Has anyone put a bike rack on the roof of a Civic Hybrid? I know that there will be some mileage impact, but without the fold down rear seat, I have no easy way to get my bike around.

Any advice on the most aerodynamic and/or best looking rack?

Anyone done it and have mileage impact data?

Terry

 

I've seen quite a few HCH's with various items on roof racks (kayaks spelling?, bikes, luggage) I know someone has the answer as I remember it being mentioned.

I think Thule was mentioned before as well as being most people's top choice. This is just going off memory - I could be wrong.

 

Although we'll be using our 03 Honda Element for camping and biking, I use to have a Yakima roof rack/bike rack on our 93 Accord. http://www.yakima.com/home.html As I remember, mileage impact was neglibile. With it loaded we got 30 mpg on the highway. Without it we got 31 - 32 mpg.

 

i wonder if the HCH is significantly smaller than the regular 93 civic. i once took a long trip out west in that car, and in order to keep the trunk for my bags, i put the bike in the back seat, without folding it down. i think i just needed to release the handle bars and twist them to the side a little........

on edit, unless i am thinking of my 85 accord, which at the time was about the size of the present civic. guess i shouldn't speculate before coffee.

 

Seems like it would cause too much strain on a car which already has a bare minimum power configuration.

 

We used to use a roof basket-Yakima Loadwarrier-to carry stuff with the Honda Pilot.We made 2 trips-3000 miles roundtrip-from New Orleans to Flagstaff with it.With the basket loaded it was about 4-5 sq ft in frontal area(39" wids and about 1-1.5 ft tall).The pilot is about 30 sq ft in frontal area(roughly).We got 16.1 average mpg on those trips.I finally got smart and built a carrier I could suspend from my swing out bicycle carrier(I needed the swing out feature because the dogswent in and out from the rear).The mpg on the next 2 trips was 22.2 and 22.4-a huge improvement.
I'm guessing the Pilot has about a .33 drag coe-the roof basket 1 coe or maybe more than 1. The Pilot would have ~10 sq ft of effective frontal area without the basket-with the basket ~15 sq ft.We went about 37% farther on each gallon without the basket.
The lesson I got from this was to tuck things behind the vehicle and as close to the vehicle as possible-keep stuff off the roof,if possible.I would try to find a rear mount for the bike-a hitch mount maybe?Thanks.Charlie

 

This isn't answering your question, but I did just take a mountain bike down to my daughter in college, and it really wasn't that difficult to slide it into the rear seat after I had removed the front wheel. It fits pretty well with the back tire in the foot area of the back seat, and the body angled up and tilted back towards the rear seat.

Hopefully that makes some sense...

 

We're talking about a bike rike, not a horse trailer here. The net affect of adding the bike rike would be like adding a passenger to the car.

BTW, I find the HCH to have ample power.

 

Hi Terry,

I'm new to posting to the forums, although I've been reading them for some time. You question struck a chord with me. I have a 2003 HCH. I also have a Yakima rack that I adapted to mount on my HCH roof. I have rails for 3 bikes, but I usually only haul 2, my wife's and mine. I used it to haul bikes exactly _once_. I drove from Dallas down to Austin for a 2-day ride in the Texas hill country near Fredericksburg and Kerrville. That's about a 4.5 hour drive. Here in Texas in the spring we have strong south winds. The HCH simply could not handle the added resistance of the bikes, and it was _significant_ at 70 mph. The battery indicator went to zero and pretty much stayed there when I was going 70. On the trip I ended up getting about 25 mpg overall and the car really, really struggled to maintain speed. (Without the bikes on top I get about 45 mpg overall.)

Now I'm looking for a Hybrid minivan where I can put the bikes inside. I keep waiting on Honda or Toyota to introduce it...

-Stewart

 

I will give what experience I have hauling bikes around with my '04 HCH. I have a hitch rack on my car. I normally just haul 1 bike around town, it does not seem to impact the mileage as far as I can tell. I took a 30 freeway drive with my 1 bike. When I got above 60 there seemed to be a significant hit to mileage. I saw it drop at least 1 MPG on the trip, where normally I see it climb 1 on the same trip. On the way home I took back roads and the impact wasn't as great.

FYI. I installed the hitch receiver myself, it wasn't that difficult. This just seemed like the best option to me since I could move the rack between the Ody and the HCH.

Billy