9 bike element: LoadWarrior + Hitchfork

[biocube]

I regularly take long road trips to mountain bike, so I've assembled what may be the ultimate hauler: four on the hitchfork plus five up top.

i suppose i could get a four more inside if i didn't take those darn passengers!

here is the whole setup with six bikes. note that there is one empty slot on the hitchfork and two up top:

[biocube]

the specifics:

up top i have the yakima 58" bars. in the center is a LoadWarrior, and mounted outside on each end is an anklebiter. on top of the loadwarrior are three Boa mounts. Boas are great since they only have six inch bits on either end of the basket, leaving the center free to load bags (under the bike frames).

[biocube]

more details:

i have the anklebiters facing forward, and the two outside boas facing backwards, with the middle boa facing forward. and there is still space for two fork wheel mounts. this means that only two wheels need to go inside (one from the boas, one from the hitchfork).

on the hitchfork (sorry, i'll try to snap a pic later), i have it arranged so that i can lower the tailgate to put on shoes when we ride. and yet it still flips up next to the back when empty to make parking easier when its unloaded.

from the door:
hitch-hitchfork with the bars extended as far to the rear as they will go
about six inches then an old long tray fork mount facing driver side
six inches then a lockjaw facing passenger side
six inches then a raptor facing driver's
at the end an anklebiter facing passenger's side

its tight on the hitchfork with four bikes, though. one time i mounted a friend's big downhill bike on the anklebiter i had to remove one of his honking big platform pedals to get the bike to fit.

[DOGBOX]

They may fit spatially, but you have well exceeded the weight limitations.

[jonatuna]

dude - who cares about weight limitations- that's cool! I just want to know 2 things: 1. How do you four guys ride 2 1/4 bikes each. 2. are you're bike rack payments higher than your car payments?

jonatuna

Originally Posted by DOGBOX

They may fit spatially, but you have well exceeded the weight limitations.

[biocube]

1. five other people go in a sedan without racks.

2. thankfully, over the years i've found great deals on used yakima gear. for instance, i got the hichfork with three boas for $125 from someone who had used it twice. i got the loadwarrior for $150 (with cargo net) from someone who had used it once. i got unused ski racks (not pictured) at goodwill for $4.50 for the buttondown6 and $3.50 for the buttondown4.


as for the weight, yes, i figure i ran the last trip up to Moab at about 1300 lbs of passengers/gear. ran fine, a little sag in the back, but not much (maybe a 1.5" drop). handled well, cruised at 85mph except up the steep mountains where i needed to drop to 70mph and fourth gear. braking just fine.

[k00k]

How much do you guess the hitchfork with 3 or 4 bikes weighs in at?
Thx,
-k

[biocube]

i would guess the hitchfork and four bike attachments is around 60lb and four bikes @30lbs avg, so 180lbs.

with the element fully loaded, about 1300 lbs gear/bikes/passengers, it definately was low in the back, but i had a good view of the stars!

[beachhearted]

That's totally weird that you can get away with loading your E like that and it still handled well and braked fine. I loaded mine up last summer with three downhill bikes in the cargo area, one passenger besides myself, and lots of gear (most of lightweight clothing and padding), and noticed a definite difference in handling and braking power. I felt like there was a small train behind me when I was trying to brake on steep inclines. Not that I felt anything was wrong with the handling, it's just that I had to drive more carefully on those twisty mountain roads, as one would expect. If it was safe to drive with that much weight, be sure that Honda would be advertising it.

You might want to check out some of the info on ESUVEE.com, such as:

“Overloading your vehicle may lead to premature tire failure or tread separation at high speeds….”

[biocube]

well, i guess each person has their own experience, but i've taken about ten 500+ mile trips loaded to the gills, and all has been fine. i do allow more time to slow, and acceleration is a bit 'sluggish', but that is true in any loaded vehicle.

of course, i try not to exceed 90mph on the freeways, and drive slowly on the off-road portions of the trip.