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Bike Rack Mods</a> | <a target="_self" href="!287301!4th-gen-t4rs/287301-y=mx-bs-build-thread.html#directory" >Return to Directory</a>
So a bit back, I mentioned that I bought this Saris bike roof rack second hand to take a bike to Illinois with me. It has one single bike rack and one tandem bike rack. Each bike sits in a little tray, that runs front to back of the car, and sits on roof rack crossbars that mount to the factory rack.
The single rack uses one (1) of these arms (pictured below) to both secure the tray to the front crossbar and to hold onto the bike frame. To mount the tray to the rear crossbar, there is a little block that goes between the tray and the crossbar
The tandem bike rack uses an additional arm instead of the rear block, to hold onto the longer frame, for a total of two (2) arms. The tray for the tires is identical in profile, just longer for a tandem bike. The problem is that the arms have no way to secure them when a bike isn't attached, so on a normal sized bike, the rear arm would be flopping around.
The goal of this project is to replicate the functionality of the rear block, so I can mount two single bikes on the roof
Arm left, block right
So here is the final product! Aluminum flat bar and stainless hardware, so rust won't be an issue. Two bolts are used instead of a T-section to keep the tray straight. The top/flat aluminum piece was slightly undersized because I had initially made bends in the bottom piece that were too sharp, decreasing the overall span. When I flattened it out, the bottom piece got longer, so it looks a little funny. Still works and I'm using pretty limited tools here and didn't want to make another if this one still worked. May trim down the ears to get them to the same length, but that would just be for aesthetics
Additionally, the previous owner lost a piece of a small bracket and replaced it with some bent piece of soda can. I didn't like that, so I made a little replacement piece out of some left over aluminum
