Bike Racks And Yaris

[brayn99 0]

Hi,

I've just returned from a trip to France, about 2000 miles of motorway driving. I used two different bike racks and carried one bike out and brought two bikes back.The first rack was a Saris Bones 2 bike carrier and carrying one bike I clocked about 63mpg over 600 miles. I then swapped to a Halfords Hi bike carrier and had two bikes and, over a 320 mile trip, got 46mpg. I thought something was wrong! The bikes protruded over the back of the car by about 200mm. I then changed to the Saris carrier with two bikes and got about 56mpg over the next 600 miles (no protrusion at rear). Back home, no load and no bikes and back to 62+mpg.

Anybody had similar experiences? I suppose on the France trip the total extra weight of bikes and gear would be equivalent to carrying two extra passengers.

[JB052 0]

Are these roof mounted racks or the type which mount on the rear tailgate?

I use a couple of roof mounted racks and they usually reduce the mpg by about 10.