Hi All!

My wife bought a new HAH (w/o navi) in March. We chose it because we
wanted another hybrid that had enough power to haul our bicycles
around on top. My 2003 HCH does not have enough power to do it
(...that story is on a different thread...).

This last weekend we used our new HAH for the first time to carry our
bicycles from Dallas to Fredericksburg, TX (near Austin in central
Texas). We use a Yakima roof rack. The bikes are a tremendous drag,
and a strong wind really helps/hinders depending on the direction.
The HCH simply couldn't effectively push the bikes through the wind at
70 miles per hour.

The HAH worked great! It had no problems hauling the bikes around.

The trip south was into a strong wind; a 20-30 miles per hour south wind is
common in central Texas. With the bikes on top, doing 70-75 miles per hour all
the way, interstate, flat, A/C on, we got 27 mpg. On the drive back
to Dallas, same conditions, we got just over 31 mpg. Overall was
29 mpg.

-Stewart

Hi Stewart,
My old 1992 accord with a 2.2L manual used to do the job nicely. I would drive from boston area to northern NH with bike and roof rack and still got 35-38 mpg's even going up/down hills/mountain passes. I was thinking about getting a trunk-mount bike rack for my HCH as it would probably not impact the FE as much as my roof rack...???

ralph_dog,

I would even suggest a hitch rack. That is what I have on my '03 HCH and it doesn't hurt too badly.

Billy