Traveling with Bikes

Has anyone traveled with bikes on a bike rack? We would like to put our bikes on the back of the minivan, but I am a little concerned of someone stealing or messing with them. We will be leaving St. Louis and staying a hotel in Kansas City, a hotel in Nebraska, a hotel in Deadwood, then have them with us for a week at the campground, and finally for one night in Sioux City. I don’t want to bring them into the hotel, but even if they are locked onto the bike rack, how secure are the really?

Traveling with Bikes

We are on a trip this very moment across the country with 4 bikes on a bikerack on back of our suburban. Traveled from Atlanta and 1st night was at The Drury Plaza in St. Louis. We backed into a spot and no problems at all. Husband has them locked on there as well,and also he rigged something so that the rack cannot be removed. Spent a night in Kansas at a Hampton and then even downtown denver and the bell boys kept it in front of the hotel as we used them during the day. Kept them off the bike at a causal place locked up in Colorado and we are now in SD and no problem. I worried about the same thing but it is working out.

Traveling with Bikes

thanks for the info and it%26#39;s good to hear that you haven%26#39;t any problems. i see people traveling all the time with bikes, i guess most people won%26#39;t mess with it.

I meant to add that we bought a bike rack from Softride and the reason is because you can pull back and lower the bikes to the ground while they are still in place so that we can open the back of the suburban. Also my husband told me to write that while in that position is how he added a 1/4 inch lock down the inside of the rack so that it cannot be removed by anyone.

cool. ours does tilt down as well, i%26#39;ll take a look at it to see if i can do something like that. i guess i never thought of anyone taking the whole rack, but you never know.

I have traveled across country with five bikes on the back of a minivan and we did not have any trouble at all. You can cable lock them to each other to make them difficult to remove, then get the locking pin for the rack.

We never got around to getting the locking pin, and usually forgot to sling the cable around them. People really weren%26#39;t very interested. If I was touring downtown in a big city, maybe.