When I bought Donk The Subaru it came with some heavy-duty racks. In fact, the racks were worth half of what I spent on the car. In the past, many of the cars I've had came with roof racks, but I never really used them. I don't have kayaks, or roof-top tents, but I do have bikes.
Now, the issue--I don't have the cash to fork out for a good roof-top bike rack.
I did a little checking and found some cheap racks online, $50 to $100. But, some of the reviews of these products are not good. In fact, many are downright terrible. Turns out you get what you pay for. But, in my search, I found something that caught my eye...an inexpensive alternative.
I thought I'd give it a try.
First, I needed a fork mount. Usually you put these things in the bed of a truck. You hook the front tires in the mount (that's secured to the truck bed...) and you're good to go. An enterprising individual took the mount and attached it to a roof rack, and voila! Cheap bike rack.
I picked up a mount. Mine cost $30. Next, I bought two u-bolts for $5 each. Following the instructions from the cheap-bike-rack guy, I stopped by our Local Cycle Shop (actual name...) and picked up a couple of ruined bike tubes. I cut up the inner tubes, wrapped them around the rack, them secured the mount to the rack using the u-bolts.
It worked...
Kind of.
The problem was the back tire of my bike did not rest atop the other rack. I needed a plank. I didn't have any metal strips, so I grabbed a length of hardwood flooring leftover from when we built our house and attached it. I need to get it stained or painted or swapped out for a metal track.
And there you go--a cheap bike rack. Now, to put it to good use.
No comments:
Post a Comment