Bikes on my Max and aero drag.......

[Recumpence]

Hello All,

 

My son and I went for a 30 mile bike ride yesterday. I loaded our two bikes on the back of my Max (hatch mounted bike rack). The bikes are standard 26 inch wheeled mountain bikes. So, the wheels stuck out the sides of the body of the car into the air stream. My mileage for this route is typically around 56 mpg (55 minimum, about 58mpg maximum). However, my mpg with the bikes on the rack was only 47.1mpg on this trip (round trip).

 

I am posting this here to share just how sensitive a highly efficient car is to aero.

 

Matt

[ptjones]

Hello All,

 

My son and I went for a 30 mile bike ride yesterday. I loaded our two bikes on the back of my Max (hatch mounted bike rack). The bikes are standard 26 inch wheeled mountain bikes. So, the wheels stuck out the sides of the body of the car into the air stream. My mileage for this route is typically around 56 mpg (55 minimum, about 58mpg maximum). However, my mpg with the bikes on the rack was only 47.1mpg on this trip (round trip).

 

I am posting this here to share just how sensitive a highly efficient car is to aero.

 

Matt

I also have bike rack on back of CMAX and made a 275mi trip at 55mph speed limit, starting out over 50mpg and ending up at 49mpg, expected better. On the way back using the Hwy instead and averaging around 65mph I got 44.1 for around 100mi. with AC and bikes on the back. Yesterday I drove 120mi. mostly Hwy. 60-70mph with no bikes and AC and got 50mpg. I think I'm losing 1-2mpg for bikes and the same for AC. I'm going to try some more aero mods soon..

 

Paul

[CMax-Traveler]

My civic hybrid lost 10mpg with a bike rack on the back.  I'd be very happy if it's only 1-2 with the C-max.  Then again, so far I've just put my bike inside, which wasn't possible with the Civic, so I'm losing nothing while carting my bike around.

[ptjones]

I would imagine how fast you go will make some difference on MPG's.

Paul