Carrying a bicycle inside the car....plus what extra's would you spec

[Mattieuk]

Evening all,

My first post on BriSkoda....so be gentle :-)

I am about to put pen to paper and swap my Volvo V50 for the a Yeti Adventure but I have a question you might be able to answer.

I know there is enough room to carry a couple of medium sized bicycles in the back with the seats removed (some good post on here on the subject) but does anyone know if you could carry a bike upright with the rear seats folded against the front seats? I am looking at the Thule fork mount system and trying to work out which is the best option.

Finally what extras would you considering a must to add to the car...I'm thinking mud flaps, boot liner, rubber mats.

Thanks all :-)

Edited 17 November, 2013 by Mattieuk

[dcl5ad]

Upside down perhaps, with wheels in bags, but not with wheels on. I can carry my Alpine160 this way quite easily. I have to be careful that the rear mech doesn't touch the back of the front seat.

[Mattieuk]

Thanks for the reply.

I was hoping only to have to remove the front wheel and lock the the fork into a Thule fork holder. It's not a big deal having to remove the seats. I guess you could remove the centre seat and stand the bike up that way.

[dcl5ad]

Oh, and for mountain biking, rubber boot liner, mats and the cheapo brad-x wheel bags from CRC are essential.

With the centre seat removed it might work, so longs as you fold down the backrest of the near side seat.

Edited 17 November, 2013 by dcl5ad

[Mattieuk]

Oh, and for mountain biking, rubber boot liner, mats and the cheapo brad-x wheel bags from CRC are essential.

With the centre seat removed it might work, so longs as you fold down the backrest of the near side seat.

Good call on the MTB extra's. It will be mostly road / Triathlon...but I do MTB over the winter months.

[Fergster]

I can fit my road bike in the back with just the middle seat removed and the front wheel off the bike. I have the spare wheel and it creates a nice wee lip for the chainset to rest against. I slide the two rear seats closer to the middle which stops the bike moving to much. I have to say I'm very impressed how easily it is to fit the bike in this way. Nice and beat and no faffing around.

[mandaroo]

I assume the Yeti Adventure will be a used Car? As I hear they are only taking orders for face lift Yetis which wont include the Adventure.

[dcl5ad]

My dealer (who ave proven to be totally useless) has an unsold 4x4 adventure with roof rails and a bike rack in their showroom and several parked out back.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Mattieuk]

I assume the Yeti Adventure will be a used Car? As I hear they are only taking orders for face lift Yetis which wont include the Adventure.

No its going to be a new one

[rog737]

You really need to check the length of your bikes. I have the Skoda internal bike carrier (remove front wheel, attach carrier to front fork), but the Yeti is short and you will have to put a bike in diagonally even with one seat removed, 2 bikes is even harder!

[Llanigraham]

I took a standard ladies bike down to Cornwall for my daughter, and it fitted in perfectly upside down with the front wheel removed. Just took out the middle seat.

[Mattieuk]

I can fit my road bike in the back with just the middle seat removed and the front wheel off the bike. I have the spare wheel and it creates a nice wee lip for the chainset to rest against. I slide the two rear seats closer to the middle which stops the bike moving to much. I have to say I'm very impressed how easily it is to fit the bike in this way. Nice and beat and no faffing around.

 

Thanks for the info. So with teh spare wheel opption am I right in thinking the rear wheel fits on the lower ledge and the fork on top of the raised floor?

[Merlinman]

That's correct.

 

For one bike, I just remove the passenger seat at the rear of the driver, take out the front wheel and strap bike & wheel to the side rail in the boot area.

[fatwomble]

Fork mount and a bit of spur shelving. Middle rear seat removed.

 

 

[Mattieuk]

^ That looks like a top job....how did you secure the spur shelving to the floor?

[fatwomble]

^ That looks like a top job....how did you secure the spur shelving to the floor?

Using the luggage eyes either side of the boot and bolting to a captive nut in a small block of wood under the eye (Araldited to the timber block) I also cut a groove in the spur shelving to hook over

 

[Mattieuk]

^ Cracking DIY build is that Fatwomble.....good work!

[A&Rblackline]

Top-notch bit of DIY Fatwomble - thanks for posting the pics.  We're looking to replace our current MPV (Renault Kangoo) with a Roomster, and I was wondering if anyone had come up with their own arrangement for carrying mountain bikes inside (my wife was going to order the Skoda bike carrier with the car, but I didn't fancy £180 for it).  Came up with a similar arrangement to yours for our Kangoo (with bits of galvanized channel found in a skip) and it hold two bikes upright by their forks - only thing is it does look like it's come out of a skip!!, whereas your version looks 'proper'.  I like the way you've fixed it to the load loops - thanks again for taking the trouble to post, you saved me few quid

 

p.s. for anyone who wonders why bother carrying bikes inside - we were targeted by professional bike thieves about 18 months ago.  Apparently, the thieves have spotters who clock high value bikes on cars, they then get one of their scallies to follow you, either to pinch the bikes when you park up somewhere, or in our case, follow you home, so that they can break into your garage/shed/bike store later on.  We're now careful when we load/unload the bikes and keep 'em covered inside the car when travelling.  The Police said that it's a fairly common problem at mountain biking trail centres - Just wanted to warn others.

[900000]

Well here's two more from the French forum that I have posted on here before:

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/178579-home-made-internal-bicycle-rack/

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/211313-the-french-yetiisti-love-their-diy-additions/?p=2494236

 

So yes NO need to buy an expensive bit of kit from Škoda or anywhere...

[The Heff]

I find I can take the front wheel off my road bike and the drop handle bar fit's into the fold of the rear seat keeping the bike up right and inplace. I am only 5'6" though so my bike frame is small.

[A&Rblackline]

I like the French guys approach to bike racks - especially as I've got some suitable bits of wood in my garage (told the wife that my random collection of scrap wood and metal would come in use someday   )   Thanks for posting the links Johann. 

 

As my bike is a bit of monster truck of a mountain bike (a long travel full-suspension 29er in size large), I took it into the dealers to try it in the back of a Roomster - with the seats removed, I could lie the bike on the floor with front wheel removed with no probs - but I'd prefer it to be fixed upright to avoid the frame getting damaged. Also looks like the latter will give the option of leaving two back seats in, which would be great.