carrying two electrics bikes

If I fitted a rear wall bike rack to my 2013 EK Nuevo, would it be strong enough to carry two electric bikes? At the moment, I carry two standard weight bikes on a tow-bar mounted bike rack, but may need to start carrying a couple of electric bikes in the near future. Anyone had experience of carrying electric bikes?

It would be plenty strong enough Allan, but looking at your age (and making fairly obvious assumptions) I wouldn't recommend it.

I used to carry our electric bikes on a standard Fiamma rear wall rack, which is rated at 80kg so no problem with the carrying capacity.

The real problem is lifting the bikes up there. I'm tall and still quite fit, but it was becoming a real struggle, and putting on a cover was next to impossible without a set of steps.

So I bought a towball mounted bike rack, and heaved a sigh of relief. Enough said?

If your existing bike rack is not suitable, a Thule (or similar) towball rack would be cheaper than buying and having a Fiamma rack fitted.

Halfords often have them on offer, and we find the Thule one perfectly satisfactory. Our bikes have travelled to the South of France several times without a single problem.

Much cheaper, and infinitely more elderly user friendly! It was getting to the stage that we didn't use the bikes very much because it was too much of a struggle to get them down and back up. Now it's dead easy, and takes seconds!

Hope this helps

I've had a BH Evocross electric for 5 years. Its a great bike but weighs 28kg. I can lift it up the steps into the van, I couldn't lift it onto a rear wall rack but have (just) been able to lift it onto a tow bar mounted rack.

In November I took delivery of a Ribble electric (model name is hybrid), it only weighs 14kg and I could easily lift it onto a rear wall rack.

The message is: what is the weight of the bikes you intend to procure? I think that two x 28 kg would be too much for even a tow bar mounted rack.

Hi Allan, we went the other way, using the Fiamma wall mounted rack when we had one ebike and one regular bike. When moving to two ebikes we felt that the lifting would be a problem, and discourage  us from using the bikes as much, so had a tow bar fitted and bought a rack -Atera in our case. Our bikes weigh about 22kg and this rack is manageable to lift them onto. It also feels more stable when driving on motorways with strong cross winds, and is far easier to put a cover on the bikes. Like Gromit our bikes are well travelled in Europe.

Peter’s bike is very light for an ebike and certainly worth a look depending on what type of bikes you are thinking of and if you wish to use the wall mounted carrier.

...and adding a metre or more in overall length, think ferries..
A 6.36m PVC becomes the same length as a 7m+ coach built as far as driving/parking is concerned.
Our previous 7m Bolero had a rear bike rack which, when loaded, effectively put it in the 8m class for ferries, not good.
Hence, we have a van with a garage that keeps our ebikes clean, dry and safe and the van is 6.4m long whether we carry them or not.

Having owned a few vans and carried e-bikes I learned the following:
Lifting bikes into the garage of the van can be a royal pain due to the lifting position stance. You end up pulling your spine to one side. You can use a ramp but it's still a bit of a faff  moving the bike in the  garage.
Lifting bikes onto a rear mounted rack can be a heavy lift but you are standing upright when you put the bike on the rack. Yes it's a pain to fit a cover too.
Lifting bikes onto a tow ball rack is the easiest.  You can also use a ramp. Fitting a cover is easy but you may end up rolling around on your knees.
Regardless of what you chose, remove as much excess weight from the bike as you can. Battery, luggage etc.
The majority of racks are rated at 60kg max load.

I bought a folding electric bike which will easily fit inside whilst travelling although I will need to make some for of restraining system to hold it in place.

I have seen (only once) in France a system where a standard looking bike rack was able to be winched up and down to ground level.
The sort of accessory that you might imagine would be popular, especially given the age profile of motorhomers.

Davy

Can you not remove the e-bike batteries & store inside van during transit, then surely the weight is similiar to a normal bike?

TeamRienza wrote:I have seen (only once) in France a system where a standard looking bike rack was able to be winched up and down to ground level.
The sort of accessory that you might imagine would be popular, especially given the age profile of motorhomers.

Davy

Fiamma do a wind up version.

E bikes are still pretty heavy even without the batteries...they still have heavy electric motors (hub/crank) usually along with many extras over a road bike like lights, pannier rack, mudguards etc
however, they aren't difficult to walk into the garage, just lift the front wheel of the first bike and ease it in there...we have a Fiamma clamp on the rear wall and a wheel 'trough' so the bike can really only go in the same position every time. Second bike, rear wheel first, ying/yang job done.
I've also seen a guy using the wind up type Fiamma, he had a drill which wound up the tapes, easy peasy (as is the towball type rack) but it depends if youre happy with the extra length and weight distribution as Ian mentions.
One thing that's a no-no for us is to have 'outside' stuff inside the van, and bikes are definitely outside stuff....where would you put them securely....and certainly not in a 'delicate' place like the washroom....

mikee wrote:Can you not remove the e-bike batteries & store inside van during transit, then surely the weight is similiar to a normal bike?

Sadly not. My current bike is my fourth in 10 years and they have all weighed in the region of 20kg with all the bits such as batteries removed.The motors, crank in the current case, are not removable. When my husband had a ‘normal bike it weighed about 13kg as opposed to my then hub motor bike that was 21kg. 

Peter’s bike at 14kg is a good option.

My Ribble uses a MAHLE Ebikemotion X35 M1 250W electrical installation that is very light and the battery permanently located inside one of the frame tubes. Its all controlled by pressing one button on the top tube but can also run a mobile app with all sorts of features, a link to data record of a recent ride below.

https://www.ebikemotion.com/app/route.php?url_shared=e6e53b34db421dc5e1b883e29deeabdc911dbd90

Go to the tab with map and charts.

Islabikes use the same motor system and their bikes are a similar weight. They have a step through frame but are £500 more than the Ribble.

We had one of these fitted when we bought electric bikes and it has been worth it's weight in gold for ease of use. It also results in a noticable difference to the ease of handling of the van when loaded with bikes. Not cheap but worth it. It can be moved onto another van if necessary and removed altogether if you don't take bikes with you. It folds up neatly when no bikes are carried.

https://www.alko-tech.com/uk/velo-iii

Try this with an ordinary Fiamma bike rack. It does make it a lot easier.  Lift the front wheel of your bike and position it on the end of the rack- quite easy to do. Get your partner to hold the bike wheel in position and then lift the back wheel onto the rack, while your partner is guiding the front wheels along. Strap it all down and repeat with the other bike.

Flyingv58 wrote:

TeamRienza wrote:I have seen (only once) in France a system where a standard looking bike rack was able to be winched up and down to ground level.
The sort of accessory that you might imagine would be popular, especially given the age profile of motorhomers.

Davy

Fiamma do a wind up version.

This one (see the -E version):

https://www.fiammastore.com/Fiamma-Carry-Bikes-For-Motorhomes/Fiamma-Carry-Bike-Lift-77

I had a Dave Cooper towbar-mounted rack for a Yamaha 125 that I carried on a previous van. It was simple, secure, dismantled easily into 3 pieces, and sat at a suitable height for loading/unloading. He makes other models for bikes. Worth a look. Here.

Our two folding e bikes sit quite high as Fiamma carrier mounted on the A/S recommended strengthening points. These compact bikes are reasonably easy to lift (19 kg each excluding battery) from ground level onto each transverse rail. A step ladder to then secure fixings and put on cover.

Being in a rather mischievous mood, I need to ask Paramedic where he stows the stepladder ?
Keith

KMRTOPAZ wrote:Being in a rather mischievous mood, I need to ask Paramedic where he stows the stepladder ?
Keith

Fortunately, there is cavernous storage under the fixed bed also gained by outside locker. The four rung step ladder is a very lightweight aluminium. Ok, so our Broadway FB has only a 305 kg user payload. However, loaded with all our stuff including Kampa 330 XL Motor Rally Pro Air Awning, weigh bridge registered 3460 kg and axle weights below legal maximum. If course these readings are on!y achievable because the fresh and grey waste tanks are empty when travelling.

TeamRienza wrote:I have seen (only once) in France a system where a standard looking bike rack was able to be winched up and down to ground level.
The sort of accessory that you might imagine would be popular, especially given the age profile of motorhomers.

Davy

 We had one fitted to our Nuevo from new - fitted by AS before van delivered to selling dealer. It's great. I bought a cheap drill from Argos; that copes with lifting the 2 (ordinary, but heavy Danish bikes ) on to the van. Easy to lift bikes at ground level on to the rails.  Don't think I could manage to lift to an ordinary rack these days.
Cymro

Right - thanks for all your advice everyone - I think I know what I'm going to do now. The beauty of this forum is that you can learn from everyone's experiences and wisdom - great stuff! many thanks!
Allan

We have two electric bikes on a 2019 Broadway EB - we fitted a tow bracket when we bought it preregistered - we use a Thule bike rack the combined weight of our two trek e bikes is around 50kg and the rack is about 14 kg or so.  It is much easier putting the bikes onto a tow rack which is permanently locked onto the Moho when touring.  The disadvantages are the impact on the back axle weight limits although this applies to any bikes on any racks carried on the back (or in a garage). 
We certainly wouldn't be able to put a wall mounted rack on our Moho. 
Interesting post and reply tips - as newbies - it is always good to learn new things - thanks everyone. 
steve 
'wherenexthun'

That 64kg (50+14) slung out back of the van probably adds about 100kg to the rear axle. 
With a starting bare payload of just 470kg, even adding OH and fresh water brings this down to 300kg. 
Depending on the rest of the load balance, without the bikes I expect the rear isn't too badly loaded....with just a washroom at the rear (no outside storage capacity for heavy outdoor kit there) I wouldn't have expected the rear axle to be overloaded, but adding that 100kg probably makes it worthwhile getting to a weighbridge, in full touring trim (OH, full water, gas, any awnings, levellers, mats, books, chairs, tables, bedding, clothes, pots, pans, food, wine/beer, toolkit etc, etc) just to be on the safe side.
As ever, the above list of stuff (even for two) amounts to a fair old chunk of weight.
Good luck.