I have always been a huge biker and I figured that of course there would be some cool bike racks for this car but I never thought they would be mounted this way. Either way I love it and hope they have these for the US spec Smart fortwo.
I've been using a Yakima rack on my G&K imported 2006 Smart ForTwo Passion (glass roof) for ~8 months, and have been very happy with it.
It was installed by RackAttack in Portland OR, and these guys already had installation instructions (including which clips were needed, etc...) in their internal database. Though one source for me was ClubSmartCar.com (search their site for "Roof-top Yakima Rack" - this forum is not letting me post URLs).
In summary, use #34 Q-Clips, and make sure its installed TIGHT, and I mean so tight that when a 200lb guy yanks on them, they don't even hint at budging. I went with the Stealhead "fork mount" bike holder, and recall needing to sign a waiver - as the rack is not approved by Yakima or Smart. Speeds upwards of 80MPH were no issue, though I personally would avoid putting a box up there for anything above ~60MPH.
Looking around I have not seen any top mounted racks on the smart and I don't think there is any way to mount a secure one as the roof-line is very sleek with no rails or mount points. I will do some searching and see what I find though!
Looking around I have not seen any top mounted racks on the smart and I don't think there is any way to mount a secure one as the roof-line is very sleek with no rails or mount points. I will do some searching and see what I find though!
I don't know from experience but it appears that the bike rack must be removed in order to get to the trunk, that is unless of course you want to simply fold the front seat forward and grab what items you need.
I was wondering what that looked like, the angle shown on the brochure (from straight behind) made it look almost like a solid shelf. Wonder how you do two bikes?
I hope the Bones bike rack will work with the smart - it looks like it's adjustable enough to do so, but it hasn't been tested on one that the manufacturer knows of.
You are stuck with rear mounts because the Tridion can NOT be drilled or it degrades the crash resistance of the structure. You can not put any weight on the steel or Lexan roofs because they are not designed to carry any weight at all and they are Glued into the channels on the Tridion.
There is a sort of expensive and time consuming method would be to have 4 hard points welded to the outside of the Upper Tridion. Then had a Aluminum rack welded up to bridge side to side.
I saw several variations in Germany that did this for roof top signs like you see on Dominoes etc...... One variation had small clips welded to the Tridion and the light weight sign was on 4 suction cups and straps to the Welded clips.... None of the systems I saw looked good but all seemed structurally sound....
Bike rack is currently available through Flying Tiger Development
Fast Eddy at FTD, just listed the bicycle rack in his latest round of postings on the Club Smart Car site, along with prices. I know some people sound like they want it NOW, so I thought I'd mention it.
It's not an inexpensive accessory by any means, but it does look like it would be quite solid and it IS made for the fortwo.
the 450 rack definitely look better.
i've noticed one guy in my area (san diego north county) that fit his longboard using the 450 racks. looked pretty cool.
Can you better describe where the #34Q clips were attached... I looked fairly thoroughly at the top of the demo model 451 and do not see any lips or recesses where any kind of clip could attach... I like the Yakima rack and know their typical rack attachment system fairly well...well built stuff but a tad pricey
the orginal pic with the bike mounted up high or any roof mounted system would kill fuel economy. I like the rear mounted system the best mounted as low as possible while still providing sufficient clearance.
Is the license plate rack attachment designed for the 451 smart? Have you seen this?
The pictures that are presentd early on this thread are for the 450, not the 451 which has lowered the rack considerably and requires break lights.
I have just purchased a Smart Fortwo Passion. I want to be to carry one or both a Triathlon Bike and a Tandem Road Bike (front wheel removed). I have been playing around with a different design ideas to accomplish this.
A coworker and I have a couple of designs to accomplish this. As soon as the weather breaks we will be prototype to see which design works the best. I want to be able to use a standard 2" receiver style bike rack. That way will be able to use the bike rack for each of my vehicles.
I need to know the exact thread size of the threaded hole for the tow hook.
Here is another option, a bike rack using 2 X 3/4 inch receiving pipes underneath the frame. http://www.birdautomotive.com/Bike Rack Boxster.htm - I have had this mounted on my Boxster for 2 years now and it works great. Easy to mount and easy to remove. The 2 pipes gives it great stability. So much so, that I can go 90MPH with 2 bikes strapped on.
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