I have a Ford F-150 pickup with 6-1/2 ft. (78 in.) bed and hard tonneau cover. The single road and mtn. bikes lay in the back, no problem. The tandem loads in and lays there easy enough, but requires I keep the tailgate down and open behind the tonneau. Even if I removed the front wheel, the tandem is still a few inches too long to fit in the bed. I'd like to get it fully contained in the vehicle but It's a pain to remove and reinstall the rear wheel for every ride and I'd like to avoid doing it on a regular basis.
Most of our club rides are too far away to ride to from home to the ride start and we are starting to do more touring rides that are 1-5 hours drive from home, so I'd like to find a more permanent solution to this issue.
Previous work demands that dictated the need for the big truck no longer exist, so I'm thinking about looking for something more convenient for bike weekends and more practical on daily drive mpg. vs the 5.4L V-8.
My daily commute is about 18 miles each way, approximately 1/4 is two lane secondary roads, 1/4 four lane primary roads, 1/2 expressways.
Rides that start across town or away for the weekend would be easier to get to with a more practical "highway cruiser", so I'm looking for something fairly comfortable and economical, yet still "peppy" enough to get us down the road with a reasonable amount of pick-up and power.
What vehicles do you have that you'd recommend, allowing the big bike with front wheel removed, to fit in a space approx. 84 in. long and 39 in. high?
mtbcyclist
03-22-06, 07:33 PM
My tandem budies have a newer toyota minni van. It works great for them. They take out the seats though.
masiman
03-22-06, 07:36 PM
Minivan, station wagon or SUV. We have kids so minivan is our option, however we have more kids than we have room so we chose the roof rack option. If I had my druthers I would have a truck like you, although I would likely have a mid-size vice your fullsize.
If I were in your shoes, as I wish I were in some respects, I'd downsize the truck to save on gas and insurance, get another tonneau, put fork mounts in the rear and whatever other mount points I needed to be able to put the tandem in the bed with both wheels off. Both wheels off is a small price for interior storage, I prefer that to any of the exterior options. Another option is to look at getting the bike S&S coupled or buying one that is and then you don't need the large vehicle to support the habit.
I know with a combination of some mid and rear seats down, the Honda and Toyota minivans will fit our tandem on an angle (82" with front removed). I think some of the American minivans like the Grand Caravan, not sure about the Windstar are larger.
I can't speak to other vehicles because they are just not in my future. I think TandemGeek has a Suburban or other similar large SUV. Zonatandem I think has a station wagon.
R900
03-22-06, 07:44 PM
While you might not love the idea of a minivan, they work great. We had not planned to buy a tandem when we bought our new Trek. So when we decided we wanted to take it home that day I need to reconfigure the Toyota Sienna to fit the tandem. Normally it would be easy, but add all the seats (including rear), luggage, car seats, toys, kids, and a wife and it was a tight fit, but easy enough by removing the front wheel and piling everything in arond the bike.
Since then we've bought a tandem carrier for our roof rack, but on very short trips I can also put it on the hitch rack.
John
bolton2160
03-22-06, 07:53 PM
Why don't you put a rack on the tonneau cover? I have a Ford F150 Super Crew with a tonneau cover and I installed a Yakima rack with no problems. It hauls our tandem and singles at the same time. I think the weight rating on the cover is 300lbs. I've hauled our tandem around for years with no problems.
Duane
03-22-06, 07:58 PM
We can put a very large-framed Trek T2000 in our 2000 Subaru Outback if we take both wheels off. We can also fit our L/S Cannondale Road Tandem inside without removing the rear wheel if my wife is driving or both wheels if I am. But we opted to go for the roof rack so we can carry luggage & everything else without being too cramped.
Duane
regomatic
03-22-06, 08:24 PM
I'm starting to think I'd be more happy to ride a nice clean bike that was unloaded from inside some "soccer mom van" or SUV than I would be on a bike covered with five hours worth of "rainy road grime" from being carried on a hitch or carrier of a fancy truck.
What are the specific models of vans and SUV's that tandems fit inside and work well for other tandem travellers?
Citoyen du Monde
03-22-06, 08:43 PM
I used to put my Bob Jackson SWB tandem inside the trunk of my 1980 Pontiac Parisienne. Pop off both wheels and turn the rear handlebars (fitted with a Q/R) and off I was.
zonatandem
03-22-06, 08:58 PM
Yup, Zonatandem uses a station wagon . . .
Have a '97 Accord (last year they made the wagon); we remove front wheel and we can just fit our custom tandem inside and close the hatch. However, our tandem has a rather short wheelbase: 63 1/2" compared to most production tandems of 68 to 69".
Actually for shorter hauls, we leave on both wheels; put tandem in back with front wheel sticking out just over the bumper. Put some padding on front wheel, pull down rear hatch and hold it down with a bungee. Works fine . . . no fuss, no muss with the wheels.
As stated by others, we prefer to carry tandem *inside* a vehicle. If vehicle is outside and you hit rain/inclement weather and drive 60 mph you are driving that water into bearings, etc.
Be creative . . . take tandem to car dealer/used car lot . . . tell 'em if tandem fits inside this vehicle with its wheels on, we may consider buying it . . .
With your pickup truck, have you tried loading bike on an angle . . . take off front wheel only and lay tandem down diagonally and twist front so fork faces up . . . it may fit.
Good luck!
Pedal on TWOgether!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem
metal_cowboy
03-22-06, 09:08 PM
I used to own a Ford Aerostar mini-van that worked great for our tandem. With the two rear seats removed, we were able to store the tandem inside without having to remove the front wheel. I now have a SUV and use a roof top carrier; I sure do miss that mini-van!
rraschke
03-22-06, 09:46 PM
My wife and I did the roof rack route for years but about 6 years ago I got tired of lifting the thing up on the roof of our cherokee so we bought a suburban. Works great take the third seat out fold down one side of the split second seat and take off the front wheel and in it goes. There is still room of our son and all our other stuff when we travel.
ElRey
03-23-06, 04:51 AM
come on dude, how hard is it to take off the rear wheel!!!! Takes 15 seconds.
galen_52657
03-23-06, 05:14 AM
Around these parts the vehicle of choice for the tandem set seems to be the Honda Odyssey. This was the first mini-van with seats that split and/or fold into the floor. Just about every manufacturer has since copied that idea, so now just about any brand of mini-van will do. I have an older Chrysler mini-van with the seats that must be removed to fit the tandem inside. I also have a home-made fork mount to stabilize the tandem inside the van. Others I have seen also use a rear wheel holder like you might see at a bike shop to keep the tandem from falling over.
just me
03-23-06, 05:46 AM
2004 Honda Accord with Saris Bones on the back
or
2004 Honda Accord seats down wheels off tandem inside
2005 Honda Element front wheel off, seats up or removed tandem inside
Jack
masiman
03-23-06, 08:07 AM
:roflmao: ElRey. You gotta add 30 seconds to put it back on :beer:!
I am in your area Galen so as we do more tandeming I will hopefully see your solution for the times when I am loaded lighter and can get it inside our Sienna. I do like the mid-row fold down of the newer ones but at the time we needed an 8 passenger van and the new Odyssey's were a year away.
galen_52657
03-23-06, 12:55 PM
:roflmao: ElRey. You gotta add 30 seconds to put it back on :beer:!
I am in your area Galen so as we do more tandeming I will hopefully see your solution for the times when I am loaded lighter and can get it inside our Sienna. I do like the mid-row fold down of the newer ones but at the time we needed an 8 passenger van and the new Odyssey's were a year away.
Well if you do any BBC CRABS tandem rides in Baltimore County we may indeed meet! I also missed the boat with the Odyssey (and it is pricey) and am about to get rid of my Voyager and downsize to a Mazda5 mini-minivan. I don't even know if the tandem will fit inside the Mazda but the seats do fold down. I have a roof rack, so it's no biggie. The Mazda will most likely get better mileage with crap on the roof than the Voyager does with it on the inside.
masiman
03-23-06, 01:33 PM
I have a friend with the Kia. They like it okay but they say the vehicle is very heavy and not as good as they would like on gas mileage. The Mazda is likely lighter. Hopefully it will fit your bike.
I tried to get to the CRABS scheduling meeting in Jan(?) but had scheduling conflicts. Baltimore County is a little drive but if the ride looks decent and we have the time it will not be out of the question. I'll try to remember to PM you if we slate ourselves for one up your way.
galen_52657
03-23-06, 01:39 PM
I have a friend with the Kia. They like it okay but they say the vehicle is very heavy and not as good as they would like on gas mileage. The Mazda is likely lighter. Hopefully it will fit your bike.
I tried to get to the CRABS scheduling meeting in Jan(?) but had scheduling conflicts. Baltimore County is a little drive but if the ride looks decent and we have the time it will not be out of the question. I'll try to remember to PM you if we slate ourselves for one up your way.
The Kia is a nice van but the mileage is not so good. Where are you located? My stoker and I are thinking of signing up for the BBC Spring Fling on the eastern shore (if it's not booked already). I hear lots of tandem teams do it - flat as a pancake!
masiman
03-23-06, 01:55 PM
We are in Springfield.
I have heard the same about the Spring Fling, I guess it is similar to the Seagull. I will have to look up when that is.
We are getting ready for the Bike New York on May 7. I used to not like NYC but I now look forward to this ride every year and so do the kids. The ask me when it is about once a day.
merlinextraligh
03-23-06, 04:01 PM
You're talking a very big SUV if you want to put the tandem in it with the rear wheel attached. We have a Dodge Durango, and our tandem barely fits in with the rear wheel on.
regomatic
03-23-06, 04:09 PM
Thanks for the feedback.
I'll try the Honda dealership first to see the Odyssey this weekend. It appears to be among the best in class from JD Powers to resale to mileage on the EX-L and Touring packages.
ElRey
03-24-06, 04:45 AM
I have a BMW 330 coupe. That's how I haul my tandem - trunk rack. I'm speechless that a guy with a PICKUP is complaining about hauling a bike.
regomatic
03-24-06, 05:09 AM
Not complaining, it's a great truck, it just doesn't suit my needs now as well as it did when I bought it. Dou you want to buy it?
Previously I worked from home and my employer paid milage for the frequent business trips. Now I commute 35 miles and have half a dozen road trips on the calender for the rest of spring and summer. The warranty on the truck is just about up and I can still get a good price on trade in. Going from 15 mpg no warranty to 29mpg and a new warranty for $7k is starting to look pretty good.
And about the wheel thing- The front goes on & off in a wink but the rear is a b!tch. The brake cable end is just a hair away from being able to get out of its seat no matter how hard I compress the brake. The only way to get the tire off is to deflate it and then reinflate after it's on again.
masiman
03-24-06, 06:34 AM
Maybe time to get new brakes for the bike? I don't know what you have on yours but my Avid's open up nicely. These were the first V-brakes I have owned so it took a few times to figure out that they do have a quick release feature. You'll probably like tne newer brakes and you can swap them with the old ones if you decide to sell the tandem.
I agree on the gas mileage. We have a minivan and I really like it, but that is mainly for kid/family duty. For personal use I would prefer the midsize trucks. The Toyota Tacoma advertises 20/27mpg. Much more utilitarian. I'm not an SUV fan but there are many that are not minivan fans. In the end they are all just a means of transport. I hope you can find a vehicle that fits your needs, including the bike.
Trsnrtr
03-24-06, 06:43 AM
I roll my '03 Santana straight into our '05 Odyssey van. It rolls right up between the second row seats. Our tandem is fairly long and the only other van that it would easily fit into was a Chrysler Grand Caravan. I never tried to stick it in to a Toyota, but I measured an '05 and it didn't appear that it would fit as easy as our Odyssey.
Well, ok, small problem -- the front seats are leaning forward against the dash. If I want to drive the car, I have to take off the wheels, handlebars, and seats for the bike to fit inside. :p
Still, I'll bet that my Squareback is externally smaller in length, width, and height than any of the other cars mentioned in this thread. To my amazement, the tandem can be crammed inside! :D
-Greg
masiman
03-24-06, 08:13 AM
Well, ok, small problem -- the front seats are leaning forward against the dash. If I want to drive the car, I have to take off the wheels, handlebars, and seats for the bike to fit inside. :p
Still, I'll bet that my Squareback is externally smaller in length, width, and height than any of the other cars mentioned in this thread. To my amazement, the tandem can be crammed inside! :D
-Greg
All in good fun. I am guessing that it is also not as efficient on gas mileage, has a mediocre to poor environmental controls and poor stereo (unless you changed it). On the other side of that I think that is a cool car with probably dirt cheap insurance :)! For the money and convenience reg is looking for I neither does it sound like he will be going retro nor does he have a particular car that he has been lusting after. I think he'll go for convenience, features and price. I used to go to races in an old Datsun (before the Datsuns had names). I would cram my single in the back seat, watch the road through the floorboards, yank it out by the bumper from a snowbank, etc. That was one of my favorite cars. Of course it was probably about youth and freedom :).
TandemGeek
03-24-06, 08:24 AM
When I had my '89 Toyota X-Cab Pick-Up with standard bed I had a high-back Bramaha shell on it and was able to stick our tandem in the back with both wheels removed and what eliminated the hassle of loading & unloading was a home-made rack.
What I did was to take an older Yakima 9mm tandem mount (non-swivel, simple design with the adjustable boom rest) and bolt the thing to a pair of 1" x 6" x 18" pieces of lumber mounted perpendicular to the rack and slightly off-set to the right so that the tandem would "tuck up" against the front and right side of the pick-up's bed.
At the end of your ride you:
1. Pull your rack out and put it on the ground behind the truck.
2. You pull off the front wheel and secure it in the front fork mount
3. You set the tandem on the boom support
4. You flip open your rear QR skewer, lift the tandem by the rear derailleur while rotating it backwards and pulling off the rear wheel with your left hand, and then set it back in the boom support. The tandem is held quite nicely by the front fork mount & rack.
5. You stow your wheels -- I put a pair of fork mounts on the left side of the rear wooden support brace but it was overkill.
6. You secure your boom tube to the boom tube support. I replaced the nylon mechanical straps with hook & loop (velcro) straps and also stuck a piece of soft pipe insulation over the boom tube to protect the custom paint job.
7. You lift the whole thing up and slide it into the back of your truck bed.
I used this rig for about 2 seasons before selling the Toyota which, at 250k miles, was just a bit of a risk to use for long trips. We replaced it with a 2 year-old '97 Suburban which, while not the most economical or environmentally friendly vehicle on the road, makes for a great tandem hauler. We could haul two inside with four adults or three on the roof with six adults & their luggaged inside for road trips to rallies. We've since replaced that one with a 2 year-old '02 Suburban.
Before castigating me on the SUV, bear in mind that the Suburban sits in the garage all week as I commute year-round on my motorcycle while Debbie drives the Honda S2000 roadster most days.
If I had to have a daily driver and haul a tandem I guess I'm now at a crossroads. The resale on the big SUVs is zilch so buying into a more fuel efficient vehicle that can carry the tandem inside -- '05 or '06 Odyssey EX Or Touring with 22/28 mpg or '07 Suburban with 17/25 mpg -- will never pay for itself given the acquisition cost vs. annual fuel cost savings (10 years?). I'm also just about to the point where our tandems are old enough to be stuck on a roof rack without freaking me out when we run into bad weather. Of course, once you stick a tandem on the top of a fuel efficient vehicle, it's no longer fuel efficient. I don't care what it is as physics works against it: small engine on aero body + huge wind drag = crappy fuel economy and an overworked engine. Hanging it off the rear bumper is also a viable option. With both front & rear wheels removed and handlebars turned in or out, most tandems will fit across the back of a car without extending much beyond the body. Yeah, they get filthy back there, but even that's becoming less of an annoyance these days.
The point of all this is to suggest that just about any car can be used to haul a tandem. Hell, you could buy a Mini Cooper, throw a piece of foam on the roof, pull of the pedals on the left side of the tandem, and strap the thing up top if you wanted, or you could pull it behind on a Howling Dog sports trailer. I've seen them towed behind Harley baggers, in the backs of small station wagons, stuffed in the back of a Mercedes E class sedan with the rear seat folded down, tucked into Jeep Cherokees, you name it.
Just decide what you "need" in terms of portage to give you piece of mind, set your budget, and then buy what you want.
Some day I'll get over my mini-van-o-phobia, but Debbie's not there yet. Perhaps when she is the '05 or '06 Odysseys will have depreciated enough to be affordable options for us. Until then, if you see a big black Z71 Suburban hauling a 35lb tandem at a rally someone along the Eastern Seaboard or in the Southeast, it's probably us.
zonatandem
03-25-06, 07:43 PM
Gregm: W-a-y back when, in the 70s, used to haul our olf Follis tandem inside a VW Squareback . . . sounds familiar?
zuzurider
03-31-06, 01:35 PM
We have a Honda Element AKA. Toaster. Made a rack for the inside to carry both the tandem and singles. Remove the front wheel and roll it in. Fits perfect and can still shift!
11504
11505
regomatic
03-31-06, 07:02 PM
The Element is pretty cool and I did check it out but it just didn't fit our needs and lifestyle. Our Trek tandem would have fit with the front wheel off and the rear in the center console with the tire almost up against the dash.
We looked at the Honda Odyssey,Toyota Sienna and Chrysler Town & Country. We probably could have gotten an equally equipped Chrysler for less money but bought the Honda. It just seemed a little tighter, neater and had cooler inovations. Ratings for customer satisfaction and resale value are also higher on the Honda.
The tandem is in it right now, ready for tomorrow's ride. To make room, I removed the middle row center console/third seat and folded the rear seats into the floor. The console comes out in 10-15 seconds and the back seats go down in half that time. The big bike backs right in and stands up with both wheels on. The forward engagement points for the rear seats are handy tie down points to keep the bike upright and from moving too far fore and aft.
I used a couple of pieces of 3/8 braided nylon line for the tie-downs temporarily, I'll find or make something more convenient and neater for a permant solution. First, I slipped a pair of socks over the stoker pedals to keep them from scratching the bases of the middle row seats. Then I put a Bowline in one end of the line and looped it through the tie down and Bowline to hold it to the floor, then put what's often called a "Trucker's Hitch" in the line, wrapped the line around the captain's seat post and tied it off to the Trucker's Hitch. Do the same on the other side to center the bike upright with tension on both sides. It took about 10 minutes to measure and cut the lines, burn the ends to keep them from unraveling and put the Bowlines and Trucker's hitches in the right places. With the knots already in place it should tie down with the pre-made lines in under a minute.
There is still a ton of wide open storage space for luggage and coolers and other stuff we'll need to carry on road trips.
gregm- thanks for pics and cool memories of the past. My very first car was a 1965 Squareback Variant S purchased in 1972 for $650. I had four bugs and a 914 after it. Now I go by a place every day that has lots old VDubs in various stages of disrepair and wonder regularly about adding another hobby.
gregm
04-02-06, 12:02 AM
My very first car was a 1965 Squareback Variant S purchased in 1972 for $650.
Niiiiice... a '65 S!! Excellent.
-Greg
Veloduo
04-13-06, 04:19 PM
While we had our Suburban, tandem (Santana Arriva XL) fit fine. Replaced the Suburban with a Silverado Crew Cab short bed last year (#1 daughter off to college). Suddenly had a bike transport issue. Singles ride in bed just fine, but ended up buying a hitch rack for the tandem. Works great. Not the most elegant of solutions, but have had no problems in about 15 months, plus, no grease on the leather upholstery!