Recreational & Family - rack for kids bikes

Anyone making rooftop racks that will hold a kid's bike?

It seems like the rooftop upright models that clamp onto the frame are too large to hold a kids bike. Called my LBS and they agreed that nothing from Thule or Yak in that regard would likely work.

The wheels have bolt on axles and I can't ask my wife to get out a socket wrench on a daily basis so we could use a fork mount tray.


I'd really rather not have to install a hitch and hitch rack and we have to open the tailgate all the time so a strap on rack won't work either.

How is it possible that Thule & Yakima have missed this market? I can't be the only one that wants to carry a kids bike on the roof.

Any ideas? Am I going to have to come up with a custom solution?

Yak's King Cobra will hold a 20" wheel.

here's the link: http://www.yakima.com/Product.aspx?id=13

I used to carry 20" wheels (kids bikes) on my Yakima all the time. The older rack is quite similar to their current "Raptor" . Why not try some out at the LBS and see if they work? Bikes smaller than 20" wheels may or may not fit.....I have photo's of my daughters riding their 16" ers with training wheels on our camping trip to Cap Cod, but I can't for the life of me recall if I racked them or just tossed them in the back of the Van.

I just racked a 16" and 20" for the past week on a Thule. I had to find the racks quickly as I could not get my home made one complete. I found some used trays (velo-vise and pre velo-vise). They worked great. I tried mounting a 12" but the fork was too narrow and would not fit onto the clamp. Other than that, no issues.

It looks like the yak king cobra and thule's equivelant, the sidearm (http://www.thuleracks.com/thule/product.asp?dept_id=8&sku=594)
will only fit 20"+ wheels. Unfortunately my son's bike uses a 16" wheel. I wonder if those 4" are really a deal killer. Thoughts?

Bump!

I'm running into the same problem here.

Replace the axle nuts with wing nuts.

How many bikes can you fit on top? We need to fit 4.

How many bikes can you fit on top? We need to fit 4.

Depends how you do it, but 4 is very doable

We do 4 on 50" bars, just alternate them facing forwards and backwards.

Now, not to hijack the thread, but has anyone done 3 bikes and a box? If so what size/model was the box? We are taking a trip this summer with two adult bikes and a trail-a-bike. Although I might be able to find a box wide enough to fit the [folding] trail-a-bike in I would rather rack it and keep the box open for other stuff (if possible).

Replace the axle nuts with wing nuts.

Won't work on BMX forks.

I use a Yakima Raptor rooftop rack for my son's 20" bike. It works really well.

My daughter has a 16" Trek bike that I put up there on the rack to see if it would work. It seemed like I had it up there securely, but I did not drive in the car with it up there. I had to adjust it slightly to get it to work. I'll do it again and take the car for a spin to see if it works and I'll report back.

Update - I put my daughter's bike on my raptor rack last night and while it is not as secure as my son's 20-inch bike, it would be fine for short-distance travel. If I had to go long distance with it on the rack, I might want to stop occasionally to make sure it was still tight.