Originally Posted by Tightwad
Ok, not to be a smart pants but how can you worry about bugs on your bike
and gas mileage at the same time?? The hard facts here are first anything on
TOP of your car is going to cost you mileage out the whazoo and secondly you
won't NEED a "bra" if you carry your bike INSIDE you car or in a closed trailer.
All you're doing here, mate is spending money to accomplish........nothing.....
except spending more money.
Well, lets think about this, mate. Smart pants might not be the right term.
I considered buying a mini van to transport my tandem, but settled on a Saturn sedan and a roof rack for about half the price. The Saturn also gets about 40% better gas mileage than a mini van every time it gets driven without a bike on the roof which is almost all of the time. With the bike on the roof it still at least matches mini van fuel economy. The larger vehicle costs more initially and loses more ground every time that you drive it. Smart pants indeed!
I Don't have any experience with closed trailers, but even a smallish one would have roughly 20 square feet of frontal area vs. less than 4 for a roof mounted bicycle. I realize that the trailer is drafting behind the towing vehicle, but 20 square feet is a lot more than 4. I'm betting the fuel economy is going to be better with the roof rack. I'd also have to buy the trailer, which would cost more than a roof rack system, and figure out where to store it when it's not in use. Now that would really be spending money just so that I could spend more money.