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People who don’t take bike racks off when not in use....

Nuts! We don't use the bike rack all that often, but we live in a flat. Why would I want to be taking it on & off, carrying it up & down the stairs, & tripping over it indoors, when I could leave it outside in the street attached to the van?
 
Volkywagen said:
The past two years of Cali ownership have been grand, half of the joy of owning my van is probably driving it on the open roads and seeing other vans, nodding the head, waving ahoy, and basically loving the drive.
But I have noticed that at least 70% of other California’s, and also tailgate blessed transporters, have the bike racks attached....with nothing on.
Now before people start, I understand that it’s not the easiest thing to remove, that it’s great for drying clothes, that it’s hard to store.....but it really annoys me seeing them not in use.
I’ve just noticed in another thread, a member mentioning they make the van look ‘pretty’.
I disagree there. Cali is a Cali.
They remind me of my house last year when the scaffolding was up to re do the roof!
Ok the quasi isnt as nice as the kylie, but come on - let the back end shine??!!
Click to expand...

I think they look quite smart, but I removed mine because of the extra weight - fuel consumption etc. Also, with it removed the rear door virtually opens by itself once unlocked, quite visciuosly actually. You have to stand back or get wacked.
 
Anthony1 said:
I think they look quite smart, but I removed mine because of the extra weight - fuel consumption etc. Also, with it removed the rear door virtually opens by itself once unlocked, quite visciuosly actually. You have to stand back or get wacked.
Click to expand...
It’s ok if you store a Cali topper and a screen cover in the chairs. Evens it out
 
Anthony1 said:
I think they look quite smart, but I removed mine because of the extra weight - fuel consumption etc. Also, with it removed the rear door virtually opens by itself once unlocked, quite visciuosly actually. You have to stand back or get wacked.
Click to expand...
I took mine off to reduce drag and for the clean back end !!
Now to lob the elephant into the room......I have removed my wind up/0ut awning too. Same reason, hardly used and it is a lot of weight high up which adds nothing to the van apart from ‘ooh, look it’s a California ‘
Which is probably why so many Calis sport bike carriers as well as awnings ??
2857449C-2B36-40FE-915A-2A55D60AD735.jpeg
 
soulstyledevon said:
The biggest waste of time on the California...

Absolutely hated the thing, hence why my latest van doesn’t have one.
Impossible to gain access to the boot area with more than one bike attached. Thus having to remove bikes to get something out the boot, no thanks.
Plus it’s high up,looks an eyesore and is single worst design feature of the California. Scratch that, second. The handbrake fouling the drivers chair on swivel has to be the worst.

Towbar sliding rack much better, easily removed and gives unhindered access to the boot area...
Would never go back to the tailgate version mount. Infact you couldn’t give me one
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Totally agree !! Plus they sell a small set for hanging the laundry to the side of the car attached to the roof rail!
 
Sometimes we take the bikes and sometimes we don't. Obviously when we don't take the bikes we leave the rack on.
Our bikes are lightweight and we just drop the handlebars as photo. Tailgate can still be lifted easily and we have made a couple of supports just to make sure.

45075
 
soulstyledevon said:
The biggest waste of time on the California...

Absolutely hated the thing, hence why my latest van doesn’t have one.
Impossible to gain access to the boot area with more than one bike attached. Thus having to remove bikes to get something out the boot, no thanks.
Plus it’s high up,looks an eyesore and is single worst design feature of the California. Scratch that, second. The handbrake fouling the drivers chair on swivel has to be the worst.

Towbar sliding rack much better, easily removed and gives unhindered access to the boot area...
Would never go back to the tailgate version mount. Infact you couldn’t give me one
Click to expand...
I don’t believe what I’m hearing. I couldn’t live without the bike rack, it’s in constant use, and I can honestly say I’ve never considered removing it! Why would I? I think yours had something wrong with it as we regularly have 3 bikes on the back, tailgate fully open to access chairs and bbq, never a problem. If I see a Cali without a bike rack I assume they’re just playing at it! The bed’s probably never been slept in and they go on their first camping trip of the year in April!
 
billyhedge said:
I don’t believe what I’m hearing. I couldn’t live without the bike rack, it’s in constant use, and I can honestly say I’ve never considered removing it! Why would I? I think yours had something wrong with it as we regularly have 3 bikes on the back, tailgate fully open to access chairs and bbq, never a problem. If I see a Cali without a bike rack I assume they’re just playing at it! The bed’s probably never been slept in and they go on their first camping trip of the year in April!
Click to expand...
No rack, use a Towbar rack when needed, and I think I’ve probably done a damn sight more camping and travelling than you probably have or will.83,000 miles to date and I’ve lost count of the number of countries and the number of nights and number of meals cooked in the Cali.
Just look at the number of low milage Californias with Racks offered for sale. You might use yours but there are many who don’t so such sweeping generalisations are pointless.
I think the phrase “ The gentleman doth protest too much “ fits here, or you can’t take the rack off because it will show the damaged paintwork and body panels.:headbang
 
97ea5cd941d5dfe5dd5852b54002ed23.jpg

Former owner had a tailgate bike rack. He gave it for free and some new eyes too aka new reverse camchanged to Atera and happy with it (more because I am not tall and not strong so lifting the bike would be the problem). However I like the black version of the tailgate rack, you sometimes see it with added spare wheels. Looks good.
 
This is getting tasty. :pinkbanana
 
I do not have a rack for bikes, but it would be very useful for me to carry an extra spare wheel for some trips, like Iceland for example. Is it possible to transport a wheel on a towbar rack?
 
babble said:
€1700?? Blimey. i would just get the bike rack for a few hundred, and tie the spare wheel to it.
Click to expand...

Weird. I would just mount the spare wheel in the spare wheel carrier under the van...
;)
 
Wesel said:
I do not have a rack for bikes, but it would be very useful for me to carry an extra spare wheel for some trips, like Iceland for example. Is it possible to transport a wheel on a towbar rack?
Click to expand...
Remove the bike wheel trays and Yes, very possible.
 
soulstyledevon said:
Weird. I would just mount the spare wheel in the spare wheel carrier under the van...
;)
Click to expand...

I agree but that would make it a little bit harder for the low lives in this world to steal your wheel after all they might get a bad back and take you to court for loss of earning :oops:
 
Never thought about ugliness of my tailgate rack but anything that makes van less nickable is an added bonus, I might let the roof go all blistered and never polish the alloys again now I think about it

Sent from my moto g(6) play using Tapatalk
 
Just to revive an old thread - since day 1 of having a T5 conversion, i've dreamt of having a bike rack and awning. I always pushed the desires aside however and said 'i'm not wasting the money on a conversion'.

Now that we've splashed out on a 6 month old T6 Cali, our time has come. We're getting a bike rack fitted next week, and I honestly cant wait.

Now for the kicker......we dont ride bikes. Heck, my mrs is due to give birth to our second in late November, with our first-born currently 20 months old. We have no intention to ride a bike any time soon.

However, the selling point of a Cali (for us, and i'm sure a great many) has been it's versatility.

As a parent of a newborn (both historical and future), I cant begin to tell you of how versatile a camper is (t5/t6 or otherwise), and a bike rack is only that in name. It's also as others have said:

Clothes Line
Storage Box/Rack
Style/Personalisation
Flexibility
Future-Proofing.

For me, the Cali offers everyone more versatility than (almost) any other vehicle. The second you start removing/storing that versatility, you take away from the DNA of the vehicle, and ultimately, would be better off with a simple estate/hatchback.

At the end of the day, it's each to his/her own. I learned long ago to let others live by their own choices - but i'll finish with this rhetorical question. How many of you travel with an umbrella on a sunny day?

*drops mic*
 
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