How to Build a Homemade Bike Carrier

By The Mother Earth New Editors
Published on July 1, 1986
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The carrier's main framing members are just two 4 foot lengths of 1 inch square aluminum tubing furnished with suction-cup feet and sturdy eyebolts.
The carrier's main framing members are just two 4 foot lengths of 1 inch square aluminum tubing furnished with suction-cup feet and sturdy eyebolts.
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Though the basic frame dimensions we've supplied should suit just about any vehicle, the positions of the suction cups and eyebolts should be adapted to your car.
Though the basic frame dimensions we've supplied should suit just about any vehicle, the positions of the suction cups and eyebolts should be adapted to your car.

Reprinted from MOTHER EARTH NEWS NO. 88.

To the avid bicyclist, pedaling — to just about anywhere — is a way of life. But even those among us who may be on the verge of sprouting a crankset and wheels have an occasional yearning to strap the ol’ velo to the family car and take off in search of some new cycling territory.

The most elegant and secure of the commercial bicycle racks are the rooftop models. Yet, considering their cost, they’re not all that complicated. In fact, roof bike racks so closely resemble conventional drip-rail-mounted utility bars (equipped with a few accessories) that research staffer Dennis Burkholder decided to attempt his own low-budget rendition of the high-buck haulers, using readily available materials to create a homemade bike carrier. (See the image gallery for a bicycle carrier diagram with instructions).

How to Build a Homemade Bike Carrier

And as you can see in the accompanying photo, Dennis’s efforts to build a homemade bike carrier were successful both in form and in function. The carrier’s main framing members are just two 4 foot lengths of 1 inch square aluminum tubing furnished with suction-cup feet and sturdy eyebolts. These bars are secured to the roof’s drip rails with straps and gutter hooks (we were able to locate a ready-made kit at a discount auto supply store).

To cradle and support bike tires of whatever dimension, Dennis sliced a 6 foot piece of 3 inch Schedule 40 PVC pipe lengthwise and fastened each half to the top of the square framing bars. To allow room for two bikes to stand side by side (and to make the frame of a size to fit snug on nearly any auto top), he spaced the pipe sections 30 inches apart and centered the aluminum bars 37 inches from each other. A 46-inch-long conduit — run on the diagonal and screwed to the frame — keeps the assembly square.

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