strap from the left handlebar to the towbar loop (on the rack socket)

Totally agree - keep the rear wheel vertical and strapped to the post with a small strap, then tie down the rest. i do mine slightly differently to Fivemeister, but that method seems to make sense too. stick a small strap round the ront mudguard too - stops it flapping about in the wind! ive also put some pipe lagging on the vertical post - helps keep the wheel vertical. dont forget your number board too !!

cheers guys had a play again tonight after work with setting it up and got it spot on now. only took me 6 more attemps to get the bike its self on the rack with out it falling over in a heap on the floor lol

just travelled to fort william and back with mine on rack, no problems, tie mine down similar to other posts but also put a ratchet strap over centre of bike from right footrest to rack at the towbar point, doing this also compresses the rear suspension a little which helps to keep it really stable,

Edited June 30, 201016 yr by PHB