Tandem Cycling - Homemade Yakima rack adapations?

Does anyone have any experience modifying a normal fork-mount Yakima tray for tandem use?

I'm planning to bolt a beam to the tray that will extend 80 inches back and lift the rear wheel 2 inches. Using a board to site from the fork dropouts to the rear wheel, it will clear the front BB shell without raising the rear. I'll then bolt a short tray to this beam and strap the rear on there.

When I bought my bike used, I just rested the front chainring in the Yak tray, clamped the fork in, then used one of those ratchet straps to pull the top tube down and force the fork into the QR. I don't like that for repeated use, but it did work fine. No movement with a 30-mile road trip.

Thanks!

On a sport utility where you can spread the bars sufficiently apart you can get by with a short tray and no problem of clearance of the chainring. However, someone does make a front fork mount extender. The folks that use front fork mounts in vans have the same problem and I have seen these extenders use by them. Sorry I can't provide the manufacturer but someone certainly will if you keep asking.
I have always tried to avoid the bottom bracket tandem racks and currently use long tray that Yakima sells with a Yakima rack that clamps to the down tube, hence I leave both wheels on and the bike rides just fine on top of my Jeep Grand Cherokee. It has ridden thousands of mile up there and suffered no ill effects. Clearly if you go the downtube clamp route with both wheels on, you should be sure that the clamp mount is able to accomodate your down tube diameter. My old Santana Arriva does not have particularly large tubing, but if you are dealing with a newer fat tube you will have to get the mount that will fit it. I hope this helps.

I'm curious about this as well. We have a Trek T100 and I'd like to set up a way to transport it on my roofrack (we have Yakima Steelhead racks for all the singles). I worry about the weight of the tandem being suspended so far behind the rear crossbar- does this cause any problems for folks transporting tandems on something like a 2003 Impala? Certainly the extension needs to be fairly heavy-duty, as the OP said, like a length of lumber with a tray bolted on top of it. Any other ideas for how to do this?

My rear wheel "only" weighs in at 24 lbs on a scale, so I'm not too worried about that sticking a ways off the back. It's not that heavy, and this is an old steel Burley. I think a beam going back there will be strong enough if it's anchored near the QR. I'll get something cobbled together in the coming weeks and report back :)

As you say, it does make a difference with bar spacing though. My rear bar is about 15" from the back of the trays on my Acura TSX -- plenty of support. On something like a 2-dr pickup with really close bars, I'd be getting a little concerned.

Yes, please do let us know what you do and how it works out. I'll try to get something set up on mine as well. The rear crossbar on my Impala is just a few inches in front of the rear wheel's bottom dead center in the tray, so putting the tandem on there will extend that a pretty far ways back, but we'll see how it goes. If I get something put together, I'll report back as well.

I've got a home-made tandem rack on our Honda Civic Sedan. It is a 6' long 2x6 fastened to the standard Yakima rack that is on the car. 2x6 is pretty much 'centered' front/rear, and is held on with 4 of the standard Yak 'snap-arounds' and carriage bolts. Fork is held by bolted-on basic fork mount, and rear wheel is held in Yak wheel tray bolted to 2x6. Tray overhangs 2x6 so I can slide a Yak wheelstrap onto the tray. I had to carve away part of the 2x6 to get clearance for the captain's timing ring. A riser block for the fork mount would probably fix that. It works allright. For a long trip I would probably strap the bike down to the rack. It's a low car and for one person to load it still a bit tricky. Don't want to miss and send a crankarm through the sunroof! We have a Yak Sidewinder on our Subaru Forester, our main tandem transport. I could post pictures if anyone interested.

I've got a home-made tandem rack on our Honda Civic Sedan. It is a 6' long 2x6 fastened to the standard Yakima rack that is on the car. 2x6 is pretty much 'centered' front/rear, and is held on with 4 of the standard Yak 'snap-arounds' and carriage bolts. Fork is held by bolted-on basic fork mount, and rear wheel is held in Yak wheel tray bolted to 2x6. Tray overhangs 2x6 so I can slide a Yak wheelstrap onto the tray. I had to carve away part of the 2x6 to get clearance for the captain's timing ring. A riser block for the fork mount would probably fix that. It works allright. For a long trip I would probably strap the bike down to the rack. It's a low car and for one person to load it still a bit tricky. Don't want to miss and send a crankarm through the sunroof! We have a Yak Sidewinder on our Subaru Forester, our main tandem transport. I could post pictures if anyone interested.

Thanks, your description paints a pretty clear picture. Sounds similar to what I'm thinking of doing, but mine will be based on steel square tubing or u-channel (just to keep the girth down).

please, post pics. i'd like to see the yakima adaptation....thinking of plunking down the $$$ for a yakima sidewinder but if we can make do with our steelheads, great.

john

Yes, George, please do post pics. I'd love to see exactly what you've done before tackling it myself.

I'm still looking for an elegant solution that works with a 20mm thru-axle...

I'm still looking for an elegant solution that works with a 20mm thru-axle...

Adapt a stand-up (both wheels still on) rack with a longer tray somehow? I don't have any thru-axle bikes, so I haven't looked into this.

There's a fork-up adapter that drops into the standard QR clamps, and accepts a thru-axle. But then I'd have one more connection between my bike and the rack, and a questionable one at that. Yakima needs to make the sidewinder with a direct bolt-on 20mm plate.

Yakima needs to make the sidewinder with a direct bolt-on 20mm plate.
i feel for you man, but as a very small subgroup (tandems w/ 20mm thru-axles) of a small subgroup (tandems)of cyclists, i wouldn't hold your breath...