The rear of many SUVS are vertical  and this provides quite a challenge for mounting some bicycle carriers to them, many bike racks for cars will not fit them. Bike racks for SUVs tend to be specialised for that particular type of vehicle but there are a few racks that can be universally mount. This article takes a look at the best types of bicycle carries for suvs and list them in order of usability.

Roof Mounted Bike Racks

Roof mounted bike racks really are not suitable for SUVs for a number of reasons, but the main reason is one of access. Because SUVs tend to be higher of the ground reaching the roof can be rather difficult, trying to lift a bike up this high and align it with the mounting points on the rack can be challenging ever for tall people. Using a roof mounted bike racks for SUVs increases the likely hood of your damaging your vehicle significantly. The other disadvantage of using a roof mounted bike carrier on an SUV is that it increases the height of the vehicle which can decrease fuel efficiency and restrict access to places. All in all roof mounted bike racks for SUVs are not a great idea, but if you have no alternatives take a look at the Thule bike racks article.

Trunk Rear/ Rear Mounted Bike Racks for SUV’s

Trunk mounted bike racks like the Bones Saris bike rack is not a bad solution but it is not ideal by any means. Trunk mounted racks usually fit to the rear door or sometimes in the case of Yakima bike racks to the rear externally mounted tyre. The problem with using a trunk mounted bike rack is that they severely restrict access to the rear of your vehicle so if you are planning a long road trip you need to make sure that you have everything you need in the cabin. The advantages of trunk mounted bike racks for SUVs through are that your can easily put your bike on the rack and this means no damage to you, your vehicle or your bicycles. In terms of cost, rear mounted bike carriers for cars and SUVs are one of the cheapest options.

Tow Bar/Hitch Mounted Bike Racks

Without a doubt the best bike racks for SUVs are those that fit to the hitch or tow bar and pivot out of the way – but they cost a lot typically around $400. These hitch mounted bicycle carriers for cars and SUVs give you the best of both worlds – they are easy to put bikes on, easy to take bikes off and you can get access to the rear of your vehicle. Obviously the big disadvantage is the cost but they do make a great type of bike rack for suv type vehicles.

If this is the first time your have even considered transporting your bike on your car then this article is for you. It’s a simple and concise overview of bike racks for cars, what you need to look out for, where they fit, how they fit and what may be best for you and your vehicle.

Car bike racks fit to the car in one of three places either on the boot – trunk mounted, on the tow bar – hitch mounted or on the roof – roof mounted.

Trunk Mounted (less than $100 or £65)

Trunk mounted bike racks are the most common and consequently the cheapest types of bike racks on the market. The way that they hook on makes them almost universal. Many bike racks for suvs are trunk mounted. The biggest advantage of rear mounted bike carriers for cars is that they are easy to load and easy to unload. There are two big disadvantage of rear mounted bike racks and that is they can restrict the view out of the rear window and you can’t open the rear of your vehicle when they are in place. If you can live with these restrictions the key features to look out for with these types of racks are:

• Wherever they come in to contact with your car there is rubber or vinyl present so they will not scratch or damage your car.
• You can fasten your bikes easily to the rack.
• The bike or bikes when on the rack do not come in to contact with the car.
• If the bike rack carries two or more bikes make sure the bikes do not rub together in transit and damage each other.

The saris bike rack – Bones comes highly recommended by many users.

Hitch Mounted ($100 – $450 (£66 – £300)

Hitch or tow bar mounted bike racks are obviously dependent on you having a hitch or tow bar. They tend to be rather more expensive than trunk mounted racks but do have some good features. In some cases they are low enough to not restrict the view out of your rear window and if you have enough money you can buy a hitch mounted car bike rack which pivots out of the way so that you can get access to the rear of your vehicle. A hitch mounted bike racks for cars significantly reduce the chances of bicycle scratching your car and also if you carrying more than one, damaging each other in transit.

Hitch mounted racks are expensive and if you don’t already have a hitch fitted unless you are serious about transporting your bikes the costs are prohibitive.

Please take note that with both trunk and hitch mounted racks if your number plate/license plate and lights are obscure you will need to get a lighting board to hang of the back of the rack – failure to do so could result in a fine…

Roof Mounted (less than $40 (£26) per bike if you’ve already got roof bars, if not add around $200 (£133) to that cost)

If you already have roof bars on your vehicle then roof mounted bicycle carriers for cars can be the cheapest way for your to transport your bike(s). Just find the contact details of the manufacturer of your roof bars to find the part number of the bicycle carrier component that you need to order.

Thule bike racks do a massive range of fittings to put bikes on the roof of your car. If your car does not have roof bars then you will need to buy a complete kit and this can work out to be expensive. As a quick overview to put bike on the roof of your car you will need the following:

• A feet pack – this is the part that connects to your car.
• The roof bars – Thule and Yakima bike racks do at least three different types between them some are square and some are a more aerodynamic shape that intends to improve fuel consumption.
• The Bicycle Mount – This is the part that connects the bicycle to the roof bars – there are many different types available; with some you will need to remove the front wheel of your bike and others the bike just fits on complete.

There are however two disadvantages of roof mounted carrier – one of which is really dependent on your vehicle. If you have a tall car with a high roof then getting your bike on to the rack can be a challenge and  second disadvantage is that your fuel consumption can go up as your bikes create maximum drag when they are placed on the roof.

This brief overview of bike racks for cars should set you on the way to buying that best bike rack for your needs.

There are many cheap garden sheds that can be found online and on the face of it buying cheap sheds may seem like the ideal solution. There are however a few factors that need to be taken in to account when choosing a cheap garden shed for storing your bicycles.  Bikes can be very expensive to buy and do require a certain amount of protection from the elements so buying the best bicycle storage you can afford should be a priority. This post takes a look at some of the ‘things’ that you should consider when buying sheds:

Materials

Many of the materials used on cheap garden shed are not of very good quality and this means that the timber will inevitable be some form of soft wood with plenty of knots in it. Unfortunately as the wood weathers and expands and contracts many of these knots simply drop out… and some of them can be rather large.

You will also find that to reduce cost that the timber used is cut down very thinly, this unfortunately means that the wood will warp over time and this can leave the contents of your shed to be exposed to the elements.

Construction

Almost exclusively, cheap garden sheds will be constructed from overlapped wood. This overlapped construction is nowhere near as good as tongue and groove construction and this means that the problem of thin timber warping is amplified. Worse still the wood does not only warp – it shrinks as well and large gaps between the cladding can open up.

Maintenance

Unlike plastic sheds, sheds that are made from soft wood will need treating annually with some form of preservative. Over the life time of wooden garden sheds the cost of doing this can add up to be significant and you may have been better off by looking at some of the plastic bike storage solutions offered by Rubbermaid sheds, which would last for 10-15 years without needing any form of maintenance at all. Suncast Sheds also do a range of cheaper plastic sheds which may be ideal.

Security

All of the above points really come down to the integrity of the structure of the sheds and this is directly related to the security of the contents of that shed. Cycle shelters should not only protect your bike from the weather they should also protect them from theft and I’m not sure that a cheap garden shed can provide the security that is needed for expensive bicycles. The cheap timber used warps, nails pop out and gaining access to bicycles stored in the shed is not a difficult task for even the most inexperienced of thieves. So if you have an expensive bicycle to store I would urge you to consider your options carefully. Take a look at your existing sheds and garages are you using the space effectively? There are many garage storage solutions that will allow you to use the space effectively and you could keep your garden shed for gardening equipment.

Buying cheap garden sheds to store your families bicycles in may seem like a great cost effective way of protecting your families bikes from the weather, preventing them from being stolen and freeing up some space in your sheds and garages. But, before you part with your cash just take a couple of minutes to read through this article as the money your about to spend on storage for your families bicycles may be better spend on a solution that costs a little bit more. Here are three reasons why cheap sheds are a false economy:

Regular Treatment

The biggest problem with cheap sheds is the materials that they are made from, this was dealt with in the cheap garden sheds post, but to summarise cheap sheds are made from cheap materials. Cheap materials tend to be knotty soft wood which need regular treatment  to prevent it from rotting. Wood preservative is not cheap and if you have to do this every year then the costs soon add up.

Replacement Shed

Having any item that is made from a material that rots means that you are eventually going to have to replace that item, and if you have to buy a shed every five years or so that can add up to be significant. This is why plastic sheds can work out to be much better value than cheap sheds that are made from timber. Rubbermaid sheds and Suncast Sheds both make economy plastic sheds that would rival the cost of cheap storage sheds.

Locks for Bicycles

The main area of false economy of using cheap sheds for bicycle storage perhaps comes in the fact that they are not very secure. If you garden is not enclosed then you bikes are at risk a cheap shed made from cheap timber will warp, gaps will open up, knots will fall out and they can be very easily broken in to. Therefore to prevent your bikes from being stolen you would be well advised to lock your bikes up – inside. Now you don’t necessarily need a lock for each bike but even one bike lock can work out expensive and you would have been better off investing that money in a bike storage shed that was secure. The very fact that you may need to lock your bike up inside a cheap shed is also a great inconvenience. If each time you take your bike out you need to unlock it.

To summarise, cheap sheds are not a great solution for storing bicycles and they really would be best avoided. If you can’s afford a plastic shed or better quality bicycle storage solution I would advise you to save up a little longer until you can, because it really would save you money in the long run.

Rubbermaid sheds are well know for producing plastic sheds and home storage solutions in the USA but  the unique factor of Rubbermaid storage sheds is that they address the problem of bicycle storage in a modular way. This modular bike storage system means that if one of their sheds is big enough to store a bicycle then the chances are that you will be able to use one of their storage systems to keep your bike safe and sound. 

Cheap sheds simply will not cut it when it comes to storing your bicycle in a way which keeps it from falling over or taking up unnecessary floor space in your shed. These cheap garden sheds offer no way of being able to fix or hang your bike from the walls and this is a big short coming in their bike storage ability. You would probably be surprised to learn that even some of the bigger manufacturers of plastic sheds like Suncast Sheds do not have any accessories that allow for storing bicycles in their sheds. Unlike regular sheds and garages you cannot simply screw a bracket in to the wall of a plastic shed as it will not support the weight of a bicycle regardless of how light it is.

If you buy a Rubbermaid Shed you will not have to deal with these problems – sure it may cost a little bit more than a cheaper brand of shed but if it does what you want it to, prevents your bike from damage and stops your bike from being stolen then it is money well spent. So how do Rubbermaid do it then?

To start with you will need to buy a Rubbermaid storage shed, they come in all sorts of sizes and shapes from full size shed to lower horizontal sheds. Once you’ve decided on the space you have available and the size and style of shed you want you can take a look at the accessories available. Most of the accessories revolve around their Rubbermaid FastTrack Rail – this rail fixes to the side walls of the shed and allows a variety of attachments to then be fitted to the shed wall. One of the accessories that you can but for this rail is the Rubbermaid 5E03 FastTrack Horizontal Bike Rack and this will allow you to support a bike from its top tube and free up valuable floor space. The bike rack is rubber coated so it will not damage your bike in any way. Rubbermaid also produce the Rubbermaid 5E02 FastTrack Vertical Bike Hook that will allow you to hang a bike from its front wheel – if you have a number of bikes to store then this could be a more space efficient solution than the horizontal bike rack particularly if they are smaller children’s bikes.

To conclude this post a Rubbermaid garden shed is one of the best sheds on the market due to the fact they  produce purpose designed bike storage systems that are easy to fit and more importantly easy to use.

If you are a design aware individual that’s in to cycling you may well be drawn in by the stylish good looks of the the ‘Bones’ Saris bike rack. This bike rack looks like no other bike rack and is therefore instantly recognisable, but is it a case of form over function or does this Saris bike rack perform as well as it looks?

Materials

Most rear mounted bike carriers for cars follow the same format of having a fabricated tubular steel frame or some aluminium extrusions hinged by some glass reinforced plastic mouldings but the saris bones bike rack deviates away from this norm. Unlike thule bike racks the Bones bike rack is made completely from plastic and not just any plastic – it’s made from recycled plastic so it’s environmental credentials are as good as looks.

Durability

Now you may be wary of a cycle carrier that is made from plastic – you may associate plastic with being week and not up to much, but this a myth than needs dispelling as there are now many plastics and plastic composites that are as strong if not stronger than metal. A massive advantage of plastic is that it will not rust or corrode in any way, meaning that your new bike rack will remain in the same condition you bought it in for years to come. As a testament to the bones bike rack Saris offer a limited lifetime warantee – a rarity.

Function

So far, so good, it looks good, is environmentally friendly and comes with a limited lifetime warantee, but how well does it work, after all, the design of products isn’t just about how they look it’s about how people interact with the product. Well, user reviews have been glowing. Unlike some bicycle carriers for cars this bike rack takes in to account that many cars have spoiler and the high arch design insures that it will fit over these. All of the bones racks including the Saris bones 3 bike rack are trunk mounted and like all trunk mounted bike racks for cars this means easy loading and unloading of bicycles. The arc based design not only ensures that it will fit most vehicles it also means that the bikes are staggered on the rack and this makes it very difficult for the bike to rub together and damage each other. Ratcheted rubber straps secure the bike to the rack and thick rubber feet and vinyl coated hooks fasten the rack to the vehicle. Like many bike racks for SUVs and other vehicles wherever there is any point of contact with either your bike or your vehicle there is rubber ensuring that nothing gets damaged.

The Conclusion

The Saris bike racks are perhaps the most revolutionary products to hit the car rack market and competitors like Yakima bike racks should be worried. This rack is going to have massive appeal to the design aware, environmentally conscious consumers that are growing in numbers. It functions as well as it looks and has green credentials to match.

Not everybody has enough space around there home for dedicated cycle shelters and most of us have to make the best use of the space available in our sheds and garages. In many cases that will mean using a bike rack in the garage to free up floorspace which can then be used to store other items or bicycle related kit. There are many garage bike storage ideas but simple rack is often the quickest and most convenient to install, this article takes a look at wall mounted bike racks for garage use.

Fixed Wall Mounted Bike Racks

The most common types of bike racks for garage use are the fixed type, the reason for this being that they are the cheapest and on the face of it look the most robust. Most of these bike racks will have two arms and are fixed width – the bracket is then screwed to your garage or shed wall using either one or two screws. For storing children’s bikes or laddies bikes – which have sloping top tubes – you may like to consider the option a bike rack which comprises two individual arms. Having the flexibility of individual arms means that you can position them on the wall in the best location to suit the frame of the bike.

Fold Up Wall Mounted Bike Racks

This type of garage bike rack makes the best use of space in your garage when the bike is on and off the rack. When the bike is on the rack the floorspace of your garage is preserved and when the bike is off the rack you can fold it up to make the most of your garage space. One of the best selling racks on Amazon is the Racor Pro PSB-2L Double Folding Bike Rack which regularly gets great customer reviews.

Wall Mounted Bike Racks with Shelf

Although rare these types of bike racks for garage use make great use of the space in your garage. The are between the two arms of the rack is bridged usually by a wire rack and it this part that makes up the shelf part of the rack. Because the bike rack is already taking the weight of the bike you definitely wouldn’t want to over load the shelf – but it will easily take the weight of a pair of cycling shoes and a helmet.

The above bike storage racks are ideal solutions for sheds and garages as long as you have a solid wall or a solid timber baton to fix the racks to. Plastic sheds will not support the weight of a bike and if your garage wall is dry-lined then you may need to look at a free-standing bike rack and this brings us on to the final type of bike rack.

Free-standing Bike Racks

Bike rack garage storage solutions do not come a lot more simpler than a free standing rack. A simple rack will not save you any space but it will prevent your bike from being knocked over. If this low effort way of storing bicycles appeals to you though you may be pleased to hear that you can get free-standing bike racks that will store up to four bikes and this does make excellent use of space.

Efficient bicycle storage not only makes the best use of the space in your shed or garage but also preserves your bicycle by preventing it from being knocked over and also stop people from being injured by a falling bike.  The above bike racks garage storage solutions all solve this problem in a very efficient manner.

Suncast Sheds are well renowned for producing high quality plastic shed for the domestic market but are they suitable for storing bicycles? Plastic sheds are ideal for people that want a low maintenance outdoor storage solution for their home. Suncast sheds require no treatment and provide a weather proof low maintenance way to expand the storage area of your home.

As it has been discussed in many other articles on this site the best bicycle storage solutions are those that keep the bike safe from being knocked over and ideally keep the bike off the ground so that you can use the floor space beneath it. It is therefore disappointing that Suncast sheds have not included any method of putting a bike on the wall of their sheds. Regular bike racks for garage storage solutions will simply not fit securely to a plastic shed wall. However this is not a reason to totally discount Suncast sheds for storing bicycles – If you can get over the fact that they do not have a wall mount system for bike storage and you are prepared to either lean the bike against the wall or buy a free-standing rack they are very good.

A quick visit to Suncasts website reveals a staggering amount of of sheds and garages on offer, from low horizontal storage units to more traditional forms like apex sheds. You will also notice that there are a range of accessories that do allow you to fit things to the walls of their sheds such as shelves and tool storage systems – but no bicycle storage options… and this is where their competitor – Rubbermaid Sheds – has the advantage, because they offer both horizontal and vertical methods of storing bicycles.

Some people are put off buying plastic sheds because the feel that they are hard to fix should something break or wear out. If you are considering a plastic shed thought you will be pleased to hear that even the cheap sheds that Suncast sell come  with a large number of spare parts which can be ordered separately. A comprehensive diagram of each of the sheds in their range shows the full list of spare parts available so they are easy to identify and order.

Cheap garden sheds made from overlapped soft wood may seem cheap on the face of it, but when you take in to account the maintenance required each year and how long they will last you may well have been better of opting for a more expensive Suncast shed in the first place.

There are now many plastic sheds on the market and the advantages of them are clear; they are easy to install, often come with bases built in and they require little or in many cases no maintenance throughout their entire life.  But the main question that needs to be answered is are they suitable for bicycle storage?

To provide adequate bike storage a shed ideally needs to be secure and this is where plastic garden sheds can fall short of the mark. The security of plastic bike sheds do leave a lot to be desired and I wouldn’t recommend using a plastic shed to store valuable bicycles unless the shed was located in a secure garden in the first place. Plastic sheds do come with secure locking points but the main problem lies in the fact that they could be cut or quietly melted in to if they were in a public location. For the home bicycle storage market – where the shed will be located in a garden – a plastic garden shed will suffice, however not all plastic sheds are the same.

As discussed in many others posts on bicyclestorageguide.com to make the most  of sheds and garages you need to maximise the amount of free floorspace and this means storing your bikes off the floor. Keeping you bicycle off the floor also means that they will be less likely to get knocked over or fall over and injure somebody. Many cheap sheds will not provide any way to hang a bicycle off a plastic wall or suspend it from the ceiling to prevent it from being knocked over and this is a major shortcoming of plastic sheds. Even some well respected brands like Suncast Sheds do not provide any internal fixings for storing bicycles. Rubbermaid sheds on the other hand do have a system in place where you can fit a horizontal or vertical bike rack from their walls using an accessory rail – these are perhaps the best plastic sheds for storing bicycles.

In conclusion to answer to the question can you use plastic sheds for storing bicycles; yes you can, but I would really only recommend doing so if the shed is going to be located in your back yard or garden which is already locked. Cheap garden sheds that don’t allow for wall or ceiling based bike storage systems can still be used but you will have to live with the fact that the bikes will take up valuable floorspace and could easily get knocked over. For commercial application the use of plastic sheds would be unwise as it would probably not stand up to the rigours of heavy use.

Thule is perhaps one of the best known manufacturers of bike racks for cars and other vehicles in Europe. Thule bike carriers come in many different options raging from simple ‘hook on the back of your boot lid’ type to more complicated models which fit to the tow bar or hitch of your vehicle and pivot out of the way to allow access to your boot. In essence though Thule bike racks can be broken down in to three main categories:

• Roof Mounted – usually using a roof bars system
• Back Mounted – these usually clip on to the boot lid but there are some bike racks for SUVs in there range that fit to the rear door.
• Tow Bar/Hitch Mounted – this will fit to any vehicle with a tow bar or hitch.

Many vehicle will accept all of these types or bike racks and each of them have their advantages and disadvantages. See the article the pros and cons of rear mounted bike carriers for cars for more information, and the post the pros and cons of bicycle carriers for cars that fit on the roof for the advantages and disadvantages of roof mounted systems.

Thule started life as a company in Sweden and this is perhaps the reason why Thule is known as ‘The’ brand of bike racks in Europe. If you asked someone in the UK if they had ever heard of a Saris bike rack they would probably reply with who are Saris? Thule really does dominate the European market for load carrying systems for cars with over 60% of their income coming from European countries. All of that said Thule do have a number of offices serving north America and the are relatively well known in the States, the problem that they have in the USA is competitors such as Yakima bike racks and the aforementioned Saris.

Thule are by no stretch of the imagination a cheap manufacturer of bike racks, but what you can be assured of when you buy a Thule bike rack is that your money could not have bought better. Their bike racks are extremely well made and are very durable, to back this up all of Thule’s products come with a 5 year guarantee. All of the Thule product range comes with clear instructions which are very easy to follow and a good range of accessories and spare parts.

Perhaps one of the biggest benefits of the Thule systems is their flexibility in terms of usage. For example if you bought a roof bar system you would not just have to use those roof bars for carrying bicycles – there are many different types of accessories you can buy that will allow you to carry all sorts of equipment from skis to canoes. So although Thule products may seem expensive to initially they do carry out many functions and could end up saving you money.