BIKE RACKS AND CARRIERS FOR CARS MEGATHREAD - all questions asked and answered here

ashes_mtb said:
Ah crap, I hadn’t thought of that.

Bike will be in front of it breaking the wind up, but could still be interesting. If it’s an issue I can swap the electrics over to something else.
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how wide does it actually need to be? could ya shorten it? (any legal boffins out there?)

in road rules for other states (at least SA, vic and NSW), Reg 216 just says they need to visible.. but not any particular width...

"portable rear lights"
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means--
(a) for a vehicle being towed from the front of the vehicle--a pair of lights attached to the rear of the vehicle that, when operating, show a red light that is clearly visible for at least 200 metres from the rear of the vehicle
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oldcorollas said:
how wide does it actually need to be? could ya shorten it? (any legal boffins out there?)

in road rules for other states (at least SA, vic and NSW), Reg 216 just says they need to visible.. but not any particular width...

"portable rear lights" means--
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Was wondering that. The Gripsport ones are pretty narrow and I’d assume they’re across whatever regs there are.

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Don’t think it would be too hard to shorten it.

Another thing I didn’t think of this arvo; I was lucky not to drill through the wiring that runs inside it…
 
ADRs don't specify minimum distance between lights. Rules are lights have to be symmetrical about the centreline, brake lights have to be a minimum of 350mm above the ground and lights lower than 1.5m above the ground unless i practicable. Reflectors though, and there must be at least one, has/have to be no more than 400mm from the near side of the car.
 
Dales Cannon said:
ADRs don't specify minimum distance between lights. Rules are lights have to be symmetrical about the centreline, brake lights have to be a minimum of 350mm above the ground and lights lower than 1.5m above the ground unless i practicable. Reflectors though, and there must be at least one, has/have to be no more than 400mm from the near side of the car.
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Car is 1800mm wide so going to need to be over 1000 then to have both reflectors in the right position. That might still be too much.
 
You could drill holes the same diameter as the round tubing of the carrier frame and lock pin it into place.
 
Took the lightboard for a spin on the freeway today to test it out. To my surprise it’s not really moving around, just a bit of vibration as you’d expect.

This morning someone whipped past me at at least 110 without a similar board on the back and it looked alright which gave me a bit of confidence.

Reckon the coat hangar might have been ok, but for sake of $5 added in a proper locking pin.

Will probably make something a bit more robust down the track, but it should be alright like for a while.

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Well my anti wobble mech on the single trail went on a wobbly. Got the new parts and decided I may as well upgraded the bolt whilst it was apart to the 16mm bolt. Looks like the new plates are nicely rounded at the point the old ones failed so hopefully shouldn't see that again!

Nice and easy to fix, and good service from Single Trail

For what it's worth this rack go on and off the car at least once a week and pretty much always carries 5 bikes. I may also have to rethink the amount of Ugga Duggas I've been tightening the bolt.

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DougalStrachan said:
Well my anti wobble mech on the single trail went on a wobbly. Got the new parts and decided I may as well upgraded the bolt whilst it was apart to the 16mm bolt. Looks like the new plates are nicely rounded at the point the old ones failed so hopefully shouldn't see that again!

Nice and easy to fix, and good service from Single Trail

For what it's worth this rack go on and off the car at least once a week and pretty much always carries 5 bikes. I may also have to rethink the amount of Ugga Duggas I've been tightening the bolt.

View attachment 404868
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I haven't had any issues with mine yet, but it rarely comes off the car.
 
Jebus, that's a bad design fault..
But all good let's use the customer as a product testing unit hahaha ...


By the way, I have no affiliation with any rack company... They all have shitty parts at some point.
 
ozzybmx said:
nothing is as steady as that bolted plate.
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While side to side (roll and yaw) becomes rock solid, you do still need ‘something’ to help with the up and down (pitch) as hitches only have the one bolt hole.


latheboy said:
Jebus, that's a bad design fault..
But all good let's use the customer as a product testing unit hahaha ...
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That’s probably not fair - it’s an innovative mechanism making it simple for the user, I’m sure there would have been in house testing, however likely not long term under varying real world conditions - the problem when designing for dynamic loading is identifying all possible factors, with FEA it can come out acceptable and still fail due to an unforeseen factor. So long as they’re honouring warranty and it being the anti-wobble not the sole coupling device I don’t see it as a black mark although they’d probably want to do a design review if there’s more than one failing this way…


latheboy said:
By the way, I have no affiliation with any rack company...
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I do…
 
Sheepie said:
That’s probably not fair - it’s an innovative mechanism making it simple for the user, I’m sure there would have been in house testing, however likely not long term under varying real world conditions - the problem when designing for dynamic loading is identifying all possible factors, with FEA it can come out acceptable and still fail due to an unforeseen factor. So long as they’re honouring warranty and it being the anti-wobble not the sole coupling device I don’t see it as a black mark although they’d probably want to do a design review if there’s more than one failing this way…
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Exactly. My rack rack gets used once a month and left outside so that bolt sees regular action in poor conditions. Moorey's never left his ute so that bolt is probably on it's path to seizing. I brought it up with Mitch when @ozzybmx stripped his and he was totally open with if you wreck it we will replace it. And his words were do it up until it stops moving, so if there is now a torque recommendation then they are definitely reviewing their product.
 
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Sheepie said:
While side to side (roll and yaw) becomes rock solid, you do still need ‘something’ to help with the up and down (pitch) as hitches only have the one bolt hole.
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My ISI has the bolt only and I can tell you when it's done up, you are not budging that hitch up/down or left/right. It's rock solid in every direction even using the rack as a lever.
Some tow bars also have a small bolt that screws down on the hitch tongue at 45°. Missus car had one and it nearly did the job on its own..
 
So I got a another bike rack the other week as my old Gripsport rack was getting the wiggles up and flexing a fair bit, but after around 10 years use which I actually bought secondhand so can’t really complain.

I ended up buying a Rockymounts knock off hitch mounted style but it didn’t come with any lights, after seeing what the fines are these days plus points, I
to make a light board myself and order a number plate. After looking at the price of lights at Supercheap I was having second thoughts until I saw this on Pushys for $90, by the time I get some lights, wiring, make a mounting board etc it was cheaper to buy this.

www.pushys.com.au

RockyMounts LED Licence Plate Holder

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Anyway I got it delivered today ad says it will come with mounting hardware box says it doesn’t :rolleyes:
So I crack out the measuring devices and the drill, looking at the images online it looks like it would mount hanging low which will not work with my driveway. So I drill two holes in the base of it which align with the bolts of the cross bar, I slip in some spring washers and some loctite and bolt it into place. To make it look neater I put the wiring through the other mounting bolts, so it’s not hanging down then so it doesn’t get damaged or caught on anything when it’s getting put on and off I threaded the wiring through the pivot point so I had pull the plug apart slip through put back together then cable tie into place so I don’t trip on it when moving it. The lights and mounting plate are good quality the only let down is the plus which is a cheap plastic thing so may replace it later, now just waiting on the plate to be delivered so in the meantime I put some stick on numbers from Mitre 10 to keep the PoPo off my case, still may put some bolts though it for some extra support but I will do it once the plate turns up so it’s not just supported by the base alone.

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cammas said:
so in the meantime I put some stick on numbers from Mitre 10 to keep the PoPo off my case, still may put some bolts though it for some extra support but I will do it once the plate turns up so it’s not just supported by the base alone.
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I also bought the same light bar from pushys and one point to note is that the side lights that illuminate the number plate don't protrude too much. What this means is that ideally you want the plate to sit flush with the backing as much as you can or it won't be lit. I only found out after I devised a setup that could easily interchange plates but then realised the light didn't work!

Other than that thing seems simple enough and works a treat.
 
Calvin27 said:
I also bought the same light bar from pushys and one point to note is that the side lights that illuminate the number plate don't protrude too much. What this means is that ideally you want the plate to sit flush with the backing as much as you can or it won't be lit. I only found out after I devised a setup that could easily interchange plates but then realised the light didn't work!

Other than that thing seems simple enough and works a treat.
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My plate arrived not long after this post and I fitted it with the long bolts and behind the board itself I put some tubing for the bolts to slide through then into the frame of the bike rack and out the other side, so that the board doesn’t flex and if I was to back into anything it will not snap off.
 
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