Bike Racks Proven to Lower MPG
Roof-mounted bike racks are common fare for outdoor enthusiasts, but you might be surprised how driving with the bike rack increases your fuel consumption.
To prove this, Consumer Reports took a 2013 Honda Accord and drove it with no rack, an empty bike rack, an empty rack with a wind deflector and then a bike rack with two bikes and a wind deflector, to measure the incremental affects on fuel consumption. The car was driven on the same course for each test, which consisted of highway driving at 65 mph and a simulated city scenario.
In testing with no bikes or bike rack, the car returned 42 mpg on the highway, a great number even for a four-cylinder family sedan. When just a bike rack was added, fuel economy sunk by five mpg, bringing the highway average to 37 mpg. When a wind deflector was added to the empty rack, an extra two mpg was lost bringing the car down the 35 mpg. Finally, the car was tested with the wind deflector and two bicycles, which sunk the average to 27 mpg.
That represents a 15 mpg discrepancy between a car with no rack, and a vehicle with a wind deflector and a roof-mounted bike rack packed with two bikes.
[Source: Consumer Reports]
Stephen covers all of the day-to-day events of the industry as the News Editor at AutoGuide, along with being the AG truck expert. His truck knowledge comes from working long days on the woodlot with pickups and driving straight trucks professionally. When not at his desk, Steve can be found playing his bass or riding his snowmobile or Sea-Doo. Find Stephen on <A title="@Selmer07 on Twitter" href="http://www.twitter.com/selmer07">Twitter</A> and <A title="Stephen on Google+" href="http://plus.google.com/117833131531784822251?rel=author">Google+</A>
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I don't know much about aerodynamics, but the more frontal area the car has, the higher the aerodynamic drag. That'd explain why the wind deflector actually decreases MPG instead of increasing it.
There is a disturbance in the Force as the collective of VW and Subaru driving bike snobs and tree huggers weep...