What vehicles will bike(s) fit in?
 

I'm looking for vehicle choices that I can carry my bike, and perhaps 2 bikes, in either the trunk or the back seat or trunk pass-through, preferably without having to remove the wheels.

What kind of bike? A mountain bike with wide bars and fat tires will be a little tougher than a road bike with narrow drop bars or bullhorns. The latter will probably fit lengthwise in the trunk of a smaller sedan with the back seats folded down. Two might fit side by side, but I've never tried.

Taking at least the front wheel off will increase the chances significantly. As long as it's a bike with quick-release levers and no lawyer lips, taking the front wheel off should be pie.

a couple of Litespeed road bikes. I can fit mine (1) in the backseat of my Honda Civic hybrid, taking off the front wheel. But what I'm wanting is a vehicle that I can put 2 bikes inside of, safely locked up, and preferably without taking off the wheels of either bike.

Time to get a minivan! Take your bike to the dealership and test fit. Bets are you will find a dealer really wanting your business and cut you a good deal! All the while, they'll rob you in F&I.

I have a minivan with no seats and an extra wide yakima rack. I can accomodate like 9894357893 bikes.

Land Rover Discovery....... Any full size van, Front wheel off just about any SUV..... I can fit 4 inside my Range Rover with front wheels off!

I bet ten bikes would fit in my F-250

If you want a small car, get a hatchback. One where there is no permenant shelf over the trunk. I've got a VW Golf, and my bike fits in there with both wheels, with room to spare.

a vehicle that has a space at least slightly bigger than the bike itself.

Are you wanting to lay the bikes down or have them up on their wheels? Either way if you're hauling 2 bikes you'll need something a bit larger then a car. Unfortunatly you'll need a Stupidly Useless Vehicle, or SUV. The better way may be a pick-up truck with a bed top on it, if you want them inside something. At least a truck is not stupidly useless.

The less expensive alternative would be to haul them on a external carrier attached to the vehicle.

If an SUV is hauling sports equipment, how can it be Stupidly Useless? I though that is what SPORTS utility vehicles were for, hauling you and your sports gear to wherever you need it to go to.

I rented a Toyota Matrix a while back. Looked like there would be plenty of room for two bikes down flat once the rear seat was down. And it was a nice car to drive.

And there are people who swear by the Honda Element. Remove the rear seats, and two bikes go upright.

But they are just sooooooo ugly.

The Honda Element comes with the option for two bike brackets inside, and two bike brackets on top, allowing for four total for a trip.

Don't forget pickups. Its not hard to equip a Tacoma with fittings for a couple bikes in the bed, and the nice thing about having bikes in the bed of the truck is that you can drive through low overhangs, not worry, or not worry if the moron behind you will rear end you, causing no bumper damage, but fatally wounding your steeds if stored on a rear trunk rack.

The Honda Fit is advertised as having room to fit at least one bike standing up sideways in the back, if you flip up the seats. It's a really neat car - i'm thinking about getting one.

...slightly bigger than the bike parts... I''ve put my bike in the back seat of a '70 Beetle, but then I could get my double bass in there when I needed to.

I have no problem getting a bike in the back of my forester. Could get several back there if I took the wheels off.

I have a buddy that takes the wheels off his and sticks it in the trunk of his 4 door civic.

I've got a VW Golf (GTI) as well and can definitely fit one bike with both wheels attached....not sure about two though.

I can fit three bikes in my Ford Explorer, with the wheels on. Kinda hard, but its do-able.

I'm pretty sure the Nissan Xterra has an interior rack option that holds 2. Worth a look.

Grand Caravan or Grand Voyager with back seat removed. 22 + MPG unless you get the 3.8L motor.

Wouldn't it be cheaper and more reasonable to get a car/vehicle that fits all your other needs, and then just spend a whopping $120 on a trunk rack? Just a thought.

I wanted a small car for things that you can't get in other cars. I swear my bike is bigger than my car--at least it looks that way on the back of my trunk. :)

my subaru impreza wagon fits one bike with the seats down and the front wheel off. two would be a bit of tetris but not that hard. i just don't like lying bikes on top of each other.

With slow speed rear-enders being so common where I live, I wouldn't want to stick anything on a rear rack... don't want a bumper scratch to end up being a $2000 bike compaction. Roof racks are better, although I'm sure everyone fears the low clearance drive through.

roof racks are the way to go

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I strongly recamend that you get out of the habit of laying your bike on its side at any time especially in a car that will bump it around as you transport it. Eventually you will bend or break the derailur support and your bike will either shift poorly or it might need replacing altogether, you might even break part of the frame in the process. Its just not a good thing to do.

When transporting your bike you should keep it upright, most people take off the front wheel with a QR skewer and that makes the bike smaller in size. The photo above shows some fork clamps used for transporting a bike upright.

Putting a bike inside a vehicle makes it less of a thief magnet. You will find though that auto manufacturers don't go out of their way to be helpful (they give cubic inch measurements for cargo areas but you need height and length measurments) and sometimes are downright misleading (when they show a picture of a bike inside their vehicle, its usually a small sized MBT, what if you have a tall road bike?). Measure your bike as you would have it for transportation then make a practice of going to showrooms with a tape measure.

good luck.