When I want to go mountain biking, I need to travel about 10km by scooter to get to the trails. This year I’ve been flipping my bike upside down, resting the handlebars on the scooter’s grab rail (front wheel sticking up in the air, back wheel on the ground) and tying it on with bungees. It works but it’s easy to get into a dangerous weave at speeds over 60kph, and I’m the kind of guy who likes to keep the throttle cable tight. Also, the back wheel turns backwards which in turn makes the drivetrain turn backwards. I’ve had a couple of occasions where the bike has jumped gears and the rear mech has got snagged, fucking a mech and a gear hanger.
I’m now looking for something a little more stable and robust which will allow me to ride at 100+ without fear of a crash.
I think the best way would be to buy a standard roof mounted rack, the kind which has a long tray for both wheels and then a folding frame or front wheel support. Then to have someoone fashion two bars like those in the picture that protrude from the side of the scooter to mount the rack to.
I want to be able to simply leave the rack in my parking space, then when I want to use it, slot the bars into some holes or mounts on the scooter, put my bike on backwards with both wheels in place (handlebar behind my back) and go and ride. I’m all about convenience. Even putting the seats down in the back of the car and taking the wheels out annoys me.
What do you think? Do you know anyone who has done it? Any ideas or tips for me?
Next to the bike on the right, like on that red vespa, is the only way that I know to do it. Bummer if you need to kickstart from that side.
that’s most likely an illegal mod in Taiwan, but being Taiwan, you’d probably get away with it from the novelty value alone.
Another way that does work is carrying the bike over the shoulder (seat post running down your back, on the right shoulder to keep the chain away from you). I have done that a few times, both as rider (very tricky) and as passenger (much easier). I have also seen two guys on one scooter, with one riding and the passenger holding two DH mountainbikes, one over each shoulder. That must have been an uncomfortable trip.
lashing the bike to the back of the scoot, a la garbage lady trolley, is a bit silly.
I’ve done it a couple of times with the bike on its side on the seat with wheels either side, then me sitting on it, but the coppers stopped me so I devised the trolley method. I’ve done it about 20 times, seen hundreds of coppers and never been stopped. I can’t fit my bike on my shoulder because the frame triangle is too small to even get it on my shoulder without the shock in the way (I did it once on the way to a shop to have something done to it). Built up into a complete bike, no way.
100 isn’t that fast on a motorised vehicle, they do that in Le Tour on pushbikes with shit house brakes and 2cm wide tyres you know! The problem is, I fucking hate waiting at traffic lights for half my life, and if you ride round the Taoyuan ringroad at the speed limit you end up getting stopped six times for 99 seconds each. It drives me crazy. The only way to do it and only waste 198 seconds of your life is to pin it between lights. Unfortunately if you hit a bump the bike starts to bounce and weave which is undesirable obviously.
I think that link is the way forward then, but thanks for the input everyone who contributed.
go road biking instead and there’s so much more to ride, and most of the time you don’t even need to use a scoot because you’re actually faster on the roadbike.
I’ve always wanted a road bike but never enough to actually buy one. I don’t know, there’s just something about riding downhill on a mountain bike that I love. Plus I developed a knee problem when I was about 22 that still gives me gyp if I actually pedal for too long. Pushing uphill, freewheeling down and pumping the trail for speed keep my pedalling to a minimum now and therefore limit the pain. Same reason why I stopped using clipless pedals actually, I think they may have caused the problem, maybe I was too young to start using them when I did at 14 or so.
No worries. Life’s too short to waste it doing things you don’t enjoy, one of which for me is riding uphill. I’d rather let an engine do the hard yards for me.
There are ‘legal’ measurements that you can have something sticking out from all sides of your scooter in Taiwan … the link you put up is a little too wide, too far back I guess … in any normal country it would get you a fine.
The reason that it exists doesn’t make it legal, it looks DIY.
If it’s allowed it needs to have clear ‘danger’ or ‘caution’ markings, certainly your speed needs to be appropriate.
I’d say it’s DIY for sure, and I wouldn’t consider it in a country where the police enforce all the laws all the time. Here, I think Urodacus is right, they’d let you off on novelty grounds.
One good thing about Taiwan I’ve noticed is that if you break the law and the coppers nab you, you actually have a chance of putting forward a reasonable argument and being let off. For instance, if you go through a blatant red light here in the pissing rain and get stopped, you can successfully argue that you did it because it’s raining and you just wanted to get home quicker.
I once saw a guy with a bar sticking out the back of his scooter the same size as the seat bar. He just inserted the bike into the bar and tightened it to keep it in place. Had the two tires on the front of the scooter. Seemed to work well.
I would consider something easier to make and slightly less dangerous in case of an accident. Towing makes most sence, but keep in mind that your supertacky rear tire might wear out really fast.
For thoughts;
