wheels

[gardener612]

Bezean, Your site is most helpful and informative. Thank you for it. I am considering buying a 2008 Honda Civic after first having considered the Volvo C30. The C30 comes with a fabulous bike rack which attaches to a trailer hitch and has a platform on which the bikes sit and then a clip-on piece which attaches to the top of the bike frames. It doesn't appear that Thule or Yakima have the same set up although they are similar. My goal is to carry a tandem bicycle, putting warning flags on the ends which stick out (are wider than the car itself). I am getting too old to lift it onto the top of a vehicle!
I also thought that the platform could be modified to carry extra luggage which was securely strapped to it!

My question is this: do you know if I could have the bicycle holder designed for the C30 attached to the new Civic? If so, are Volvo dealers the only ones selling them?

[Bezean]

I took a look at the Volvo website to see if I could see a picture of the hitch rack you describe, but could not find it. Without seeing it, or knowing exactly what it is, I am not sure if it could be adapted to the Civic, or if an aftermarket alternative exists.

My guess is that it interfaces with a conventional trailer hitch, which would mean either via a flat bar, a 1-1/4" reciever, or via a big bolt through a conventional tongue. You may be able to put a trailer hitch on the Civic and then attach the Volvo rack to it, but you would need to know the details of how the Volvo rack attaches.

So, you will need to find out the details of this Volvo rack to know if you can put it on a Civic or if there exist similar alternatives...

[gardener612]

Thanks Bezean. In the meantime, I discovered that the bike rack for the Volvo was a Thule Easy Base 949, easy bike 948 and easy basket 948. However, it's only sold in Europe. I called Thule in North America and they said don't even try to mix a North American trailer hitch with the bike racks designed for Europe. He cited wind drag and how that adds to the weight that a Civic is designed for and also made me worry that the whole thing might fall off on the highway. What do you think? There might be a way I could get one while traveling in France this spring if you think the North American hitch and the European bike rack ensemble could work together.

[Bezean]

The first thing to remember is that any hitch for the Civic is only going to be a Class I at the most. I found my Class I flexed considerably with two bikes on it, never mind three. I ended up only using it occasionally for one bike when I needed to carry a third to compliment the two bikes on the roof. The issue is tongue weight, and if the Thule is a bulky rack, the weight of the rack itself will only compound the problem. By the looks of it, the Easy Bike might be a bit bulky. Tough to tell from the pictures, though, how much it weighs.

The other big variable is how the rack connects to the hitch. Flat bar? 1-1/4" receiver? If you had the hitch for the Civic already you would know what the car has, but it sounds like you don't have the car yet. Once you know what the hitch looks like you can try to determine what racks will fit.

I would give Rackattack a call to see what options they recommend.