I'm car-free and my wife drives a Nissan Rogue CUV. I'm interested in getting an inexpensive tandem for rides on the local greenways trails. I'm looking for ideas on how to transport the bike from our home to wherever we would ride without investing hundreds of dollars in a roof rack and fancy tandem roof mount since I already have a very nice Saris Themla II for transporting my regular bikes.

Since this bike would just be for casual fun on nice days, one idea I had was to get a truck bed extension and use it to hang the tandem out the back of the vehicle with the liftgate open [tied down a bit] and the back seats folded down.



Has anyone ever tried something like this before? It seems like it would work okay for occasional short distance transport of the tandem on nice days. The $40 price tag makes it a much more attractive option than investing hundreds in a roof rack and custom tandem rail.

Tandem owners/rider what say you? Worth a try or stupid idea?

The tandem would either be a basic $200 'vintage' tandem from craigslist or one of the many low-end Kent tandems currently being sold by Walmart.