The wife and I take our bikes with us on short vacations. We have a 2 bike rack that attaches to the trailer hitch on our car. Does anyone make ready made or custom covers that would fit over 2 bikes? I'm not expecting to find something that is exactly bike specific, but maybe someone knows of some possible work-around? Maybe an xtra-large BBQ cover might work? I'm looking for something a little more elegant than just a large blue tarp tied down with rope.

Ideas and suggestions welcome.

Brand name is Yard Stash.

I would be afraid of a cover moving in the wind and causing rub marks. My wife and I have hunderes of miles with our bikes on the racks in the rain and no problems. I just take care of the chain afterwards.

Agree....some learn this the hard way and Ive seen people cover their motorcycles while trailering them and the damage it can cause is a classic case of “the cure being worse than the illness”.

I have never seen something like this for sale for bikes meant for transport. And to be honest, I have very rarely seen bikes covered like this on a vehicle.

And I suspect that is because it is generally unnecessary and even risky.

Unless you are driving through salted roads, there is really nothing to worry about with the bikes. Just make sure the chain is lubed, and some people cover their saddles (I don’t).

The way I see it, covering them would just create problems.

Instead of the air flowing through the bikes, now you have this big sail you are trying to push sideways through the wind. Think about it: from the side, most bikes are mostly all open space, and don’t catch THAT much wind. Now compare that to the roughly 15 square feet of solid material you are now looking at in profile.

In addition to what I would think would be a huge hit in gas mileage, I would worry (as others have mentioned) what it might do to the bikes getting pushed around like that.

Edit: you will sometimes see bikes on roof racks with a “bra” over the bars and saddle, but those bikes are mounted in line with the wind, and the coverings don’t actually have much profile in the wind.

Thank you for all the input. I do agree there are plenty of minuses. One thing that I thought of was that it would cover the view of my license plate.

The covers exist. There were some links to products in another thread. You could check amazon as some were sold there. They seemed to be better suited to racks where the bikes hang from the top bars, rather the style like I use where the bikes sit in trays for their wheels.

I think the covers can work on the back of a large vehicle like a motor home, where the bikes don't extend beyond the vehicles dimensions, but maybe not so well on a smaller vehicle. On a large vehicle they would be more out of the wind and not blocking so much of the view of the vehicle's rear.

One problem with smaller vehicles is that if your bikes block your tail lights, and then you cover the bikes, people wont be able to see your tail lights at all like they might otherwise be able to through your bike wheel spokes and other gaps.

I did try to use a grill cover once, and the thing shredded itself to pieces in the wind on one trip.

For the above reasons I haven't tried one of the products designed to cover bikes.

Excellent point about it covering the brake lights. Obviously, I don't think I'm going to go this route. It doesn't look like I gave this enough thought before I posted my question.

yep, saw a cpl kinds - check google & amazon "bike cover for hitch rack"

then add one of these

https://www.autoracklights.com/What_You_ll_Need.html

I have actually used a bike rack cover made specifically for rear mount RV racks. Like this https://www.amazon.com/Swagman-Bicyc.../dp/B017HAA7AS. There is a hole for the hitch/tongue to go through, then put bikes on, then cover. I use a clip to secure both sides of zipper and a couple of bungee cords to prevent flapping. It works great to cover the bikes. However, depending on vehicle used (ok on truck but problematic on SUV), your rear view and license plate could be totally blocked.

Years ago, a friend and I moved a car of his 1800 miles to his new home. We covered it. Three things we learned:
1) The cover rubbed the paint off all the edges.
2) At about 1000 miles, the cover came apart from the wind whipping.
3) The car towed noticeably more easily after the cover was destroyed.
Other than that, it worked great!

Lol