Just picked up a 2012 Honda Fit Sport and wanted to get it sorted for carrying my mountain bike in short order. For years I've been a roof rack guy and have had hitch racks as well, but in hopes of maintaining the Fit's excellent MPG, I decided to go inside the car with it.

My current mountain bike is a size large Santa Cruz Hightower, which as the name implies, is a fairly large bike--29-inch wheels and a long wheelbase. I had test fitted it in a Fit before I bought one, so I knew could get it in the car, but I also knew it would be pretty tight. Between the Hightower's considerable length and wide-ish 780mm handlebars, I knew I would need to angle the bike, and I wanted to figure out a way to secure the bike so it was stable and would allow me to put gear and cargo around it without the bike flopping around.


After looking at several options, I bought a pair of Rocky Mounts Hot Rods. The company sells the $50 units as truck bed mounts, but clearly they can be used to fork-mount a bike to anything. While I know it would be pretty optimistic to fit two bikes in the car, I got two mounts so I could dedicate one to the Hightower (which uses a thru-axel) and then set up another for my road bike which uses a 9mm quick release , which the Hot Rod is compatible with if you remember to order the sleeve for it (which I didn't!).

For a base, I considered direct mounting the Hot Rod as well as mounting it to a board, but when I saw the Gladiator Garage GearTrack Channel, I knew I had my huckleberry.

Designed as a track for wall-mounting tools, the Gladiator channel boards are made out of a heavy-duty plastic and are both lightweight and durable with two track channels extruded into them. At $10 for a 4-foot section, it's a bargain too. After that I added a few 5/16-18 x 1 Hillman Elevator Bolts ($1.14 a pair) and some coordinating nuts...not shown is a couple narrow strips of Velcro (>$5) I used to secure the Gladiator board to the bed.


The first thing I did was widen the Hot Rod's 1/4-inch mounting holes to fit the 5/16 elevator bolts. If you can find 1/4-inch or 6mm thread elevator bolts you could probably skip this step.


Next I threaded the elevator bolts to the nuts through the Hot Rod...


I then test fit the mounts on the Gladiator board. The threads on the elevator bolts are just long enough that you can tighten the assembly down with a wrench. I was prepared to use some washers on the underside, but they weren't necessary.


I measured 38-and-3/4" between the plastic shoulders in the backmost floor bed of of the Fit and cut the Gladiator board accordingly with a jigsaw.


The cut Gladiator board with the fork mounts loosely installed.


I then test fit the whole board in the back of the Fit--it filled the span perfectly.


After that, I adhered the Velcro strip to the bottom of the board and the molded plastic on the Fit--I cleaned both with rubbing alcohol first to remove any oily residue.


Finally, the moment of truth...I test fit the bike, which actually required moving the Gladiator board toward the front of the car and a tiny bit of angling of the Hot Rod mount, which was fairly easy.


As a final touch, I looped the rear seatbelt around the front wheel to keep it tucked in and I was off to the trails!

All that's left if for me to get the QR adapter for my road bike and add it. I've also thought about painting the Gladiator board black so it blends in, bit I want to do some paint testing on my scrap piece to see how well paint sticks to it.

Hope this might other folks...let me know if you have any questions.

Don

 

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Very cool and you have room for 4!