Rear mounted bike rack

[AshWest]

Hi

I’ve recently purchased a Karoq Edition 1.5 TSI. I have a rear mounted bike rack which I used to regularly fit to my previous hatchback. The Edition has the automatic tailgate and I’m a little concerned that if I try to use the bike rack I have currently (https://www.halfords.com/camping-leisure/bike-racks/rear-mounted-bike-racks/halfords-rear-high-mount-3-bike-bike-rack?istCompanyId=b8708c57-7a02-4cf6-b2c0-dc36b54a327e&istFeedId=367c5610-f937-4c81-8609-f84582324cd6&istItemId=wwprqxrww&istBid=t&_$ja=tsid:94971|cid:868555891|agid:44240686736|tid:aud-297219198369:pla-394595773197|crid:204164410032|nw:g|rnd:2868829009654067369|dvc:m|adp:|mt:|loc:1006668&gclid=Cj0KCQiAmZDxBRDIARIsABnkbYTHeEX2cyshGAdfPDPkHG8Rqz5skYHQlhAhLOjpIAwtqvCMoChTVz4aAgb-EALw_wcB) then it’ll put too much strain on the automatic mechanism. Does anyone have experience of using either this bike rack with the automatic tailgate or a similar model of rack they can advise on please? 
TIA.

[BoxerBoy]

I think the short, official (sensible) answer is "dont even think about opening your tailgate".

 

Tow bar is your friend.

[Ootohere]

@AshWest.

Welcome. 

I was assuming you meant with the rack on and no bikes on it. 

Maybe i was wrong in assuming that!     Did you mean with bikes still on the rack?

[AshWest]

Thank you #BoxerBoy and #Roottootemblowinootsoot for your replies. Apologies for not being clearer in my description. The only time I would be opening the tailgate is whilst adjusting the rack to the car prior to putting the bikes on. I am just concerned about all the extra weight of three bikes plus the rack will be a lot and in particular whilst adjusting the rack to achieve a tight fit to the car prior to fitting the bikes on.

Hope that’s clearer?

Thanks again for your help!

[Guest]

Hi

 

I'm still confused. You adjust the rack when no bikes are on. You then mount the bikes and best pratice is make sure everything is secure, drive a few miles, then re-check everything is secure. At what point would there be any more or less strain on the tailgate? Unless you're going to operate the tailgate then the automatic function is irrelevent.

 

As BoxerBoy says even thinking about opening the tailgate, whether it be a manual or auto, is a big no no. Personally I'd be removing the power tailgate fuse before I started to mount the rack.

 

My major concern would be when I initially mount the rack ( no bikes ) where I may need to open the tailgate a couple of inches depending on what the clips are like. Opening it obviously isn't an issue, but if the power were still available, I'd be very concerned the next manouver would be to close the tailgate rather than watch it open it further

Edited 19 January, 2020 by Guest

[Gomezz]

Bike rack and 3 bikes on the tailgate ! full sus bikes and kids bikes are very heavy. I would be getting a towbar and bike rack to suit.

[Sanqhar]

There seem to be different arguments going on here. 

I understand the concern re accidentally opening an electric tailgate with a bike rack mounted.  It might be worth talking to the dealer to see if it can be disabled when the electrics are connected, other electrics are disabled e.g. parking sensors, so why not the tailgate.

 

Towbar mounted bike racks swivel down to open the tailgate.  There are plenty of videos on YouTube.  Here is one for the XC40.

 

 

tom 

[edwards]

We have a tow bar mounted rack - the tailgate won't hit it empty, but if there are bikes on it then the tailgate would foul it if it weren't tilted. If I had an electric boot I guess there would be a concern you could accidentally make it open and hit a bike if you didn't remember the rack.

[Sanqhar]

18 hours ago, edwards said:

We have a tow bar mounted rack - the tailgate won't hit it empty, but if there are bikes on it then the tailgate would foul it if it weren't tilted. If I had an electric boot I guess there would be a concern you could accidentally make it open and hit a bike if you didn't remember the rack.

 

 

...especially if you accidentally hit the tailgate button on the key fob. 

 

tom

[kilted]

On 21/01/2020 at 11:24, Sanqhar said:

 

 

...especially if you accidentally hit the tailgate button on the key fob. 

 

tom

At which point I think the sensor would report resistance to opening in a similar way to if someone was standing there and stop the operation (hopefully prior to any damage being done).

 

Personally, if you are loading the bikes externally, I would either have a towbar mounted rack (Thule for example) or a roof rack. I would not be happy with loading the tailgate with a rack and then having the possible chance of motor damage.

[silver1011]

The use of boot mounted bike racks, without the use of a lighting board is pretty irresponsible, I've yet to see one fitted to a car where the rear lights and/or number plate aren't partially or completely obscured.

 

If you're going to the effort of having an electrical socket fitted to power the lighting board then you may as well have a towbar fitted too.

 

The electric tailgate has an overload protection feature. It measures the level of resistance, either from the bike rack, or snow etc. and won't open if there is too much weight for it to lift.

 

Unfortunately it will still open if there is something in the way i.e. a towbar mounted bike rack, until it hits the obstruction and stops. It is possible to set the height at which the boot opens to i.e. immediately, to limit the chances of damage if you accidentally open the boot.

[Mark-Surrey]

When I bought my BMW 2-Series Gran Tourer a few years ago, I spent quite a bit of time looking at cycle carrier options. The BMW dealer strongly advised against using any kind of tailgate-mounted cycle carriers. He said that there’s too much risk of damage to modern tailgates, which often have plastic parts (eg. the spoiler / wind deflector at the top of the tailgate) which cannot withstand the force exerted by the taught straps of a cycle carrier. He said that even steel tailgates are now often made of thinner steel than in the past. He claimed to have had a customer who managed to bend/deform the edges of their tailgate by tightening their cycle carrier straps too tight - it seems a bit far-fetched to me, but who knows........

 

I ended up going with a towbar-mounted cycle carrier. Fortunately, one of the BMW factory-mounted options was a “cycle carrier preparation”, which basically looks like a removable towball but it’s only rated for a cycle carrier, not actual towing, and it was about 1/3 of the cost of a full towbar solution. I never did manage to find out whether there was really any difference between this “cycle carrier preparation” and the full towbar solution, because the metalwork underneath the car looked identical for both options......

[StEdmund]

8 hours ago, Mark-Surrey said:

 He claimed to have had a customer who managed to bend/deform the edges of their tailgate by tightening their cycle carrier straps too tight - it seems a bit far-fetched to me, but who knows........

 

This is, indeed, possible. It must be some 10 years ago that I was checking something out on my wife's friend's Corsa when I noticed that the top edge of the tailgate had been distorted to form two small 'air-scoops'. Absolutely no doubt that this had been caused by her very stupid teenage son's over-tightening efforts when mounting a cycle-carrier.

 

I have a 2-bike Atera tow-ball mounted cycle carrier and I wouldn't mount our bikes any other way. We now have a brace of electric bikes which are ok on our current rack but, if I were starting again, I would choose a beefier 'electric bike' rack from the word go.

[Berisford]

1 hour ago, StEdmund said:

 

This is, indeed, possible. It must be some 10 years ago that I was checking something out on my wife's friend's Corsa when I noticed that the top edge of the tailgate had been distorted to form two small 'air-scoops'. Absolutely no doubt that this had been caused by her very stupid teenage son's over-tightening efforts when mounting a cycle-carrier.

 

 

By the same token, twice in recent memory I’ve had to swerve around rack/bikes that have fallen off motors.........

[Mark-Surrey]

It’s a shame the car manufacturers can’t come up with some kind of standard fitting method for cycle carriers which is cheaper and less hassle than a full tow bar solution. I saw one which BMW did for a Mini in the past where the cycle carrier had 2 long arms that fitted into what looked like 2 standard tow loops. Instead of having a single tow loop on one side of the car, they had added a second one on the other side of the car.

[Mark-Surrey]

I know this is a Skoda forum. But for anybody who is thinking of getting a BMW who wants to be able to carry bikes but doesn’t plan to do any actual towing, I found the “cycle carrier preparation” on my 2-Series Gran Tourer (7-seater people carrier) pretty good. But you can only get this when you order the car, not as an after-market solution. It cost me about £260, and it included all the electrical wiring and connection point for the lighting/numberplate board, and all the metalwork underneath the car where the removable towball is attached. The removable towball itself is available as an aftermarket BMW purchase, and I paid about £90 for it. The only downside is that there may be some cycle carriers which don’t fit onto this towball. The towball is not a standard, completely spherical design. It has a protrusion on each side - it looks like a hole has been drilled through the centre of the towball and a metal rod inserted through it. I have  attached a couple of photos. I couldn’t figure out whether this was to provide additional stability to the cycle carrier (to prevent it twisting around) or whether it was something which BMW did just to force you to buy one of their own OEM cycle carriers (which cost about twice as much as a Thule carrier). In the end, I managed to get a second hand BMW OEM cycle carrier for about half the new price, and it’s rated to carry up to 2 electric bikes. There’s also an optional 3rd rail which you can add on afterwards, if you need to carry 3 bikes.

[Sanqhar]

1 hour ago, Mark-Surrey said:

I know this is a Skoda forum. But for anybody who is thinking of getting a BMW who wants to be able to carry bikes but doesn’t plan to do any actual towing, I found the “cycle carrier preparation” on my 2-Series Gran Tourer (7-seater people carrier) pretty good. But you can only get this when you order the car, not as an after-market solution. It cost me about £260, and it included all the electrical wiring and connection point for the lighting/numberplate board, and all the metalwork underneath the car where the removable towball is attached. The removable towball itself is available as an aftermarket BMW purchase, and I paid about £90 for it. The only downside is that there may be some cycle carriers which don’t fit onto this towball. The towball is not a standard, completely spherical design. It has a protrusion on each side - it looks like a hole has been drilled through the centre of the towball and a metal rod inserted through it. I have  attached a couple of photos. I couldn’t figure out whether this was to provide additional stability to the cycle carrier (to prevent it twisting around) or whether it was something which BMW did just to force you to buy one of their own OEM cycle carriers (which cost about twice as much as a Thule carrier). In the end, I managed to get a second hand BMW OEM cycle carrier for about half the new price, and it’s rated to carry up to 2 electric bikes. There’s also an optional 3rd rail which you can add on afterwards, if you need to carry 3 bikes.

 

The “pin” is probably there to stop you using it to tow a trailer or caravan.

 

Before we got the Karoq we looked at a Kia Niro hybrid. Found out it was not type approved for towing although you could have a towbar fitted as long as it was only used for mounting a bike rack. 

 

Tom

[silver1011]

20 hours ago, Mark-Surrey said:

When I bought my BMW 2-Series Gran Tourer a few years ago...

 

You're brave, owning up to buy a 2-Series Grand Tourer. BMW purists will blame you for the manufacturers recent transition to front wheel drive on their latest smaller models, let alone a front wheel drive BMW people carrier 😂

[Mark-Surrey]

Quote

3 hours ago, silver1011 said:

On 26/01/2020 at 00:04, Mark-Surrey said:

When I bought my BMW 2-Series Gran Tourer a few years ago...

 

You're brave, owning up to buy a 2-Series Grand Tourer. BMW purists will blame you for the manufacturers recent transition to front wheel drive on their latest smaller models, let alone a front wheel drive BMW people carrier 😂

 

 

I know the BMW purists are horrified by the idea of a front wheel drive people carrier.  But personally, I'm more interested in having a bit of luxury in a family-friendly format and a reasonable price (like the 2-Series Gran Tourer), rather than an overpriced rear wheel drive racing car which is not particularly practical as a family car and a total disaster in the snow and ice (like my old 3-Series and 5-Series "ultimate driving machines"!).

Having said that, I've been extremely impressed with my wife's Skoda Karoq, as you get a lot more bells and whistles for your money compared to a BMW, and it's a lovely car.  If I had to change my 2-Series Gran Tourer today, I would probably go with a Karoq like hers, although I would probably be tempted by a few of the extra gadgets which my wife said were a waste of money!

 

[AshWest]

Thank you all for your comments above. Most helpful. Wanted to update you all. Based on everyone’s comments I’ve decided not to use a bike rack . Instead I have bought a custom made boot liner which extends when rear seats are removed and I can then transport the bikes in the back of the Karoq. I’ll leave them at home whilst on holiday.

thanks again

[BramptonTrev]

To Ash West.

 

Do you have a photo?

[sophi]

I installed a hitch and use a Thule rack. I've used (I ride a lot) roof racks and trailer hitch racks. Hitch racks make no wind noise, take a minute to install/deinstall and there is no need to remove bikes when entering the garage. For smaller riders not having to clean and jerk bikes onto a roof rack is a factor.

I remove the rack from the hitch as soon as I'm back in the garage, everytime. The hitch took an hour to install

Edited 28 March, 2022 by john999boy

[larson42]

We bought this for a last minute trip with my Ford Fiesta and were aware of the very mixed reviews.
You have to reinforce this https://www.halfords.com/cycling/bike-racks/rear-mounted-bike-racks/halfords-rear-high-mount-3-bike-bike-rack-539061.html with bungees around the bikes, by tying knots so the grasps don’t slip and tightening the screws in the part the bike sits in with a screwdriver.
The instructions are useless, I’d recommend watching a video for a similar rack on YouTube or asking for help if you haven’t used one before. Straightforward if you’re familiar. The instructions do say you have to check the rack every 2 miles, this is probably to cover themselves.
The rack needs to be at a slight upwards angle of about 10 degrees or the bikes will slip off. On the way back we didn’t angle it enough and one bike had nearly slipped off.
The instructions are careless and could cause serious error. We drove on the motorway 100 miles with 2 bikes.

Edited 29 March, 2022 by ColinD
Removed bad links