I am building a trailer to tow behind my automobile. It will be a short (32" tall) enclosed cargo trailer (for luggage). On the roof of the trailer will be a homemade bike rack to transport six (6) roadbikes (from OK to FL). The footprint of the cargo box (50" wide, 60" long) can be smaller than the footprint of the bike rack. Think of the many cars and SUVs you've seen with roof rack crossbars that are much wider than the vehicle they're attached to.






Until I started studying these Tour de France team chase cars, I had thought that the most space-efficient layout for transporting six bikes would be something like this:



but now I'm not sure.

I plan to build my bike rack using fork clamp mounts like this:



which will be bolted (or tack-welded) to my cross-bars. I'll use some extruded U-channel for the rear wheels. I can build this myself for hundreds less than buying Yakima sproket rockets (or the like). Unlike a store-bought system (Yakima, Thule, etc.) I am not limited to having only two crossbard or a spacing pattern imposed by the car's geometry. I can do pretty much whatever I want. But, at the end of the day, I'd like it to be as compact as reasonably possible.

Does anyone have any suggestions for the most space-efficient layout for transporting six bikes?

I bought an 8 foot trailer to transport bikes - in my case tandem bikes. I put in fork clamps for five bikes, and like your diagram, placed them head to toe - mostly due to the with of the handle bars.

My question is this: with five front tires removed, what is the best way to story these tires during transport? for now I put them in the trunk of my car, but I would prefer to have a formal storage method insider the trailer.

Thoughts?

I have a trailer I bought that has enough room for 5 bikes. I alternated them front to back like your image. It works well, but the bikes in the middle are a little bit of a pain to get on and off. I ended up buying folding bikes, so now I just toss them in the back of the car. Now I have a trailer to sell this spring.

Are you going to do this often or just once? Air drag is a considerable expense. If you can enclose the bikes in a somewhat aerodynamic container, you would win. Having the bikes behind the car is better than on the roof. I once took a vacation with four bikes on my car's roof, and the noise and drag was tremendous. The car was a lot slower and got much lower fuel efficiency. Are you trying to optimize cost or just space?

I was able to put seven bikes inside a VW Passat station wagon by taking most of them apart to various degrees. Removing handlebars, pedals, and saddles helps, and if you do this, you can get a smaller container than if the bikes are intact.

Agree with Tom.

A single bike on my Subaru is good for 2 mpg lost. 6 might get expensive.

As well, Thule, Yak as well as the car manufacturers often have a rooftop/rack weight limit of 150 lbs., which I'm sure is conservative, but by how much ?. I've no clue if all those Pro racing support vehicles use special mounting systems, but I'd be nervous at 80mph steady with that much load and wind resistance, which as BTW the TdF cars are not typically out on the highways all day.

Then there's nighttime security, how are you going to lock them ?, cables ?, etc... or are you hauling all the bikes into a hotel at night ?.

For these reasons I'd be building the trailer large enough to put the bikes in it.

of course, they might just steal the trailer. Trailer theft is pretty common

sounds like some fun problems to solve. you moving? summer vacation? regardless, can't you just rent a uhaul & put everything inside a weather proof commercially produced product?

I would look into having a trailer built out of 3 Thule 2 bike extensions as used on Thule trailer hitch mounted racks. I can't think of an easier to use trailer setup than that. I use a Thule 2 bike setup with the 2 bike extension all the time for my biking group. I'm thinking about converting it into a trailer so that other members of the group could share in the driving.