We considered a Fit among several other cars. The tandem seating arrangement required for the Fit with a tandem on board was a deal breaker for me. We'd save around $120.00 per year with a car that gets 10 MPG more on the highway. If anybody else cares (and I don't know why they should) the additional convenience offered by the Element is well worth that to me.

I take the front wheel off and slide it into the back of our Ford Expedition. Locked up safe and sound. Otherwise, the Expedition is used to haul around a horse trailer.

We are using the sidewinder, I like the ease of use with the pivoting fork mound, but yes, big mileage drop with the tandem on the car.

I was also wondering if there was a protective cover or tarp available to cover the tandem (or even single bikes) while on top to protectfrom the elements?
We are going to Virginia next month and a 12 hours one way and back, would love to cover the bike for that.
http://membres.lycos.fr/burns302/Vel...pphpBf9r87.jpg

If you're talking about something to cover the bike while enroute, about the only thing you can reasonably do is to use a 'bike bra' to cut down on the wind/grit/rain blast effect associated with forward motion, perhaps shower caps strapped around the saddles to keep them from being soaked, and if you're really concerned about your drive train there's a think called a Pygmy Pack.

However, there several downsides to these things:

1. If you think your gas mileage takes a hit with bikes on the roof, just know that putting these types of covers on will make an even bigger impact to your fuel economy.
2. As you add things that will catch more wind drag, cross winds, and wind blast from large vehicles the less stable your bikes (and car) become. Just having three tandems on top of a Suburban without any covers made for some dicey moments when passing semi-tractors.
3. One these things get soaked they can create more problems than they solve if you don't remove them as they trap moisture and ****** the natural drying effects of wind and sunlight.
4. As these things collect dust and grit it gets trapped between the fabrics and your bike's finish and the mechanical action of wind-driven fabric flutter can cause marring of your bike's finish.
5. Once you get where you're going you now have a nasty, grimy fabric thing to deal with.

As for the full cover, absolutely not... the wind drag at highway speeds and/or wind blast from trucks would tear your bike off the rack... or the rack and bike off the roof of your car. It's just a function of surface area x speed = psi loading that goes through the roof when you're essentially sticking something the size of a small mattress vertically into the wind stream of a moving car.

Just some things to think about.

We have an Audi Avant with a Yakima Sidewinder and room for it and 4 other bikes if we want. We normally get 30mpg without the racks or bikes and 24mpg with the tandem on top. :D

We weren't sure it would go, but we've managed to stuff our Burley in the back of our Prius for the trip from Springfield, MO to Mackinaw City, MI. Had to take off both wheels, the rear rack, and use some of the luggage to hold it high enough for the rear derailleur to clear the console, but it can be done.



We're off to the League of Michigan Bicyclists West Shorline Tour! Our goal was to drive the Prius at 45 mpg instead of the pickup at 16 mpg. With the money we save, we'll be able to afford a nice steak someplace!

Attachment 77647

Attachment 77648

Bringing the tandem home for the first time I had my son in my Mazda MPV with me. I put the front passenger seat forward, folded the 3rd row into the floor, folded and removed the right side 2nd row captain's chair, and put the complete bike in standing up. The bike had full fenders and touring racks F&R, so even pulling the front wheel didn't seem like it would help much.

To transport it in the future, I'll probably pull the front wheel (the racks and fenders are off) and the front seat of the bike with the stoker's bar and just run it up the middle of the van. I'm also seriously considering a RockyMounts tandem roof mount for the Protege5, since it already has a Yakima rack set-up.

Our favorite solution is transporting the tandem inside the car (Skoda Superb). We have highways without speed limit in Germany! And economy is also an important factor. The most amazing thing is: There is no need to change our front seat setup in the car. We use the max. length seat position for our long legs and the C'dale is in J/L size. (My height is 6'9" and Katrin is 6'2" tall) The rear disc brake is in the near of my right shoulder, but it don't disturbes me. Sometimes I have to re-adjust the disc brakes after inserting the wheels.

I would like to see a picture of the front of the car, which I guess is the back of the bike. This looks extraordinarily dangerous, but I applaud your ingenuity.

Installed the RockyMounts Tandem Mount R4 today. Nice!

http://gofast42.smugmug.com/photos/3...54_Kk6cq-L.jpg

my tandem rack
 

I bought a hitch mounted tandem rack from HitchRider http://www.hitchrider.com/carriers.htm and we carry our Bilenky tandem with our 2001 Toyota Avalon. Since the bike is so long, and I don't want to remove the front tire, I just turn the front tire and secure it. It rides fine. Here are pictures. The rack is $300. The other picture is of the same rack holding our other Burley tandem currently for sale on Craignslist in the SF bay area (https://post.craigslist.org/sfo/S/bi...zI9PTBPY/aph46). Note that in the picture of the Bilenky, due to the angle of the picture, it looks like the left side of the bike sticks out 3 or 4 feet, and with the Burley, it looks like it's sticking out on the right.....but again, it's just the picture angle. I secure the bike to the rack with large rubber coated twistie's I buy at Lowes, they work great.

Foolish,
What do you use to hold the bar? Is it a Rocky Mount part or something you came up with yourself?

Rocky Mounts tandem tray comes with the strap to keep the bars straight when using the rotating fork mount.

Here is our Rocky Mounts on the Corolla. It works really well and is easily adaptable to regular bikes as well. Slick unit and is cheaper than Thule or Yakima.

http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q...r/P6280050.jpg

Looks nice. Can the Rocky mounts extend to fit a triplet?

I'd recommend either removing the handlebar strap or securing the tail end as it will slap around and eventually damage the paint. Although being on the roof, you may eventually get some sort of foreign object strike on the bike.

We are in NoVa also. PM me if you are interested in doing a ride sometime.

Where can I buy just the handlebar strap? I found a Yakima part number listed in the parts list for the sidewinder. Waiting on a reply from Yakima unless someone knows where I can order one.



Steve

The Thule/ ATOK also comes with a strap to keep the bars from moving with the pivot mount.
Would be a hairy task without it.

^What he said!^

No clue.
That picture was just a test-fit. I didn't worry about the strap 'cause I wasn't going to drive anywhere. Thanks for the warning though. I'll be sure to watch out for that next time.

That would be great. I'll PM. :D

Rockymounts.com has a lot of spare parts for their various racks, but not that one. You could call them and ask if it can be ordered.

Call these guys.
http://www.atoc.com/

We flew to Albany, NY with the almost-vintage Kuwahara tandem to see some operas at Glimmerglass (near Cooperstown) and then to attend the Eastern Tandem Rally at Durham, NH (near Portsmouth) before heading back to Albany via the Berkshires. In order to transport the tandem, I was forced to rent at least an SUV. Managed to get a Dodge Nitro for $50/day. (A van would have cost twice that much). Mid-size SUV's give you as much room as my Subaru Legacy wagon - you have to take both wheels off to get the tandem in the back, and you're driving with a handlebar touching your shoulder. But after you've done it a few times, you and your stoker can get really good at loading the tandem into the vehicle.

My Subaru has got the ATOC tandem rack with the swivel fork mount. I really like it because you can take off the back section of the wheel trough in order to carry a single and open the rear hatch completely. Things to note about this rack:

- You will likely need to open the front door to give enough room to get the tandem close enough to the car to get the forks into the swivel mount (with the rear wheel still on the ground). With practice, it's actually faster and easier to put the tandem on the roof rack by yourself.

- The swivel doesn't work unless the handlebars are held in place relative to the rest of the bike. You can use the straps provided to hold the handlebars in place, but I prefer to use a neat little telescoping tube with rubberized attachments at each end (I forget who makes it, but it's available in bike shops and it's really quick and easy to attach and has yet to fall off at 70 mph). I used to use a Park fork holder, but it doesn't work if you're using one of those carbon fiber handlebars with the flat section on top.

- The rack will start to get "wobbly" after a while because the bolt holding the swivel starts to loosen. The way you tighten it is to first pop both plastic covers. There's a bolt holding the swivel section to the main section. You hold the top of the bolt from above with a 1/2" socket attached to to a 1/4" ratchet with 3" extension and a universal joint. Got that? (A 3/8" ratchet will not work; a 1/2" socket in 3/8 is too big to fit past the quick release housing.) The lower nut can be held with a 1/2" spanner.

Everybody's got a 3/8 ratchet set. I had to go out and buy a 1/4" ratchet just for the ATOC rack. Good thing I like buying tools.

- L.

Sounds like the gizmo that comes with an Ultimate Support work stand.

I bought a fold up trailer for about $280. Then cannabalized my thule t2 rack, came up with this setup. Takes about 3 seconds to load, less to unload. Farthest trip so far has been from Olympia, WA to Boise, ID with no issues..

http://www.bikerubbish.com/rubbish/july2008/haul.jpg