Low usage bike rack for pano S without hitch

[Skotty]

Curious what people have done for bike carrying on a Model S with pano roof (has roof rack attachment points) and no hitch. I currently have one of those bike racks that can attach to a car trunk or rear hatch on an SUV that I used with a Ford Escape originally. I'm not a regular biker, just want to be able to take kids to park with bikes maybe twice a year (just a few miles on non-highway roads).

Some options:
1) Use the bike rack I already have. This works, and I even used it once, but it seems highly risky putting the top strap clips on the hatch glass.
2) Get a hitch installed and buy a hitch mounted rack. How much does it cost to get a hitch installed (or can it be done DIY?) and how much trouble is it?
3) With the roof rack attachment points, I know some people use bike racks where the bikes go on the roof on top of the roof rack. A couple of issues here. One, how much will that cost to set up? And two, how do you get the bikes up and down? I don't really understand how people do this. Seems like at best, you would need to take a step stool and a tall strong person with you to get the bikes on and off.
4) With the roof rack attachment points, is it possible to have a typical non-hitch trunk rack use a roof rack (or some bar that uses the roof rack attachments) as a way to support the top straps? This is the option that seems most attractive to me, but not sure how viable it is.

 

[headcase]

On my Model S, I use SeaSucker mounts for my bikes, which allow for more options on placement.

 

[Ostrichsak]

How tall are you?

For our bikes, we used one of the Tesla (Whispbar) roof racks and then a couple of Yakima bike gutters attached to that. I had everything keyed the same so one key secures the rack to the car and secures the gutters to the rack and even secures the bikes to the gutters via the built-in cable locks. Really liked this setup and the wife had no problem getting her mountain up and down on her own and she's 5' 5" tall.

For us, this was the most secure method that allowed for us to get in and out of the hatch area easily since we also tend to just camp in the back on a mattress when we travel. I looked at the seasucker option like mentioned above and there were just far too many negatives for me to trust one of those with our higher tier full-carbon bikes and our pristine Teslas.

Seemed foolish to spend six figures on the bikes and car (for some) and then not spend a few hundred bucks more to get a secure mounting option that is reliable and solid. That's just me though.

 

[krsgio]

I mountain bike typically 2-3 days a week and use a seasucker mount for my car and have had zero issues. I've driven at speeds 80+ mph and its unphased beside eating your consumption as all bike mounts do. As long as your competent enough to install them correctly (clean the area you intend to mount them, ensure the cups are free of debris, pump the cups appropriately) then you'll have no issues. The best part is its a non permanent solution and easy to take on and off so I can use it on my other car if I choose. Downside is that they don't have any security to securely lock them to the vehicle but with bike thefts at an all time high I don't leave my bike unattended anyways and just use to transport from point A to B. Several friends were skeptical of them at first but have quickly become believers in the product after my experience using it.