Thule trunk bike rack + e-bike = okay?

[seinberg]

We don't have a car - that's what motivated the post in the first place. If we owned a car, I would install a hitch mount on it. We live in Manhattan where it costs more just to to park a car than a mortgage in most of the rest of the country and where frankly a car is more of a hassle than a help. We rent cars as needed and rarely have the pick of whatever car we want - when we need a car to visit family and friends in nearby states, we're lucky to be able to get a minivan for the family let alone a car with a hitch suitable for installing a bicycle mount. A trunk mount is essentially universal, and we have the most heavy duty trunk mount available with a 100lb max limit.

In the rare circumstance we transport the bikes with us on these trips, we'll use the Thule which has shown -- now several times -- to be perfectly suitable and safe despite being 6lbs over the per-bike limit (well under half the overall limit). Others on this thread -- and many others I've come across since posting this -- also regularly do this with their ebikes with no issues.

Some people pay attention to the letter of the "law", some people understand the spirit and use good judgement. I'm the latter, going so far as to slowly experiment and ramp up use on local slow speed trips prior to a "real" drive.

Anyway, I'll leave you with a panorama I took this morning on an e-bike ride in Amish country in Pennsylvania. Cheers, and have a great 4th!

 

[opimax]

happy fourth to you too

 

[JRA]

Just make sure your tires are well away from the exhaust outlet....or you may hear a loud bang while driving

 

[TaraBara]

I just ordered a bike rack....because I would not think about hanging my Ebike on a rack that doesn't meet the weight requirements. Search on Amazon for the Overdrive Sport 2 Bike hitch mounted bike rack. It's the least expensive $250 ebike rack I could find. I'll let you know if I like it.

UPDATE...……….. I really like this bike rack. China did a great job copying the $440 dollar Hollywood Ebike rack. This rack is identical. It is really sturdy and does a great job securing my ebike. The price is very good considering what is out there.

 

[seinberg]

Hopefully final update. We did take the ebike on that Thule rack probably around a dozen times, including on multiple several-hour car drives, but in the end the hassle of renting a car got the better of us and we bought a car (after attempting to do without over for the past year or so). We had a hitch installed and I got a rack designed for ebikes that's pretty fantastic. So now everybody who worried my bike would fly off at high speed on i95 can rest easy

 

[johnriggins410]

did you buy this bike off gazelle's website? thinkin of gettin one. 48lbs is awesome. my st1 is 63lbs. and lifting it onto my thule platform is killer. is there a lighter ebike than yours on the market?

 

[seinberg]

did you buy this bike off gazelle's website? thinkin of gettin one. 48lbs is awesome. my st1 is 63lbs. and lifting it onto my thule platform is killer. is there a lighter ebike than yours on the market?

I bought it in Brooklyn at Propel (great shop!). There are a few smaller ebikes that are lighter, like the GoCycle line of bikes, but I don't know of any full sized bikes in the class that's as light as the Gazelle.

 

[opimax]

I will sleep better thank you , you will probably drive easier too

 

[CSH]

I just ordered a bike rack....because I would not think about hanging my Ebike on a rack that doesn't meet the weight requirements. Search on Amazon for the Overdrive Sport 2 Bike hitch mounted bike rack. It's the least expensive $250 ebike rack I could find. I'll let you know if I like it.

Hi Tara,
Don't you have a step thru LaFree ?
If so........ where do these Hooks contact your bike ?

And how securely has it held your bike ?

Craig

 

[JES2020]

Here's an update with actual data after experimenting with trunk-mounting the ~42lb e-bike. It was a success! It's completely secure and doesn't budge even at 80-85mph on the highway. I also went quickly over some speed bumps to get a lot of bouncing going on and the bike doesn't move. It's really firmly in place. I had a person at the local bike shop double-check it and he recommended a couple of heavy-duty bungees to keep the wheels/handlebars stationary and to add a bit more security to the attachment to the rack (which I did, just in case) but said even without it'd be fine.

See attached image. There are a total of 8 straps holding the bike in place, which frankly is probably overkill but better to be on the safe side - five rubber straps keeping the bike frame close to the arms of the rack, one of which is vertical and four are on the horizontal downtube; two heavy-duty bungee straps holding the frame and wheels stationary, which are also wrapped around the center of the rack; and finally, one nylon strap holding the pedals stationary and also wrapped around the rack. The rack itself is literally locked to the rental minivan -- once the straps are secure, you lock it into place with a key so nobody can mess with the configuration without the key.

Suffice it to say, the bike will be fine.

That's the thing, you can always add straps, ropes or even cables to secure the bike, even in the event of a structural failure.
Also you can put flags at tension points so you can see, while you are driving that the tension is still holding the flag in place, so everything is secure. I did this with my motorcycle on a 400 mile trip without insident. I mounted the front wheel to a bumper fork mount I designed and had welded and let the rear wheel free spin on the ground. If you use your God given brain, many so called "impossible" things turn out to be not so impossible.

 

[PatriciaK]

Hi Tara,
Don't you have a step thru LaFree ?
If so........ where do these Hooks contact your bike ?
View attachment 39719
And how securely has it held your bike ?

Craig

We have a similar-looking setup. The hook goes over my seat on my La Free.

 

[JES2020]

Hi all,

I've got a Thule Raceway PRO 3 that has a weight limit of 100lbs. It has a per-bike weight limit of 35 lbs. I would like to bring my Gazelle CityZen T10 Speed on a trip with me, and it would be the only bike on the rack. It weighs about 48lbs with the battery in, and around 41-42lbs without the battery (which I can stow in the car). What do folks think about the realistic risks of putting the Gazelle on there to bring with me on a ~3.5 hr car ride? The ride will be almost exclusively on Interstate 95 between NYC and Pennsylvania with a few last-mile roads on either end. I've brought two bikes each with heavy Topeak seats + racks on similar drives in the past and it's been totally fine (see attached photo). I estimate that the mountain bike probably weighed around 33-34lbs with the Topeak seat on it. This time it'll just be the Gazelle.

Thanks.
Dave

That's quite the load on the Prius. One advantage is, you have an extra seat for the baby.
Just need to be careful going under bridges.