Carrying a step-through bike on a car

[giglet]

I'm having a little trouble believing this...

I recently upgraded to a step-through (aka "girl's") bike because my "standard" (aka "boy's") bike wasn't working well for me. I have some leg issues that made mounting by stepping through much more doable than by swinging a leg over.

I recently was given a used carrier so I could put my bike on the back of the family car.

The carrier instructions were remarkably useless. Strapping the carrier on and adjusting it took an engineer and a physicist and a lot of fiddling with straps to figure out.

And now I'm told that standard bike carriers depend on bikes having a top tube? In other words, standard bike carriers don't carry step-through bikes? WTF?

I've managed to get the bike on, ungracefully, a few times, tied down with extra straps, but I wouldn't trust it to remain on the rack if I went faster than about 30 mph.

Is there some magic that I am missing? I'm told that I can buy an adapter bar to attach to my bike, that pretends to be a top tube and will let me use the bike carrier. But all I can think is that if I wanted to strap something on to more closely resemble a standard man's piece of equipment, I would expect it to be a lot more fun.

Argh.

Comments

[pebblerocker]

Step-through is better if you have large panniers and practically mandatory for a child seat on the back, unless you're leggy and very flexible!

I feel like it would take a diagram to explain how I get my bike on the rack. Maybe I could take a photo for you next week? Mine is the Y-shaped type of carrier that clamps onto the towball, I'm not sure if yours is similar.

Lifting a heavy steel bike up to chest height and getting it onto the rack without getting bashed by the pedal is the hardest part.

[giglet]

Okay, I'm glad it works for you! We don't have a towball on this car, but the bike-carrying part is vaguely Y shaped.

A photo or a video would be wonderful! Thanks!

[untonuggan]

I think around the time I had a job we shelled out for a roof rack, and that solved the problem. But that is a pricey problem-solving technique.

[darkemeralds]

I once got my heavy step-through bike onto a car rack, but only for a short trip to the shop. I'm afraid I don't have advice, but your last sentence made me laugh.