The Sur Ron, for those that may not know, an electric dirt bike of sorts. Like my earlier ebikes, I'm finding my '13 PIP an ideal hauler for it, I still get mid 40's mpg, even in the mountains and with the extra drag and weight of the bike (110 lbs.) The lift kit helps on some of the roads. Right now, a 700 watt inverter allows me to charge the 6 volt battery at about 7 amps. If I take a leisurely lunch, while its partially recharging, I can ride pretty much all day, depending on the trail and speeds, lets just say several hours, I wear out first. When I see a 4x4 pickup with a single bike in the bed, I just think "whatever floats your boat." The PIP economy allows me to access area thats I would never bother with (being too cheap, at today's gas prices) in a full size "teens mpg" pickup. My 1 ton Silverado stays in the shop.
Got any links to your hitch hardware? Seems like you've found some really smarts design to carry your two wheeler safely... Is there anything your hitch/rack design lacks/improvements you'd want to make? I've been spending lots of time thinking about the lightest hitch designs. Thinking welding aluminum hardware to both sides of aluminum crash bar that's under the plastic bumper cover is gonna be the strongest, most efficient design... Thoughts?
We get like 42 with the floe trailer attached . And say a washer on it. A bike would be almost un.measurable. or close. Hale with a ZZ engine and trans in mid trailer we did not know twas they're. Goin down road.
The bike presents a fair bit of drag, one reason I like my folding Montague e bike for long road trips, fitting inside like it does there is no mileage hit. But's its not near the trail bike the Sur Ron is. My rack is all steel, made out of stuff I had laying around in the shop, and has been road tested now quite a bit, rough roads, and for my purposes there is nothing I'd change. The hitch itself is just a stock steel hitch made for the Prius, the big trick was when I realized that to get the slop out of the hitch (got to have some, to make it possible to pull the receiver out) 2 turnbuckles were needed. Off set from the center, they take it all out when snugged up, while still allowing easy removal. I can take it all off in a couple minutes. The other lucky thing was when I found that I can still open the hatch with the rack on (though the big must be off), that was an unplanned for bonus. Especially as I wanted to keep the rack as short as possible.
Yeah but to be talking about drag you must be doing all highway miles they're all mileage above 50 or whatever the heck constantly and not here now we're running service calls stop and every other couple of houses every other neighborhood whatever and we'll never see any anything to do with any drag coefficient problems No sir yeah we don't even wax the car but nice.
My bike drives are a mix of 70 mph driving (max, usually more like 60-65, once I get off the interstate and onto secondary roads, then down to 20 and 40's, where the drag hit for sure is nothing. One thing I've always liked about the Prius is the CC working down to 25 MPH!
