Alko Velo III bike rack fitting question

We have a 2014 EK Broadway and have just bought 2 electric bikes. We'd like to replace our standard Fiamma bike rack with an Alko/Sawiko Velo III bike carrier as soon as possible.

http://www.al-ko.co.uk/pages/velo-iii.html

This is proving more difficult, because of finding suppliers and fitters, than we anticipated. Has anyone had one of these fitted and could tell us of their experience ?

Hi Quilter, just to congratulate you on your choice of cycle carrier. Perhaps something we will consider in the future when we find it more difficult to lift the electric bikes aloft onto the fiamma. Will watch your progress with interest. Regards

I'd not hold your breath Paramedic ! It's a much slower and more complicated business than we thought with all details needing to be passed via Germany . The one fitter of the 5 recommended does not do them any longer and the other 5 trade about as far from us here as is possible in UK. 

It looks like we will have to heft them onto the Fiamma for a while yet as we are only at the beginning of the process.

Nowhere near answering your question Quilter, but if you have a tow bar (?) have you looked at Thule towball mounted carriers?

I won't bang on about them, since there's little point if you don't have a tow ball to fit one onto - but they do seem to be pretty good, and LOW TO GROUND!!

Dave

P.S. At £742 before fitting (presumably) theAlKo model is not cheap.

Another thought is a wind up Fiamma rack with a cheap rechargeable drill. It has a maximum load of 60kg so should be OK for your bikes, and at about £463 it might be a "second best" alternative if you have no joy with the AlKo model.
http://www.leisureoutlet.com/caravans-and-motorhomes/Motorhome-Cycle-Carriers_2/Fiamma-Carry-Bike-Lift-77-Motorhome-Bicycle-Carrier.html?gclid=Cj0KEQjwoau9BRDMvsnv5MCh24UBEiQAKOqcfV0wfeRXA1jtcJGnuydoh0dIG7U7bur-Ud7VErkBOuAaAsjw8P8HAQ

P.P.S. Tell your other half that he won't find that little blonde girl in the box!!!

No Dave: no towbar. The great thing about the Velo one is that it simply slots in the relevant slots in the Alko chassis and can be removed or folded back when not in use. It's designed by the people who made the chassis to fit it but needs careful measurements by the chassis makers before they will specify the parts.

Just added to my previous post before seeing your reply.


The Fiamma Carry Bike Lift may fit onto your existing fittings?? Might make it even more worth considering?

We've investigated the wind up ones and took the van down to get an opinion from our dealer. We'd have to remove the Fiamma rack already on, seal the holes and then have 4 more fitting points drilled. Two would rather fill my top kitchen lockers. It would also effectively block the view from the kitchen window. We like to have than when driving as well as when on site.

All in all a non- starter, even with the blonde thrown in for free ( can she cook and clean ??

Yes, we wouldn't want four more holes drilled in our van to even facilitate the rather impressive 'Thule Lift' carrier (£516). Pity that there appears to be no UK importer of the Alko Velo 111 at present?

Quilter wrote:All in all a non- starter, even with the blonde thrown in for free ( can she cook and clean ??

I'm sure she's a girl of singular talent - but I rather doubt if it includes those particular services!

Paramedic wrote:Yes, we wouldn't want four more holes drilled in our van to even facilitate the rather impressive 'Thule Lift' carrier (£516). Pity that there appears to be no UK importer of the Alko Velo 111 at present?

Alko UK do have them but they need all sorts of info about the chassis extensions and van undersides before they can supply them. They do not have our van on their database  so we have to take measurements and send them via Alko UK to be mulled over. They will then, we hope, give us the names of a fitter and supply him with the bits. 

We did not know it was going to be more complicated than " yes please, we' ll have one of those and can X in Warwickshire fit it". X in Warwickshire are no longer doing it and the choice seems to come down to Plymouth, Aberdeenshire, Doncaster and 2 others, equally far away we think. 

We wondered if anyone else had got one and how easy it was to get done.

Just about to pick up a couple of electric bikes to rack on the back. About 23kg each with the batteries, removing the batteries reduces the weight to about 3 kg each so with a rack loading of 60kg we should be alright, next thing will be how to hold them on as they are not like the conventional cross bar bikes.

Redwink wrote:Just about to pick up a couple of electric bikes to rack on the back. About 23kg each with the batteries, removing the batteries reduces the weight to about 3 kg each so with a rack loading of 60kg we should be alright, next thing will be how to hold them on as they are not like the conventional cross bar bikes.

We can slide the "holders" to each end of the top bar and grip the saddle stems. I expect most bikes are pretty similar in shape so you should have no problem.

Worth having a ratchet strap around the bikes and the top bar - just in case those nasty ridged plastic straps should break or slip. A friend of ours heard a hell of a bang as he drove along, and upon stopping to check he found his outboard bike hanging upside down by the wheel straps.

Dave

Dave Thank you for the information, especially about the ratchet strap, even though I lock them on with D locks. Looks like a trip to Toolstation

No engineering required Peter. The two arms slide into the chassis members already there- see website. The rack is designed, by the same people who designed the chassis extension,  to take a mass of 75 kg and the two bikes we have bought weigh 46 kg together. 


We'd take the batteries off in transit so in total about 40 kg. The rack weighs 16 kg, including the two arms that go into the end of the chassis.  Since we will remove the old rack and we have no rear steadies (13 kg) the mass on the rear axle will be less than it is at present with our two push-bikes.

Certainly the weight of towbar and attendant fixings would be considerably more and I would be concerned at the weight distribution.

The design ensures a much better load distribution across the whole rear of the van than with a towbar and there is no drilling into the fabric of the van.

Thinking more about the bike rack, which looks good. I wonder if a couple of chassis extensions bolted or welded under the Nuevo  I have to the exact width of the slots for the bike rack would work?

I have been trying to source an Al Ko chassis mounted bike rack for weeks. I have recently seen an article/advert in a motorhome magazine extolling the virtues of the Alko systems. I have made enquires with a number of outlets. Even contacting the UK website of Al Ko who put me in touch with a company from the west Mildlands. Bottom line ? for a Velo 111 system fitted to a 6 meter, three year old motorhome, with small rear garage go on have a guess !   just over £2,000.00p I for one am now looking else where.

Just an update:

We had an Alko/Sawiko Velo 111 rack fitted by Heart of England Motorhomes ( Buckby Wharf, Northants) in August last year and it has carried our 2 electric bikes very many miles since then. 

We are delighted with it. It makes getting the bikes on and off a doddle, is as stable and solid as a rock and, my OH reckons it improves the van handling over the much higher Fiamma one we used to have. Since it is fitted to the chassis it does not involve holes in the van walls. The old Fiamma rack holes are safely covered.

We can recommend Heart of England without reservation. It took all day for it to be fitted but they have done a very neat and professional job. We were loaned a car to visit Canon's Ashby House and we enjoyed walking along the Grand Union Canal. We found a very pleasant farm CL about 5 minutes away for overnight.

Alko were helpful too; there is a lot of measurement involved, as parts are custom made, before they send the parts to the fitters and this is something that we had to do.

Not cheap but it does exactly what we want it to do and makes life with the electric bikes even easier. It was under £2000.