Bike Rack on old car?

[HotRodJen]

Howdy im jen .. newbie on the site .
already looked up on the board about trunk Bike racks and looked up the sites of the names that were mentioned .. i drive a 72 nova .. and the trunk is styled alot diff. then the newer cars of today mine has a slope back to it .
was wondering if anyone knew what i could do, if anyone has a car with a trunk like it . or if anyone had a late 60's early 70's car at one point in time with a trunk bike rack?
i have 2 big bikes that i can not fit in the car and would like to take them out and about with me
and im not about to put a roof rack on the car lol

 

[johnny nightwolf]

You can go to Walmart and get a Bell 2 bike rack that'll fit pretty much anything. It doesn't look cool, but I've used the same rack on a '56 Buick sedan, a '56 chevy wagon, an '84 Cutlass, and a '99 civic (woo!) without any problems at all. It'll pretty adjust to anything. I don't think you'd have any problems mounting it to a Nova. And the price is right at about $40 bucks if I remember right.

 

[62Higgins]

If you put an 1 1/4" or 2" receiver hitch on it the possibilities are a lot better. Hitch mount racks don't care how old your vehicle is...most of the newer ones practice "age discrimination."

62H

 

[HotRodJen]

If you put an 1 1/4" or 2" receiver hitch on it the possibilities are a lot better. Hitch mount racks don't care how old your vehicle is...most of the newer ones practice "age discrimination."

62H

i really dont think im about to put a hitch on the car that would be really odd .. .ill think about it though lol

 

[benz]

I can vouch for the bell rack, if you are willing to fiddle with it, it'll work. If not, try one of these http://www.1aauto.com/1A/bike-rack/Chev ... 39/853268/

Seems steep to me, plus it looks like the bell rack.Hope it halps.

 

[tlaing1]

theres a good amount of racks out there that should fit, I got one at my LBS and it was fine on my Falcon.... I think it was a Yakima.....


I'm not much help beyond that

 

[sensor]

whats in the trunk? couldnt you pull the front wheel and or the bars and stuff it in?(only saying this as ive been known to do that with mine in an accord :lol: ) its a little bit of a pita but it works....

 

[GTCOMA]

For about 100 bucks you could get a Saris Bones rack. they are pretty flexible on what they will fit

 

[Firewalker]

I agree with 62Higgins....but do not think of the kind that you have seen on old grandpa's truck!

there are ones that are small and discret, called "Hidden Hitch"
http://www.hiddenhitch.com/

the trick will be to do some measuring and to find out which one best fits between the rails. I'm sure if you give them a call and some measurements, they will hitch you up! :roll:

whats nice about this is type is that it tucks just under the rear bumper :mrgreen: I had one on my old Hot Rod

good luck
FW

 

[mtrhed]

i had the same problem with my 63 studebaker, not so much that the trunk rack didn't fit well but that it looked really uncool. so i talked to some people and one of my friends has a rack on his car that mounts on top and ataches by the drip rail. fits well and looks much cooler. might be hard to load the bikes on depending on how tall you are and how tall your car is, it works well for me because my car is soooooo low. might be worth looking into.

 

[HotRodJen]

i had the same problem with my 63 studebaker, not so much that the trunk rack didn't fit well but that it looked really uncool. so i talked to some people and one of my friends has a rack on his car that mounts on top and ataches by the drip rail. fits well and looks much cooler. might be hard to load the bikes on depending on how tall you are and how tall your car is, it works well for me because my car is soooooo low. might be worth looking into.

well im 5'3" and really tiny .. and the car is normal hight but theres no way im lifting balloon tire bicycles over my head so im stuck with the trunk racks think in the next month ill be buying that bell 2 for the car see how that works for me thanks for the input

 

[user 3630]

That Bell rack at Wal-Mart is such a great deal at $39.00 that I'll have to get one to replace my mine so I dont have to paint it :wink: :

 

[41DX]

At 5'3" I agree you are probably a bit short for comfortably using a roof rack.
but what about the style factor?
That old Nova would just look way cool with a roof rack......

Welcome to the forum, these people are awesome here. A lot of help with projects, and ideas, and true artists with their builds... but certainly form over function in a lot of the thoughts and projects.....

Enjoy the weekeknd,
T

 

[GodHatesCleveland]

well im 5'3" and really tiny ..

Careful, the natives are getting restless. We're just one HotRodJen pic away from a full scale prison riot...but with bikes.

 

[Multipass]

If you can fit one to the Nova, a hitch mounted rack really is the way to go IMHO.
I'm using a hidden hitch and one of these racks on a Spec-V:

It's the Sport Rack "2EZ" http://www.sportrack.com/a30901

I went with this style system because
A: The paint on my car scratches if you look at it wrong, you can imagine what a trunk mount would do to it :x
B: Two Schwinns can weigh close to 100 lbs and I'm not real comfortable hanging that much weight off the trunk lid
C: It holds the bikes very securely. This is what really sold me on it. And it fits everything from a Stingray to a cruiser to a full suspension mountain bike.

The downside is that it's rather pricey. The hitch and rack cost almost $400 CDN - OUCH!

-Mp

 

[Firewalker]

I'm using the same set up as Mp but I was able to get my rig for under 200 out of Mountain co-op

FW

 

[aka_locojoe]

I too think the hitch mounted rack is the way to go although it would be expensive buying hitch and rack. Maybe just spend your money on a truck

My hitch rack has held up fairly well. I did find out if you don't get the top bar clamps/holders tight they will raise up if you hit a bump. Happened to me. The bike fell laying flat only being held in by the velcro straps at the tires. After that incident I started really torquing down those knob bolts but then ended up stripping them. Now I always bungee everything together as a precaution.
One draw back is the 3" wide tires don't fit well.

 

[Multipass]

I'm using the same set up as Mp but I was able to get my rig for under 200 out of Mountain co-op

FW

It pays to shop around, that's for sure. In my case the hitch alone was Just under $200 and the rack was the same. MEC's rack is slightly less expensive, but they didn't have it in stock when I bought my set up.

The hitch mount racks that hold the bike by the top tube are a lot less money, like this one from Walmart:

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product. ... d=10812000

-Mp

 

[Boardtrack fan]

I know trailer hitches are not very attractive but they do help with weight transfer to the rear wheels at the drag strip!

 

[HotRodJen]

the hitch mount right now for me is out of the question my gas filler is behind my lisence plate car gets 9-10 mpg .. i would have to load and unload the car very often while traveling with the bicycles . car is in primer for now so think ill go with the trunk rack for now . when i paint it maybe ill take out that crazy cam and put something more economical in it so im not filling it up all the time .. damn kids and there muscle cars right lol
but thank you to everyone with there input