With no rack the gas mileage was 42 miles per gallon.
Gas mileage and roof top bike racks.
Adding any rooftop carrier cargo box or ski rack doesn t come free.
The empty roof rack had a nearly 2 percent impact on fuel economy which translates to a little more than three quarters of a gallon of gas.
With the rack and two bikes that number dropped to 27 miles per hour.
In fact it significantly cuts your highway mileage all the time it s installed whether there s weight up there or not.
If you must travel with a loaded roof rack try to choose the most aerodynamic roof rack you can.
He found that compared to the baseline of no roof rack the empty rack reduced his mpg by 12 7 and the roof rack with a bicycle reduced it by a whooping 27 3.
To make life as easy as possible for you we ve listed and reviewed what we believe to be the ten best value for money roof mounted bike racks below.
The 10 best roof mounted bike racks.
Mileage went from 41 mpg at 65 mph to 40 mpg.
A rockymounts tomahawk upright mount rack is the best to use if you own a fat tire bicycle.
Which roof bike rack is best for my fat tire bicycle.
So if your car usually gets 30 mpg on the highway and you add a full roof rack your highway gas mileage will drop to 24 27 mpg.
Most people that s in the back of their head.
It can accommodate bikes of up to 5 tires securely and makes no frame contact.
The gear with the most impact were the dual mountain bikes strapped to the roof which impacted the fuel economy by 31 percent or 9 mpg.
They compared the gas mileage of a new honda accord with no rack an empty rack an empty rack and wind deflector and a rooftop rack with two bikes and deflector.
However if you want to buy from other companies consider those that have a provision for tandem adapters that can.
Yakima frontloader rooftop bike rack.
Their study was published recently in the.
As we found when we tested roof and hitch mounted bike racks the suv s mileage on the other hand showed less of a drop.
Some drivers may see their gas mileage drop by as much as 20 percent depending on vehicle type and type of roof rack.
The roof rack mpg experiment he compared the gas mileage of his car at 54 7 mph 88 kph with 1 no roof racks 2 an empty roof rack and 3 a mountain bike on the roof rack.
They found that in 2015 roof racks nationwide were responsible for 0 8 percent of light duty vehicle fuel consumption or 100 million gallons of gasoline.
The empty roof rack had a nearly 2 percent impact on fuel economy which translates to a little more than three quarters of a gallon of gas.