Thought I'd share with you photos of my hitch and roof rack setup.

Here I carry six full-size bikes. I have the MiniFini hitch, which although very strong, I don't recommend carrying four bikes in the configuration I have here. I use a 1-1/4 to 2 in adapter, and combined with the long rack, creates a huge lever. The weight of four full-size mountain bikes is probably 200lbs at least. I have since shortened the rack, and ordered additional struts from MiniFini to provide additional hitch mounting points to the car frame to stiffen things up.





You can see just how far it hangs off the back.


Folded position. Covers entire back of car.




With no bikes.


No problem accessing the hitch from the second position on.


Two bikes is no problem. I carry at least one bike pretty much all the time, and up to four bikes several times a year. I won't normally have the two bike extension attached, so it will look like this most of the time.


Folded looks a lot better without the two bike extension.




Here's what's since been shortened - the new receiver hole is now about a third of the way past the edge of the yellow sticker. The hitch adapter is from Harbor Freight Tools. This one works better than the other one I have. You'll see why in the next image.


I had to grind down the square edges of the adapter to get it to fit without separating the bumper too much. Other adapters will not even allow you to get it in far enough to bolt it up because of differing lengths and hole positions. This one goes in easily now. You'll see why I did not cut more of the bumper out in the next pic.


Without the adapter. Nice and neat except for the small cut on the bottom sill which was my goof. Not really noticeable.


And with the cutout piece back in, you can barely tell its there.


Underneath is a cutout to reach up and bolt up the adapter or whatever you have to bolt up.


Here is the adapter bolted up (sorry for the orientation - front of receiver is toward the bottom).


A look at the roof rack. I don't normally carry bikes on the roof either, unless it's a road bike. My mountain bike gets too dirty and is too large and heavy to lift it up there all the time - get's old and one day I'll end up damaging my car trying to get it on and off.


More to come in a separate post...

 

Very nice.

 

Impressive! Thanks for the photos and writeup.

Also, I just noticed the antenna ball in the second picture, smiling over all the bikes

 

Thanks for the pics and the write-up! Man, it looks like the 4-bike setup could be used as a lever to flip the MINI...! :0

 

I have the Sport suspension, so it doesn't compress the back end as much. It's worse on my wife's Honda Odyssey.

 

Since when does a countryman carry six people? Pretty sweet setup. I will just be strapping our two bikes to the roof rack I just ordered.

 

Can you give some more details about the bike trays you're using on the roof? I'm looking at some options and wasn't sure if going OEM was the only or even the best option.

 

It's the Thule Sidearm, but any Thule roof mount accessory should fit. The Thule can be used with the new style aero bars like the CM, or the traditional bars. I like the Sidearm because then I don't have to take the extra step of removing the front wheel.

 

Cool setup. I am of the same mind, any car I own has to be capable of carrying bikes, at least in a pinch. On my JCW, I'm using the OEM roofrack with RockyMount trays. So far with my new Audi TT-RS, I've only carried one bike which will fit dismantled inside the car. I have purchased the OEM rack (made by the same manufacturer as MINI's Votec) but haven't installed it yet.

 

I could actually carry seven bikes easily if I add another roof bike carrier, possibly even eight.

I do like that the CM roof is flat and not too tall that it is a production just to get a bike on top.

 

hi super impressive. does your sunroof open with that roof rack on?

i recently purchased and installed a hitch from m7 speed and tested it with a kuat 2.0 hitch rack. it sat really far off my car which worried me, but it looks like your car handles it fine. mine does not have the sport suspension though so it does cause the rear suspension to drop quite a bit.