Guide to Travelling with a Mountain Bike

With the booming popularity and resurgence of mountain biking, it comes as little surprise that best road bikes for beginners more riders are seeking out trails to ride both near and far. While bikes are made to be ridden, sometimes it’s simply not feasible to simply ride to the bike park, trail network or trailhead.

When it comes to travelling with your mountain bike, a number of logical options come to mind straight away. Before we get stuck into each transportation method, the overarching theme with this guide is that the priority should always be ensuring your ride is both safe and secure, as such we’d recommend always carrying a lock with your bike to ensure it’s not an easy target for opportunistic thieves. Right, without further ado, regardless of whether you’re travelling near or far, in this article, we’ll take you through our top methods on travelling with or transporting your mountain bike.

Travelling by Car
When it comes to travelling with or transporting your bike, a car or personal vehicle is by far the most common and popular option for riders. We’ll go through a few popular options for mountain bikers below, whether within, attached to, or on top of your vehicle.

Inside your car/Tray
Arguably the most secure option on this list, simply carrying your bike in your car not only keeps your ride safe from the elements but also doesn’t come with negative effects on fuel consumption or height restrictions that other options can introduce. It must be mentioned, however, that travelling with your bike in the car is best suited to solo travellers, as most riders will be restricted by their vehicle’s dimensions and interior carrying capacity.

To ensure enough room for your bike/s, riding gear and any other luggage, we recommend removing at least one, if not both, wheels. This not only allows the handlebars to lay flat but also allows for multiple bikes to be carried. When loading your bike into your car, the drive-side of your bike should always be facing up. Try to limit placing other luggage on your bike so as not to damage the components themselves or cause avoidable damage to your bike, such as a bent derailleur hanger.

If you opt to travel with your bike in your car, it’s wise to either invest in or upcycle some blankets or similar to protect your bike and your car from damage. Other considerations include using a brake pad spacer to avoid having to reset your brake pistons if/when your brake levers cop a knock. To protect your drivetrain, we’d also recommend investing in a chain keeper to keep your chain from marking your riding kit or the interior of your car. To further protect your belongings, it’s also worth considering a boot liner or similar, which will go a long way to limiting tracking dirt through your vehicle too.

For those with a utility vehicle or truck, using a tailgate pad and simply placing your ride in the bed of your truck and securing it with the velcro strap is probably the easiest option listed here. Designed to protect both the tailgate of your ute and the bike from swaying back and forth over the paintwork, a tailgate pad is an affordable option to consider when transporting your mountain bike.

Vertical Bike Rack
The vertical bike rack has quickly become one of the most popular options for travelling with a mountain bike, and for good reason. Boasting increased carrying capacity, security, ease of use and a durable design that stands up to the elements, it’s one of the most efficient ways to get a bunch of bikes to the trail.

While they’re amongst the more expensive options for travelling, this cost is well justified especially considering the freeways, gravel roads and fire trails riders are likely to use to access their trail networks.

A couple of things to consider when prior to buying a rack include checking out what your local lawmakers state about number plate and rear light visibility. Most options will have provisions for an accessory plate to be fitted, if in doubt, we’d strongly recommend picking one up to be on the right side of the law.

On the subject of local laws, it’s worth checking your restrictions on overhang. Some jurisdictions state a maximum or limit on the amount of overhang that a vehicle can have past the rear axle. While most rack providers will provide a number of different tilting or mounting options to conform to legal requirements, the onus is still on you, the buyer, to make sure your set-up is in spec.