Originally posted by waterlilli
Well ladies I need your help. I am looking for a better way to transport our bikes.
Hi Waterlilli,

We have a couple of different ways to transport bikes depending on whether or not we are also transporting kids/friends and their bikes. We are also a Ford family ... two Mustangs, an Escape and a '91 Ranger (that still turns heads!), two of our son's also have Ranger pick-up's, the third an Explorer.

We have a Yakima roof rack system that we have used for hauling our bikes but found that after a long day of riding it was very tiring to have to remove front tires and lift the bikes onto the roof. We looked at a number of the different attachments but did not like the way the bikes were attached to the hitch systems allowing them to swing.

At a bike expo last year we had a chance to view the Saris 'Cycle-On' system ... the Saris representative let us take one outside and attach it to our Ford Escape. After a few months of talking with people who had them (usually stopping people out in parking lots!) we bought one from our LBS. We've hauled our road bikes as well as our mountain bikes and are more than happy with the result. The bikes are held steady - because of their placement right behind the vehicle the bikes are relatively protected from rain, slush or whatever is *kicked up* by the tires.

What I really like is that I can now transport my bikes without have to mess with removing the wheels or resorting to putting my bike in the back of the Escape (or the Ranger).

We also have two bike mounts on a board where we can (front fork) mount two bikes on and transport them in either the Escape or the Ranger. I should add that we also have transport covers for road and mountain bikes when we carried bikes on the roof rack.

HOpe this helps

Cindy