# Home made tandem bike rack/fuji tandem



## moonie

*Home made tandem bike hitch rack*

Hi all! I am new to tandem riding and recently purchased a used Fuji from a friends brother. My grandson and are planning to ride in the PALM (Pedal Across Lower Michigan) next year with it. My problem was how to transport it. I have friends with tandems that either use a large bed pickup truck or a mini van. Since I don't own either that wasn't an option. I do have a camper with a Yakima roof rack and purchased a used Yakima Sidewinder but that still required me having to tow it around just to haul the Tandem! Not very fuel efficient..LOL. So after scouring the internet and all of the various solutions, I decided to build my own. I'm fortunate enough to have a good friend who is a master fabricator (40 years as a General Motors Die maker). I also visited the Yakima website and purchased a few items to hold the bike on the rack. we used a 1 1/4" ball hitch and he inserted and welded in a threaded barrel that allows me to snug up the hitch with a Thule lockable hitch bolt so there isn't any side to side rocking at all. This thing rides like a rock! With his help and a trip to the local Powder coater, this was the end result:


----------



## mikerp

Turned out pretty nice, you may want to consider adding some "whiskers" to the front end of the vehicle as they do on wide load vehicles (not only to let approaching folks know that the bike is hanging out on each side but to remind you as well).


----------



## moonie

mikerp said:


> Turned out pretty nice, you may want to consider adding some "whiskers" to the front end of the vehicle as they do on wide load vehicles (not only to let approaching folks know that the bike is hanging out on each side but to remind you as well).


Actually the picture is deceiving, we built it making sure that is was perfectly centered when the bike was on the rack between the mirrors. It doesn't stick out beyond them. No different than any of my other bikes on any of my other racks.

Thanks for the compliment though. It works like a charm.


----------



## jays35

What size of square tubing did you use? And it looks like a couple of bolts on either side of the receiver hitch. I cannot make them out. 
Thanks


----------

