Okay I searched around and couldn’t find an explicit answer in the old threads, so could a Honda Element owner please answer this question?
Is it possible to fit three people and three bikes inside the Element? How much disassembly of the bikes would be required? Will I have to wreck the bikes’ paint jobs to get them all in there? All details welcome. I’m using one of Zipcar’s Elements to get to a tri this weekend, a couple of my friends want to come, and they don’t want to drive. If they hop in the Zipcar, it becomes a lot cheaper for me (though still not nearly as cheap as all of us going in my friend’s car).
I need to figure out whether this idea will work by Friday evening so I can cancel my reservation if necessary.
Oh, and the bikes are a 54-cm Dual, a 54-cm road bike of some species, and a big honkin’ mountain bike of unknown dimensions.
3 people, 3 bikes, race and weekend gear…ALL inside the vehicle. NO bike disassembly required. Leave the front wheels on! All you need is a few bungee cords and a bit of foam or even a blanket to keep the bikes from hitting each other. I use 2 of those pool snake foam things cut into 3 pieces and sliced open to slide over bike tubes to protect them.
You use bungee cords to attach the bike to hooks in the car. The bikes stay upright and don’t shift around when you drive. I easily take two bikes without them ever touching each other. Great vehicle.
It will be tight, but it will work. I’m not sure how tribri gets three bikes in without disassembly. The back of an Element isn’t long enough for a bike to stand upright with both wheels on. You have to extend a wheel through the opening between the two front seats. I’m not sure how you could do that with three bikes.
Just completely remove one of the rear seats and take the front wheels off the bikes. They should line up on the side without the rear passenger and leave the very back for gear.
Yes, you can do it–as has been described. You’ll need a bungie (or two) to secure to the outboard side. If your ‘fellow travelers’ are short little munchkins (like my wife is) then you can probably get the bikes in with both wheels on. However, if ya’ll are ‘manly’ sized like I am (6’5") then the bikes are gonna be correspondingly sized and you’ll have to take off the front wheels to get the bikes in upright–at least I do for my tri & road bike in my toaster.
Same as everyone else. Plan out how they need to be packed, we can get 3-58’s (two tri one road) wheels on plus gear for weekend trips.
Next time I will take some pic’s.
Rick
Well I didn’t get a chance to take pictures of the configuration, because we were running very late, but we managed to fit three bikes in. The bikes were arranged in an antiparallel fashion (forward, backward, forward) because just ahead of the seat that was hung up there was a gap that provided space for handlebars. Also, the passenger seat (in front of the bikes) had to be pushed very far forward and couldn’t be reclined.
We did have remove the front wheel from one bike because the aerobar was angled up and there wasn’t enough height in the car. Removing just one wheel lowered the handlebar relative to the other bikes, so it actually made it harder to fit things side-by-side. I guess the most important part was positioning the cranks just right on each bike so that the pedals could fill the same vertical space as the frames. If we had to allow horizontal space for both frames and pedals, there would be no way to cram 3 bikes in there.
As for cargo, there wasn’t much room. We brought a cooler with food, in addition to our tri gear, and the cooler had to go in front of the remaining seat in the back.
So, getting three bikes in there was possible, but it was a slightly uncomfortable trip for people other than the driver, as their leg room had to be restricted.
How big were the bikes? The only time I did 3 people we were all ~small guys…like size 54 frames and smaller. And we all pretty much packed just a well-stuffed tri-bag for the 3-day trip…
But yeah…it’s going to be cramped if you don’t cut down on the extraneous items…I’ll agree with your assessment.
3 people w/bikes and tri gear in an Element better pack light…THOROUGH…but LIGHT.
In my Jeep, I can fit 3 bikes (front wheel off) and 3 people with the 60/40 seat split. That leaves space behind the rear seat for stuff. I also have a roof basket and cargo net. Inside I use bungee cords and rugs to keep bikes upright and non-intimate. For our trip to Sea Otter we had 3 bikes, extra wheelset, 5 passengers and tons o’ gear for the weekend. Bikes had to ride on a rack. But it was incredible how much we stuffed in there. Loading up:
Yeah…but that’s not IN the vehicle with you! I like the security of having the bikes INSIDE the vehicle with us…when we stop…and when it’s raining cats and dogs. Nothing worse than having to replace cables after bikes get soaked riding 15 hours through thunderstorms. Not to mention all the road grime and bugs.
Next time, minivan it. Here’s my Odyssey with a simple floor rack. Note, my tri bike, mountain bike (both fully intact), surfboard, bodyboard are all in there, with the back seat still in. If I took out the surfboard and bodyboard and accompanying bins, I could probably fit 6 bikes in the back.
Did you read where I said 3 bikes and 3 people IN the Jeep? Can an Element fit more than that inside? Sometimes you’ve gotta get somewhere with more people and bikes than it’s possible to fit inside. But normally the 3/3 works great. Plus, nobody laughs at me for driving an Element.
Okay I searched around and couldn’t find an explicit answer in the old threads, so could a Honda Element owner please answer this question?
Is it possible to fit three people and three bikes inside the Element? How much disassembly of the bikes would be required? Will I have to wreck the bikes’ paint jobs to get them all in there? All details welcome. I’m using one of Zipcar’s Elements to get to a tri this weekend, a couple of my friends want to come, and they don’t want to drive. If they hop in the Zipcar, it becomes a lot cheaper for me (though still not nearly as cheap as all of us going in my friend’s car).
I need to figure out whether this idea will work by Friday evening so I can cancel my reservation if necessary.
Oh, and the bikes are a 54-cm Dual, a 54-cm road bike of some species, and a big honkin’ mountain bike of unknown dimensions.
I’ve done it and on a weekend trip with no real problems. Cover the bikes with a blanket lean them against each other and strap them down. The luggage goes behind the passenger and is strapped down. Small bags will be packed a under/next to the bikes. It’s not the most comfortable ride for the rear passenger but not a big deal.
Well smarty pants, in this particular post I was not responding to the original post. I was responding to a reply to my post re the bikes being outside vs. inside. My point was (to the poster at whom it was directed, not the OP), that I can, in fact, fit 3 people and 3 bikes IN my Jeep.
i’ve owned an element for 3 + years now. perfect car for bikes and dogs!! easiest way to get 3 bikes and 3 people inside is to completely remove one of the 2 rear seats which is very easy to do. most of the time i leave the one remaining seat in the fold up position anyway.
Ah, complete removal of a seat is a smart idea. I was worried originally because even if you fold up a seat it still takes up a foot of space. Next time I’ll rip that sucker out.
My tri bike is a 51cm but there’s tons of room. You could easily fit several larger bikes. One of my favorite things about the minivan is the sliding doors on the sides. It enables you to park in much tighter spaces since you don’t have to worry about having room to swing open the doors. My next minivan will be a Dodge Caravan with the Stow-n-Go seats. You can fold both the middle and rear rows into the floor so you don’t have to take the middle row seats out for extra room, but keep in mind, my bike fits in the car even with both middle row seats in still with both wheels on.
