TR6 Bike Rack

 

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We've had assorted bikes over the years and just bought two new Cannondale Hybrids as a Mother's & Father's Day present to each other. I've always wanted to be able to "toss" the bikes on the TR6 and take off for a day trip that involved biking but I was never happy with my bike rack solution. I had one of those trunk racks that I thought could be adapted to mount on my luggage rack and trunk. Once I got it all hooked up, the ground clearance for the bike wasn't great, the exhaust pipe was at bike tire level and............... it just didn't look solid or confidence building. So I posted a message to the 6-Pack Forum and asked if anyone had come up with a bike rake for a 6. Francois, who makes some great TR6 accessories, responded with pictures showing his bike mounted to an axle fork hitch that attached to his roll bar. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm........ I don't have a roll bar but I do have a wind blocker that spans the width of the car and a bunch of Thule bike rack parts from year's past. I needed to order two axle fork hitches and two wheel carriers. I found them at www.JensonUSA.com but any decent bike shop should carry them. The most common brand name is Delta though there are others out there.

So here's my collection of purchased and "on hand" parts: 3/4" plywood base, 1"x1" aluminum tube, two axle fork hitches, two wheel carriers, two straps and two Thule bike carries....... more on that later.

Components

So now that I figured out what I wanted to do and had the needed parts, it was just a "matter" of measuring, fitting, testing, fitting, measuring, fitting, painting and assembling!

These are the Delta axle blocks that I bought. They even accommodate a padlock.
S/S hex bolts and a fender washer to spread the load over the aluminum bar.
And nylock nuts to hold it all together.
The aluminum bar mounts under the wind blocker brackets and utilizes the windblocker's mounting points. I only had to buy longer S/S hex bolts.
Here's the wind blocker in place with the bike rack mounted under it. The bolt in the middle of the wind blocker is explained below.
After doing my initial test mount of the bikes I noticed some slight flex in the aluminum bar. Seeing as the wind blocker frame is very ridged, I decided to drill and tap the bottom of the frame and use a bolt through the rack's tube (red arrow) and screw it up into the frame (yellow arrow). The double nuts ensure that the it won't flex and slap against the bolt's washer.
I also added these thumb screws to the ends of the wind blocker frame.

OK......... that takes care of the front part of the rack. Now for the supporting pieces for the rear of the bike. I had an old Thule upright bike rack that mounted on the car roof with the bike's tires sitting in a U-shaped metal runner. The bike rode in an upright position just like I wanted for the TR6. Even better, each runner was made up of two 32" pieces bolted together and that worked perfectly for my needs. I just unbolted one and had my two runners.

Here's a rear view of the runners bolted in place.
And here's one from the side
These are the Delta wheel hitches that I bought.
These are the captive nuts that I used for the runners and the wheel hitch. I don't remember the correct name but you drill a hole in the wood and hammer them in place. They have prongs that get driven in to the wood and when you screw in to them they draw up even tighter into the wood. I wanted a flat bottom to minimize any damage to my luggage rack.
These are from the old Thule bike rack. Not much more than a fancy u-bolt.
I used them as a way to secure the board to the luggage rack. The first picture in this series has a good shot of them screwed in place.

Now that it's all together, it was time for a final test run. Everything was nice and solid up to the 60 mph that I hit on the local main drag. Definitely more wind noise but I was expecting that. Now if we can only get the sun to shine we'll take off for our first TR6 bike trip!

Side view
Rear View
Fork Attached
Ready to roll if the rain ever stops!