Bike/luggage racks

Our Symbol has a door mounted Fiamma bike rack and a tow ball. We already had a Thule bike carrier which will fit the tow ball.
We would like to carry two bikes on the Thule and use the Fiamma rack to take a luggage container for bulky but not too heavy stuff. This would save lifting heavy electric bikes above shoulder height! However, the door mounted rack is a bit too low to allow our bikes to fit below it. Does anyone know if the Fiamma rack can be raised on the door a little to allow the necessary clearance, or whether the fixing positions are set by the nature of the doors?
Thanks in advance.

Eric

Can't help with your question but welcome to the forum   

Eric Underwood wrote:Our Symbol has a door mounted Fiamma bike rack and a tow ball. We already had a Thule bike carrier which will fit the tow ball.
We would like to carry two bikes on the Thule and use the Fiamma rack to take a luggage container for bulky but not too heavy stuff. This would save lifting heavy electric bikes above shoulder height! However, the door mounted rack is a bit too low to allow our bikes to fit below it. Does anyone know if the Fiamma rack can be raised on the door a little to allow the necessary clearance, or whether the fixing positions are set by the nature of the doors?
Thanks in advance.

Eric

Are you using the Thule for electric bikes?
The reason I ask is I've witnessed one collapsing with the weight of an electric bike!

PB

Hi PB,

Thanks for the warning.
We have used the Thule successfully on our car with one e-bike and one pretty heavy push bike.
More to think about, though.

Eric

Eric Underwood wrote:Hi PB,

Thanks for the warning.
We have used the Thule successfully on our car with one e-bike and one pretty heavy push bike.
More to think about, though.

Eric

Eric

The ally box section tube actually folded completely down with the weight of the bike.
I don't know the weight limitations however.

PB

Thanks to those who offered advice on our "problem".
We now know that it isn't possible to change the mounting position of our Fiamma bike carrier.

Having decided to buy a second e-bike (So I can keep up with my wife!) we looked into a suitable tow ball mounted rack as the combined weight would exceed the load weight of our Fiamma door mounted carrier and our existing tow ball mounted Thule previously used for 2 ordinary cycles.

We searched on line and found that Thule had a variety of carriers but were unsure which would be best for us.
Luckily we have a very good company nearby, Western Towing, so we took the Symbol down to their Exeter base to discuss the options.
The advice we were given was excellent, especially the fact that not only did we need to consider the load bearing weight of the carrier but also the total nose weight on the towing ball, which varies with vehicles, a fact we had not seen on any of the rack suppliers websites.
The result was that we now know that we could not carry much more on the door mounted rack even if it was possible to raise it above bikes on a tow ball (which it isn't because there is not enough room to move the bars across the windows)
We decided on a Thule VeloCompact925 carrier which will carry two e-bikes and have a total weight within our nose weight limit.
Western Towing did not have one at Exeter but got one from their Newton Abbot branch the next day.  When I went to collect it they unboxed it and made sure it fitted our van and that we knew how to use it correctly.
It just shows that you cannot beat the personal service and expert knowledge that specialist companies can provide.

Having removed the original door mounted rack we bought our second e-bike from Axcess (sic) Bikes of Honiton yesterday and are looking forward to using them both as the weather improves.

Hello and from Leicestershire. Sounds as though you about ready for the off. have fun.