Very nicely done,
cooper58!
Some may scoff at how important an item like this can be. I used to be among them until I watched my then-wife drive into our garage with three bikes on a Thule roof rack, which peeled/sprung off in one giant mass. Thankfully, this was back in the days when cars had rain gutters, and none of the bikes showed a single mark! Even the rain gutters on the car weren't marred. However, the aluminum crossbars were rather bent, and I seem to recall one of the feet needed to be replaced.
Mind you, I chalked this up to the rather large collection of flaws
that woman possessed, until
I did nearly the same thing a few years later. Again though, still back in the rain gutter days, so I had the same relatively harm-free result. Except for my
ego, of course! There always has to be at least
one witness to such an absurd stunt, right?
After those two strikes, however, I went with a rear hitch-mounted rack on subsequent vehicles. Now, I can put the bikes
inside the Element, and have none of those worries. But for those who "live dangerously," yours is a very elegant solution. Kudos.