Notwithstanding Rule #25 on looking for a new car it seems a good idea to try to get my bike(s) inside the car when we are travelling. Previously I’ve either laid the bike on top of the luggage or removed the seat post to fit the bike upright in the car (an estate / station wagon). That’s not too bad when travelling with my Vintage bikes but on a Carbon bike I prefer not to be removing the seat post too frequently.
It helps being on the shorter side of normal but it still seemed to be a bit of a challenge without buying a MPV or SUV. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could (just) achieve the required result in a Golf Estate.
First step was to acquire some brackets to support the forks and fix these to a board that attaches to the back of the seat. I have both QR and Through Axle for my main buddy’s bike.
Next I have to remove the load space floor over the spare wheel. This comes out easily in the Golf.
Conveniently there is a recess over the spare wheel where it appears that VW may have intended putting a lower load compartment. I have cut a sheet of Ply with slots for the rear wheel.
With the bike firmly attached by the fork bracket and that in turn attached to the child seat attachment point in the back of the rear seat, the whole is nicely secure. You can also get a disc fork version of the mount.
Not only therefore, do I have a technical avoidance of Rule #25 but also with the bike inside the car it is considerably more secure (I hope) when I’m travelling and better for the bike vs laying it on top of our luggage. Finally I can load 2 bikes in the car without laying one on top of the other.
