San Rensho 

Reading post after post about putting roof racks on huge honking cars, mostly Suv's, left me scratching my head. Almost any car and certainly any suv has more than enough room to put a couple of bikes inside, which is the logical thing to do. Your gear is out of the weather, away from prying eyes and no chance of clothslining your bike when you go into a garage, but nobody wants to do it and gets offended if its suggested. "Gee, I have to take both wheels off the bike if I put it inside!"

It suddenly dawned on me. Everyone wants to pretend they have a team support car! Its all about showing off their bikes! Bling on the roof.

Ok, I'm done with my sarcastic rant.

astrodaimler

I once had a revelation thinking "I'm glad I got this roof rack!". It was attached to my dad's 1977 Buick Century. I had 3 bikes on top. 3 front wheel holders. On the way back from a race, we had to take someone back. 3 bikes on top, 1 dissambled bike in truck. 4 or 5 large bags full of stuff, tool box, 5 people and a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

JayC

I have a Mustang convertible. I can neither fit a bike inside or on the roof. Guess Ill have to rethink my priorities next time I buy a new car. Im such an OMG POSER with the flatbed hitch rack.

jimbud

You're crazy if you think two bikes will fit in the back of a SUV (Ford Explorer) a long with the normal stuff you keep back there. Sure, if you want to take front wheels off and lay one bike on top of the other and deal with chain grease and scratches from pulling them in and out. A bike will also fit in a trunk of a car but people don't do that either.

Namenda

My bike fits inside my Trailblazer with both wheels on.

I think you've hit the nail on the head with the "showing off their bikes" statement. If you show off your bike around here, chances are somebody'll be listing it on ebay tomorrow.

John Wilke

Mine always go on the roof so the moron driving behind me doesn't wreck my bike. Inside? Sure, sometimes, but if you've got 3 guys and 3 bikes, spare wheels, bags of other gear, cooler, tools ... there's no room!

jw

Dick Rhee

We have a Chevy Aveo (rebadged Daewoo) that can fit one bike if we fold down the back seats and move one of the front seats all the way up. The roof rack is necessary if we have 2+ bikes or more than 2 occupants in the car.

By the way, my girlfriend's bike was stolen out of the back of our car last year (while parked in a garage) so don't think that just because your bike isn't on a roof rack that it's not succeptable to theft.

wallace125

I have a little old honda civic. It is such a snap to pop our 2 bikes up on the roof. Putting 2 bikes in the trunk or backseat would mean pedals poking into upholstery and between spokes, derailers getting mangled and chain grease everywhere. I don't think you hit the nail on the head.

waterrockets 

I have an Acura TSX that gets four bikes on the roof every week when the lunch crew goes with me to do hill repeats. There's no mainstream vehicle that would get four riders, bikes, and gear inside efficiently enough for a slightly extended lunchtime ride. We load up in 3 minutes, with no dropped chains or greasy carpeting.

cacatfish

I put my bike in the trunk often, and sometimes in the back seat. It's midsize sedan and, either way, the front tire comes off. I appreciate the convenience of racks, but I hate listeing to the wind-noise, especially when I want to have the sunroof open. It's a trade-off.
I was shocked once, going for a mtn bike ride with my friend who has one of those old BMW 2002's. We got both bikes into that (not-so) little squared-off trunk, both wheels off of course.

blacksquid

I've done exactly that with a 1994 Exploder. My wife and I have ridden TOSRV off and on for a number of years and I remove the front wheels and, with the rear seat folded down, can get both bikes plus all of the gear for the 2-day ride inside with no problems. The bikes stand upright and I secure the front ends to the "oh *****" handles. Gear bags and luggage are used to stabilize the rear wheels. I think you can now buy a rail to which you can attach the front forks to make things a lot easier.

GuitarWizard

I like my Performance XPORT hitch rack (holds two bikes via the wheels instead of the top tube) if I need to carry my bikes outside the vehicle.....like when going on vacation and I need interior room for ya know.....people and luggage.

scot

I put my bike in the back of my corvette. In fact I have fit two bikes back there, with luggage for two over a weekend trip. No joke, and no april fools. It was a TOTAL pain in the butt to do though, and I really wish there was a roof rack option. Only thing I can do is get a hitch and hitch rack, which requires drilling the frame on my c6

Oh as far as roof racks on SUVs, the only reason people get them is so that other people see they have bikes. Its not like they are going to RIDE them, cause you need a ladder to put them on/off, but you gotta keep up with the jonses.

jciv03

Maybe people have stuff in their car and it wouldn't be convenient to take it out every time? Tools, things for work, etc. It's not nice to assume that everyone's vain. Although I don't drive an SUV, my bike does fit in my coupe. I use a roof rack because I don't have time to take everything out of my coupe, squeeze my bike into it, and throw everything back into my car at the end of the day.

PCS2

Would you prefer that I put my babyseat+baby and luggage on the roof rack?

Amazing revelations!

Someone should pay you for your time!

**edit***

I would like a team car though

jimbud

Quote:

Originally Posted by blacksquid

I've done exactly that with a 1994 Exploder. My wife and I have ridden TOSRV off and on for a number of years and I remove the front wheels and, with the rear seat folded down, can get both bikes plus all of the gear for the 2-day ride inside with no problems. The bikes stand upright and I secure the front ends to the "oh *****" handles. Gear bags and luggage are used to stabilize the rear wheels. I think you can now buy a rail to which you can attach the front forks to make things a lot easier.

With the back seat folded down we would have to buy a roof rack to put the kids on. Or would someone think we are just trying to show them off by putting them on the roof instead of inside the car.

vpiuva

After seeing all the Audis used as race officials and team directors cars I just had to get one.

SDRider

It is really much more convenient to put it on a roof rack than in the trunk of my car. I have an amp and subwoofer in there and would have to remove it completely to get my bike in there. Kind of a PITA. The roof rack is much more convenient. It also doubles as a surfboard rack...there is no way I'd fit a 9' longboard inside my car.

Retro Grouch 

That's certainly a possibility but don't you think that it's a bit presumptuous to project someone else's motivations? Predicting "everyone's" motivations would really be a stretch.

DMF 

Merely goes to prove that an SUV is poor replacement for a pick-em-up truck.

FIVE ONE SIX

yeah, sometimes i just don't understand people, and i've also seen a fair share of SUV's that look like the owner is going to need a trampoline to get the roof rack. you know they couldn't get a bike all the way up there if they tried, let alone get a bike all the way up there after a hard 30 mile ride...

PCS2

Yep, that sounds like definite proof to me. You should publish your findings .

cslone

Yeah, I guess I could put the two babies and two dogs on the roof instead?

Namenda

Okay, I'll try again. I can fit my bike (with both wheels on), myself, my wife, my daughter in her booster seat, 2 cats, weekend trip's worth of luggage, and snacks in my Trailblazer. And I can do it all while wearing a pope hat.

DRLski

That's how I look at it, don't trust the morons behind me so I put it on the roof, don't have no garage so I don't have to worry about driving into a garage, and I have locks on it so I don't have to worry so much about it getting stolen. Besides, I have a small car and like to be prepared so I normally can't fit bikes in my car. Then again my bikes cost more than my car so you may be right.