Date:         Wed, 29 Mar 2000 13:32:01 -0800
Reply-To:     bpchristensen1@HOME.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Brent Christensen <bpchristensen1@HOME.COM>
Subject:      Re: bike racks and stickers
Comments: To: "Blake C. Thornton" <thornton@MATH.UTAH.EDU>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Blake:

I went through the Bike Rack angst last year.  I finally settled on a
Paulchen unit from Steve at eurocampers.com

Pretty spendy, but for me it was the best solution.  Steve also has Fiamma
units for about 1/2 the price of the Paulchens (I think), and they seem
decent.  I love the ease with which I can stick the bikes on the back of the
rack and go.  Plus, the rack doubles as a cooler carrier when not bringing
the bikes.  I think that you will find universal agreement from those of us
with the Paulchens that they are the best way to go.

The big problem with mounting something on the roof is the overhead
clearance.  I know that if I mounted bikes up there I would eventually ram
them into a Taco Bell drive through.  I reasoned that that would end up
being a LOT more expensive than buying the Paulchen.  I even have a spare
Yakima set up with all the goodies sitting in my garage, and the rails
installed on my pop top - I only would have had to buy new cross bars.

Brent Christensen
'89 GL Syncro Westy
Santa Barbara, CA



----- Original Message -----
From: Blake C. Thornton <thornton@MATH.UTAH.EDU>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2000 12:41 PM
Subject: bike racks and stickers


> Stickers:
> I love the idea of prepaying for stickers.  We may not know which sticker
> we are going to get, but if enough of us contribute and a couple of us
> volunteer to get the stickers made, we could have stickers.  I love the
> idea of prepaying.
>
> -----------------------------------
> Bike racks:
> I'm quite sure this has come up, and I'll look in the archives later, but:
> I would like to make a bike rack and mount it above the luggage rack.  I
> may have to have my bike stick out over the hood a bit or mount the bike
> sideways.  But, this design would allow me to still use the pop top and I
> would not have to drill holes into the pop top and have those worries.
>
> Has anyone done this?,
> Perhaps a better question is: has anyone tried this and failed because
> its a stupid idea?
>
> Any ideas on doing this?  I really haven't thought about it too much, nor
> have I looked at other bike racks to see what is involved.  If I ever get
> my butt in gear and do it, I'll post some photos or something.
>
> Blake
> Salt Lake City