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Caravan Chronicles

~ not just another caravan blog

Caravan Chronicles

Category Archives: Bike Carrier

Adapting Our Bike Rack for e-Bikes

31 Tuesday May 2022

Posted by Simon Barlow in Accessories, Amarok, Bike Carrier, Bike Rack, e-bikes, MiRider, Modifications, VW Amarok

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Bike Rack, e-Bike, MiRider, Modifications

Getting to that certain age brings on some restrictions…. My left knee is a bit suspect and Sue’s hip is not as ‘hop’ as it was anymore, This meant of we haven’t been using our bikes as much and as Sue has now officially retired and Henry has settled in to caravanning we are getting out and about more in the caravan.

We had been mulling over e-bikes for a while and after being influenced by John & Mandy who used to live in the next “village” to us, watching Neil and Emma from Urban Vanlife and having a long conversation with a gentleman who was also staying at Wirral Country Park who had bought two MiRider One bikes for himself and his wife lead us to paying a visit to the MiRider factory in Wigan.

We had a try… and liked them almost immediately. One big question for me was would they mount OK on our existing rack above the bed of the Amarok. The guys there were great and allowed me to fit one of their test bikes and take some photos. It only needed a few tweaks here and there to accept the MiRider bikes without any issues.

Two days later we went back to pick our new bikes up. In the realities of todays internet, full disclosure – we paid full price for these two bikes, no discount, no “freebie’s” etc. so what I will say about them when it comes to a review will be honest comments.

The bikes fitted onto the racks easily, however I did want to move them forward as the existing setup was for two full size cross bikes which required some rear overhang. Moving to the MiRider e-bikes gave me the opportunity to move the bike mounts forward.

You can see the rear overhang in the photo above and the available space at the front. Sliding the rails forward and relocating the wheel mounts allowed the bikes to easily position forward of the rear tail gate.

The thing that now had me thinking was the weight distribution. The rear wheel is obviously heavier than the front, as it contains the electric motor and the battery is held in the frame forward of the pedal crank so weight across the two wheels is pretty much even. However, the overhang of the mounting rails meant the front wheel was well forward of the main cross bar.

This really could do with a support. So after putting my thinking cat on…. nope Henry wasn’t;t very helpful… In the best Baldrick fashion I came up with a cunning plan. The front of the pickup bed frame is quite strong and the strength was increased by the aluminium box that the Roll-N-Lok cover fits into.

I cut two pieces of 1.5mm steel sheet and bent them so as to fit under the lip of the Roll-N-Lok cover resting on the frame of the pickup bed and bent them to form a support under the bike mount rails. I made a couple of stop blocks out of recycled plastic to hold the supports to the mount rails.

The design means I can still remove the cover for the Roll-N-Lok to service it and I don’t need to use any tools to remove the brackets if I want to remove the whole thing from the pickup bed… just the 4 Thule key locks to release the whole bike rack from he mounting pads.

I gave the two brackets three coats of spray-on truck bed liner and let them harden for a couple of days before installing. Hopefully this should be enough.

All in, I think it looks OK and the functionality of everything still works. The bikes are secure with no flexing in the mount. We still have room for a narrow roof box or mesh cargo tray between the two bikes if we need more room. I always have the option of moving the bikes to one side and mounting a standard Thule roof box if we really get pushed for space.

Another little thing we can do is plug the bikes in to charge while travelling. I’m not sure how handy this will be, but its there just in case.

I hope this gives you some ideas for e-bike mounting options of your own. For us, it’s next stop Bridlington for a few days to do a bit of testing.

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Bike Rack Needs a Home…

15 Wednesday Aug 2018

Posted by Simon Barlow in Bike Carrier, Bike Rack, General, Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Bike Rack, Green Valley Bike Rack

Long time readers may recall I customised a bike rack for our Land Rover Freelander 1 to allow us to carry two full frame mountain bikes on the back of our Freelander while towing a caravan and have enough clearance for ferry ramps while towing as well. Big advantage being it didn’t affect our MPG as the bike were effectively out of the airflow both solo and towing.

Well since we bought the VW Amarok the rack hasn’t been used and it has just been hung from the roof of the bat cave since then.

So its time to find it a new home, If you have a Freelander 1 and are looking for a fold up bike rack for two bikes complete with 13 pin fitted trailer board and all the web straps…. make me a silly… but not stupid offer.

I’m based in Manchester but would be happy to meet up part way… I ain’t going to wrap this thing up that’s for sure!

Drop me an email with a silly (not stupid) offer.

SPB_5D_096552SPB_5D_096562SPB_5D_096542SPB_5D_096546SPB_5D_096544SPB_5D_096550

SPB_5D_096534SPB_5D_096532

SPB_5D_096531

The Green Vally Spare Wheel Mounted 2 Bike Cycle Carrier

 

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Fitting A Bike Rack to the VW Amarok – Finale…

12 Sunday Mar 2017

Posted by Simon Barlow in Accessories, Amarok, Bike Carrier, Bike Rack, General, Modifications, tow vehicle, VW Amarok

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Bike Rack, Modifications, Touring, Towing, VW Amarok

It’s time to wrap up the bike rack install. I had to wait a few days for the final rack to arrive. Although I had ordered a twin pack of the Thule FreeRide 532 from Holdcrofts via Amazon and they had shipped out a twin pack, it would seem that their courier had ‘lost’ one and to Holdcrofts credit as soon as I emailed them they dispatched another… which the courier took four days to deliver.

IMG_1098 Continue reading →

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Fitting A Bike Rack to the VW Amarok – Part 2…

04 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by Simon Barlow in Accessories, Amarok, Bike Carrier, Bike Rack, General, Modifications, Projects, VW Amarok

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Bike Rack, Maintenance, Modifications, Touring, Towing, VW Amarok

OK, so now to fit the actual bike carriers onto the rack I had previously installed a couple of days ago.

We had opted for the Thule FreeRide 532 over the ProRide version. What put me off the ProRide were a couple of videos on YouTube showing just how easy it was to remove a bike supposedly locked on to the rack. The FreeRide 532 has two arms supporting the bike and offered an option for additional security…. which I’m not going to go into for obvious reasons!

I had ordered a twin pack of the FreeRide 532, unfortunately I only received one. It seems the other was lost in transit somewhere according to my enquiries with the supplier. The other thing I found out was they (or it) didn’t come with the “T” track fixings. OK so a quick trip down to my nearest Thule dealer Northwest Towbars to pick up the elusive fixings. They would remain elusive… Northwest Towbars didn’t have any in stock. Not to be out manoeuvred I’d make my own.

To the bat cave again…

I just happened to have some 2mm aircraft grade aluminium handy and cut eight 21mm x 45mm pieces. The FreeRide 532 normally has three mounting locations, but as there was an additional hole that lined up with the “T” track it would be rude not to use it! So I made four for each rack.

img_1069For the threaded bolt I had some dome head bolts handy. The width of the dome head was wide enough so it would not pull through the slot on its own so I was not relying on a 2mm think aluminium plate entirly. To hold the bolts in place I drilled a slightly undersized hole in the aluminium…

img_1074

img_1075img_1077…and used my small press to force the square shoulders of the bolt through the aluminium plate to hold it in place.

img_1078The result was eight “T” track bolts. A quick dressing up on the sanding belt and fine grinding wheel to remove any rough edges finished them off.

img_1079 The excess length of the bolt would be trimmed later.

Fitting the FreeRide 532 Racks

Sliding four of the newly made “T” track bolts in to the WingBars I could place the FreeRide 532 on to the bars.

img_1080I used a couple of nuts to hold the rack in place while I test fitted one of the bikes. It was a bit too tight. The swing up frame section that clamps on to the bike only partially engaged on the bike frame. The whole rack needed moving rearwards by about 10 to 15 mm.

Not a problem, as the WingBar mounting is off set laterally compared to the “T” track, reversing the bar so it faced the other way would solve this and effectively move the “T” track slot rearwards by about 20mm.img_1081

With the WingBar mounted in the other direction the bike was a perfect fit. Also it made it easier opening the end caps of the WingBar as configured the correct way round they were a bit tight against the roll bar.img_1083img_1084img_1082The next thing to address was the overhang. I still had around 50 to 60 mm of adjustment I could make to the rails of the FreeRide rack. Removing everything again and a bit of ‘adjusticating’ with a small rubber mallet soon saw the rails in the correct position. I had not been able to get the rear of the mount flush with the pickup tailgate as was my original hope, but checking with a plumb bob…

img_1090img_1091… It was still shorter than the tow ball and only about 40mm longer than the rear bumper. So the overhang wasn’t anything to worry about.  Even with a bike on the rack it would be clear of the caravan in the tightest of turns. Next it was just a matter of squaring things up and tightening everything down.

img_1092

I ended up locating the rack more to the side than I first planned. This was for two reasons. Firstly, once the second rack is in place it leaves me with nearly 800 mm between the two racks which will allow for the option in the the future of having the ability to install a mesh tray, ski rack, surfboard rack (we don’t ski or surf… ho hum) or slimline roof box if we ever run out of storage in the Amarok. The second reason is it will give the rear view dash cam a relatively unobscured view rearward even with two bikes on the back.

Everything torqued to the correct settings, I topped off the nuts with an additional nylon lock nut to make sure they could not vibrate loose…

img_1093img_1094… and using a Dremmel I cut off the excess thread and ground off any sharp edges.  I need to find a suitable plastic or rubber push on cover for these then I can give them a quick coat of preserving grease.

One thing that I did think about was the prospect of the swing arms bouncing up and down when bikes were not on the rack. A quick rummage in my straps box produced a few of these little blue straps and a handy slot on the mounting plate seemed ideal…

img_1096… problem solved. A simple solution to something that may or may not be a problem.

So one rack fitted, all that is left is to repeat for the other side, when it arrives!

img_1097

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Fitting A Bike Rack to the VW Amarok – Part 1…

03 Friday Mar 2017

Posted by Simon Barlow in Amarok, Bike Carrier, Bike Rack, Modifications, Uncategorized, VW Amarok

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Bike Rack, Modifications, Touring, Towing, VW Amarok

It’s been a few months since we bought our VW Amarok and I hadn’t originally intended it to take this long to install a bike rack or carrier. What slowed us down was sorting out the bits needed for mounting a bike carrier above the bed of the Amarok. In the USA, pickups are plentiful and there are various companies that make carrier systems and mounts for pickups. My initial thoughts it would be fairly easy and started perusing the Thule website. Unfortunately they did not sell the correct mounting hardware for where I wanted to mount the rack.. on the side rails for the Roll-N-Lock cover.

Searching the internet found plenty of results for the type of mounting I wanted… all in America and the most promising system was produced by Yakimar.

However, trying to find a retailer that would ship to the UK was a bit of a problem as most would only ship to the US and Canada. I did eventually find a company in California that would. The next hurdle was the cost. To buy everything and get it shipped over here would ring up a massive £2180 bill at the checkout. This was not worth it. I out the bike rack on the back burner for a while… and the pound against the dollar slipped in the meantime.

Getting ready for installing the bike rack

I started looking around again at the start of this year and returned to Thule and Fiamma. Could I make up my own “kit of parts” to do the job? Fiamma while having a great selection of racks and bits didn’t provide anything in the way of a roof bar so back to Thule again. While mooching about their website I accidentally got on to the American  area of their site and while looking for mounting feet came across one specifically designed for mounting on to flat roofs. The part was intended for a Fibreglass canopy on a Jeep Wrangler but pictures showed them being used on a number of vehicles and camping trailers. This was exactly the part I needed.

I checked with a number of Thule retailers to see if they had Kit 3113 which was used to mount Rapid Podium Foot Pack 460R on flat surfaces. No one had it, so a quick email to Thule asking if it was obtainable in the UK or Europe was fired off. The answer was a bit surprising. It was an American part produced by the American Division and was not obtainable in Europe.

OK, back to my contact at Worldwide Cyclery in California… did they stock it and could they ship it? It arrived within six days. I also ordered the Foot Pack 460R as it was over £60 cheaper even after paying import duty than buying it in the UK on-line. I now had the means to mount the WingBars(Aeroblade). I just needed to check the size and order these and two FreeRide 232 bike mounts. Before I ordered, I checked the width I’d need. Next problem, The WingBars in the UK were 1500mm wide and in the US being manufactured in English sizes were slightly wider by about an inch. They arrived a few days later from the US!

OK, so now I had all the parts… to the bat cave!

Assembling the 3113 mounting plates

Assembling the 3113 mounting plates

The first task was to assemble everything so I could to a test fit of the whole caboodle on the back of the Amarok before drilling anything… always a good idea! The four Kit 3113’s were assembled first and the four 406R feet were mounted on to them.

img_1048

Assembling the 460R on to one of the 3113 mounting plates.

img_1045

 Once this was done, the sub assemblies were slid on to the ends of the WingBars.

img_1050

Once this was done, I could roughly position the two partially completed WingBars across the bed of the Amarok.

img_1051

I now needed to check the position of the bike on the FreeRide 532 so that would in turn give me the position I needed to mount the WingBars. From the centre line of the mounting plate the front edge of the front wheel is about 550 mm, so the front WingBar needs to be at least 550mm back from the rear of the cab.

img_1044

However, the Amarok’s sport bars have to be taken into consideration as these stop the front wheel of the bike going too far forward and will help protect the cab.

img_1067

This presented a problem. The rear of the FreeRide232 protruded back and hung over the rear tailgate by about 350mm and if possible I wanted everything flush. Not a problem, the two bike wheel mounts can be slid forward and backwards to accommodate various size bike frames and the main mounting point… with a little assistance from a rubber mallet and be slid backwards. So in effect I nudged the two main bars forward so they didn’t protrude over the tailgate and the bike still fitted. You can see my mark as I started to move the main mounting plate on the picture below:

img_1053

While doing the test fitting and adjusting the position of the mountings, I discovered I had a bit of luck. On the Amarok sport bar there are two ABS plastic mouldings that fit round the bars that are designed for mounting spot lights or work lights that just happen to line up and can be used as ‘rub strips’ to stop the front wheels contacting the coated stainless steel sports bars.

img_1065

I could now measure where I wanted the WingBars to be located and marked out the positions. I wanted the rear cross-bar to be as far to the rear as possible (something planned for the future) and worked out the distance from the front bar which had to be located so the bike rack fitted with the front wheel tucked against the roll bar.

img_1054

As the sides of the Roll-N-Lock cover had a slot underneath, I’d previously machined 4 pieces of steel to fit in them and pre drilled and tapped the holes. All I needed to do was drill the sides of the Roll-N-Lock cover.

img_1057

The (supplied) hex bolts passed through and screwed into the steel plates I’d machined. I also added a spreader nut and lock nut underneath… just to be sure! The lock nut wasn’t tightened up to the spreader nut, so if someone tries to undo the hex bolts, they will simply back off a little then spin round.

OK, first one done time to do the other side…

img_1056

Other side complete a quick test fit of the WingBar…

img_1059

While pre-positioning the front bar ready for marking out, I was interrupted by Sue… a welcome coffee and hot pie break!

img_1062

Both rails fitted, it was time to add the covers and rubber strips…

img_1051

A final position check of one of the racks and time to call it a day as the rain set in again.

img_1063

The spacing of the bars will give us lots of options for the future to add a top box, ski mounts – these will allow ski’s to be carried angled upwards over the cab (have to learn to ski first though!) or a mesh tray.

I’ll post part two soon showing the bike carrier mounting and go into some of the little pitfalls I have come across.

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