Any of you ever carry your bicycle on your motorcycle?

After about a fifteen-year hiatus from mountain biking, I bought a Santa Cruz Hightower on an impulse! I live in a one bedroom in the middle of downtown, but my days off fall during the week, and there are plenty of decent trails within an hour drive that shouldn’t be too crowded on a Tuesday.

I didn’t really think through getting to the trailheads. I’m 6’ 2”, so the bike is an XL and is quite big. I have an FR-S and a Husqvarna 701 Enduro crammed into my parking space. If I put a rear rack on the FR-S it eliminates my motorcycle parking, so that’s a no-go. Fitting the bike plus me inside the FR-S and keeping the car interior clean and nice is tough, which has me eying the Husky.

Any of you tried something like this?

https://2x2cycles.com/product/vert-rack-mini/

How was it? How did you store your riding gear? Crosswinds? Thanks for any input.

In typical GRM fashion, have you thought about adding a tow hitch to the FRS plus a bicycle hitch hauler? At least then it's easy to detach and store in your apartment and will be much more sturdy than a typical bicycle carrier. There's also the suction cup mounted bike racks.

I've seen the bicycle mounted to the motorcycle stuff before, but for the same amount of time I think you could load it into your car and figure out laying the bicycle onto a moving blanket or something. Seems like quite a headache carrying Moto gear + bicycle gear + bicycle on your Husky.

I've got a couple friends that used them on a regular basis, albeit on larger mortorcycles. Never heard any complaints.

I agree that a hitch and single bike hitch rack are your best option, assuming it's available for the FRS. I run one on all my cars, including the Mustang. 

OH! Look up Seasucker mounts!  They make roof mounts that lock on with stupid-strong suction cups. Easy to removefrom the FRS and very stable. Kind of fidly to put the bike on, but once secured I've never heard of one failing.

I know a couple of guys who have bicycle mounts on their motos. Neither are like the one posted. usually home-make set-ups involving a fork mount and a lot of straps.  Gear is carried in side panniers or a back-pack.

Roof mounted bike rack seems like the easy answer here unless your parking space is in a parking garage with limited ceiling height.

I saw a guy the other day  with his bike on  his motorcycle as I was leaving an indoor motorcycle place.

Personally, I wouldn't. When i ride my bicycles, I do it until I am whooped. last think I would want to do is have to ride my motorcycle with an ungainly thing attached to it. 

then you have to think about carrying gear. where you going to carry the bike helmet and shoes. Are you going to leave your motorcycle jacket, boots and helmet sitting by your bike and then ride miles away into the woods? What about dirty muddy clothes? What do you do if you sprain an ankle or wrist on the bike? 

Seems like it would take two enjoyalbe hobbies and make them both stressful. 

Thanks for all the input! If I do the moto rack, I’d need locking panniers or a locking top box at a minimum. I’d also try to finish the bicycle ride with enough in reserve to ride the motorcycle home safely. My approach is when in doubt and/or alone, to err on the side of enjoying an experience at a mellow pace with a big safety factor and really good odds of getting home, be it mountain biking, moto riding, skiing, or other high-risk activity. There are trackdays, sanctioned bicycle race events with medical staff plus the rest of my teammates there, etc if I feel the need to get the speed demons out. I recognize that nothing is fool-proof, so if I sprained something I have a number of friends I could call for a ride home and/or to ride my bike home.

I haven’t seen many hitch setups for the FR-S. I’m sure there’s a way, but I’d be worried about ground clearance. I scrape from time-to-time up front on curb cutouts and middle on big bumps at stock ride height. I worry that the hitch would add rear scraping as well.

I do have some height in the garage, probably 7’ or so. I would measure of course, but some people in the building have full-size pickups and SUVs. Riding in and out on the Husky, which has a tall seat height plus a taller aftermarket seat, I have clearance over my helmeted head, but I don’t think I could clear the sprinkler plumbing standing fully upright on the pegs.

Good to hear that the Seasucker might be a decent option. I wrote it off as a gimmick, but it sounds like it might actually work well for me.

Isn't it kind of redundant?