Murf524

It's been asked about a couple times. A tandem will fit in an Element with some work. The tandem is a 2004? medium CoMotion Speedster. I'm 6'1 and my wife is 5'9 so the bars and saddles look high. The riser on the fork mount allows the brifters to take advantage of the window pocket space. I plan to remodel the fork riser in the fall as well as exploring a mount that will let me remove the rear wheel for longer trips. If you have any questions I'll answer as best I can.

For our Saturday rides my daughter is the stoker so I load my wife's single next to the tandem and my daughter rides in the rear seat.

zonatandem

Will be loading up our tandem + my single + luggage for a 1,000 mile trip back to Tucson.
All fits very well *inside* our '97 Accord Station Wagon! Bit of disassembly required: remove wheels, pedals and seats/stoker stem.
Been doing that for years . . . works for us!

George Handy

Hi Rudy! I've seen your tandem and it's smaller than most! Our L/S Co-Mo barely fits in our Element but is tolerable for short drives.

Trevdaremom

We have a Davinci tandem and use our kiwi green element to transport it. Usually we take of the front wheel and but the back and pedals between the seats and it fits with no problems. we can also leave the wheel on but the handlebar has to be turned quite a bit. My job is to put the wheel back on. I finally can do it! Still have trouble attaching the brake but am working on it. If our son goes with his road bike we take off his fron tire too. we have only the 2 seats in the car with one folded up on the side if another person should come. Enjoy your Honda!

uspspro

1998 Civic LX...

Inside:
- Our old Santana (size 54/52).
- Gear/clothes for a long weekend in the Eastern Sierra and Yosemite, including a double century in the Eastern Sierra.
- Cooler/food/etc...

We only had to remove the wheels and rotate the Stoker bars 90 deg.

HowellGC

We too have an Element, but with manual transmission. Don't think we could shift with setup like yours. Hmmm, but maybe it's worthing trying for the fun of it.

Murf524

Shifting would definitely be a challenge with the rear wheel in place. If I had a manual I would already have worked out an alternate solution.

One caveat?? If you don't have armrests you can move the tandem more to the right or have the rear wheel lower. I need the additional height so the rear derailleur will easily clear the armrests. If I think about it I'll take a picture from the driver's side next time. Also keep in mind that one of my goals is to carry 3 adults that are all over 5'7, a tandem, a single and all our gear. If I was only carrying 2 adults and the tandem different solutions would be available. Keep in mind that one of the posters carries a tandem in a Honda Fit!!

uspspro

That's our next car.

Check this out:
https://www.blayleys.com/articles/cars/index.htm
(I'm not that tall, so I can most likely keep my seat in).

HowellGC

We transport the tandem in the back of our other car, Subaru Baja. Works great and can theoretically fit 4 (smaller) adults and additional bikes in rear and on roof rack.

Unfortunately, withe the Baja, bikes are subject to the elements (pun intended.)

Murf524

We had a roof rack but my wife was always worried about having the bikes on top exposed to the Elements both weather and potential theives. Before we start talking about potential theft... after 21 years of marriage I don't argue about some things.

Racks have been discussed before and as long as you get to the ride and can ride that's all that really matters. One of our saturday tandem riders used to bring their tandem on a jon boat trailer.

We won't make STR this year but we are taking the tandem to a century ride in Montgomery, AL over Labor Day weekend. If I win early registration we'll take part in the GTR 2010 as well.

arctos

This thread reminds me of putting our large Santana Soverign Tandem inside an old 80's VW Rabbit hatch back. Manual shifting was a bit of a problem but it all worked out surprisingly well. It was probably similarly sized to the Honda Fit pictured earlier.

Artmo 

Setting out on a 1500 mile trek to Quebec next weekend with our Macchiato on the roof of our Volvo V70. It causes some wind noise, but it's not too bad. Tandem might get a few bugs on it, which wash off easily, and if it rains heavily, I'll have to lubricate the drive chain. Sync is a Gates belt. I might put a single inside the car: remove saddle and post and front wheel, set forks in clamp fitted to 2X4 piece of wood and off we go. Did similar for the first 50+ meet in Colorado: 5000 miles round trip.

Ritterview

So, you sailed right past the sticky thread on tandems in vehicles, to exhume this dead/buried thread, and neither do you have an Element, nor is your tandem in the car. Okay.

Artmo 

Oh, I'm awfully sorry if I transgressed some protocol. I don't spend most of my life researching/reading posts here, so I don't recall anything about Volvos.
Is it OK if I correct your punctuation and grammar?

Ritterview

Yeah, that'd serve me right. Really, the tandem forum is in greater need of posting quantity, such that insufficiently punctilious posts are more to be welcomed than chided. I thought your post on the Calfee thread very useful and informative.

robmitchell

Hi,

I have all rear seats removed from our Honda Element.
I can back the tandem in and travel with it upright with both wheels on.
I use the rear hand grab bars along the roof to strap it in place.
The rear wheel sits in the drink holder between the front seats.
It barely fits and I only do this if I have to travel to the bike shop or local ride.
It seems to me, not the smartest thing to be doing and not acceptable for road trips or 2 people.
For trips, it is the Yakima rack on top.

Rob

ct-vt-trekker

It's not a problem for us at all. We have an '08 Element and it's a manual transmission too. We use a front fork mount and back the tandem in. Like you mentioned the back wheel goes in the little drink holder console. If you angle the tandem in towards the passanger you'll have plenty of room. We removed the standard drivers side armrest and installed the larger removable storage armrest option. We just remove the armrest when transporting the tandem. It come right off by simply pushing a small button adn pulling it out.
The ability to transport our tandem is one of the main reasons we bought the Element. We travel long distances this way with no issues whatsoever. We'll be going to Canada in a few weeks adn then down to the Easter Tandem Rally in NJ.

DKMcK 

Minimal take apart and it fits nicely in a Honda Pilot.

Artmo 

It was my fault. I picked up on the wrong thread; I had been reading the sticky about tandem transport this morning. My excuse is that I'm over 70