A new bike rack

The past few months I have been hauling around this mountain bike inside the Compact Jr trailer behind the van. With the trailer being stored I was in need of a new way to transport the bike. I did have a hitch-mount rack for the rear, but I desperately need to get weight off the rear and move it forward. Even though the bike weighs in at 35 pounds, the rack was another 30-ish. All of this hangs 4 feet over the rear tires causing all that weight to compound both by compressing the rear an lifting the front of the van.

The cost to install a hitch on the front of the van was prohibitive, so I created a simple method of installing a Yakima roof-top bike rail to the front of the van. The bike, and its weight, has been moved forward and the overall weight of the van has been reduced as well. All for a cost of $12 (for the angle iron to mount it all). The Yakima rail was purchased with the money I got for selling my previous hitch mount rack.