I use a hitch rack (1-UP) to carry my mountain bike on the X. My ballpark estimate is that it costs me about 10-15% consumption. I'm guessing that the penalty is less since the X is so big that most of the bike is sheltered by the car body. I would expect the parachute effect to be greater on a smaller car.
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What Bike Rack has less drag: Roof Rack or Hitch Rack
- Thread starter Blueboy
- Start date
Well I drove the X today to pick up a bike. At similar speed, the difference in consumption was around 50-70Wh per mile (325 vs 375-395). Mountain ebike on a hitch rack.
Any more data on this? I have a MY and we will go from Dallas to Sedona, AZ with two MTB on low trailer hitch mount. One thing I don't see is that people are reporting 30%-40% less with bikes mounted at "X" speed but I don't see many comparisons of that same speed "X" without the bikes.
So I see a loss at 75 MPH but when I add the bikes is it significantly less?
I'm planning on no more than 200 miles between charges so I'll need to charge to 280 miles on the full 200 mile stops. Does that sound right?
So I see a loss at 75 MPH but when I add the bikes is it significantly less?
I'm planning on no more than 200 miles between charges so I'll need to charge to 280 miles on the full 200 mile stops. Does that sound right?
15 to 20% higher consumption is what I would plan on, based on my observations.
kindofblue
Member
Dan, I've been using a Thule Aero hitch rack that holds 2 bikes (if the geometry is right) and it's the lightest but strongest rack I could find.
LionelHutz
Member
At 70mph with a 29" MTB on my hitch I run about 370-380 wh/mi compared to 290-300 wh/mi without the hitch. It's not linear; at even 10mph faster or with a headwind the wh/mi goes significantly up. And adding a second bike seems to noticeably increase the wh/mi as well.
I ended up with the Kuat Transfer v2 2-bike rack and have been very happy with it. My son has the single bike version and has been happy with his as well. I did have one issue - the internal cam system broke and they sent a replacement right out - had it in 2 days. Customer service is great as is a lifetime warranty!
We just drove from Phoenix, AZ to Lake Tahoe, CA with a Thule T2 Pro XTR (heavy, but secure) and two MTBs on the back of our MY. Full with 4 people and dog. In an ICE car, this trip takes 12.5 hrs if you blast through, driving 75-80 a lot of the way across the desert. Last summer, driving similarly, same people and dog but no bikes, we were able to skip every other charger and it took about 15 hrs (but we had fun while charging, so it's fine).
This time, on the way out, we realized about 80% of the way to the AZ/NV border that we were burning charge so fast we might not even make it. Like 2 mi of range for every mile driven, sometimes more. Slowed considerably, tried to maximize drafting off trucks, etc, turned off the a/c and made it to the charger with about 8 mi of range left - not to mention sweaty and a little freaked out. After that, we hit every intermediate charge stop we could and charged the battery almost all the way, which takes forever. It took us 18 hours to get there, exhausted and nervous about the drive home.
On reflection, we realized speed was probably the biggest factor, compounded considerably by the bikes. If we slowed from 75-85 to around 70 then we didn't have to panic as much. We managed to drop 2 intermediate charges on the way home and didn't charge all the way up in the slow range except for once, where the next stretch was just too sketchy to risk it. The trip home took 16 hours. That's still not pretty, but a big improvement, and we had a lot fewer stress moments.
Moral of the story: Speed kills (your range), especially with bikes.
This time, on the way out, we realized about 80% of the way to the AZ/NV border that we were burning charge so fast we might not even make it. Like 2 mi of range for every mile driven, sometimes more. Slowed considerably, tried to maximize drafting off trucks, etc, turned off the a/c and made it to the charger with about 8 mi of range left - not to mention sweaty and a little freaked out. After that, we hit every intermediate charge stop we could and charged the battery almost all the way, which takes forever. It took us 18 hours to get there, exhausted and nervous about the drive home.
On reflection, we realized speed was probably the biggest factor, compounded considerably by the bikes. If we slowed from 75-85 to around 70 then we didn't have to panic as much. We managed to drop 2 intermediate charges on the way home and didn't charge all the way up in the slow range except for once, where the next stretch was just too sketchy to risk it. The trip home took 16 hours. That's still not pretty, but a big improvement, and we had a lot fewer stress moments.
Moral of the story: Speed kills (your range), especially with bikes.
LionelHutz
Member
I've also noticed that the the range loss with a bike attached scales dramatically with speed. One of my frequent rides is on a mountain that's only about 60 miles away, but is 6,000 ft up and at highway speed the whole time. Seems like a worst case scenario for range--going at 75-80mph with a 29er MTB on the hitch is a 45% range hit for just 60 miles. Dropping that to ~70mph seems to save almost 7% of range.
This is all just physics, but unfortunately it makes the Y nearly unworkable for MTB road trips.
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