The baggage area is pretty large. I think the bigger question would be whether you want to shove bicycle parts across the top of your beautiful seats to get them into the baggage area.
I am an avid Mountain Biker. I was hoping to get two 29r trail bikes and gear in the back of the -14. Not likely, without a complete tear down of the bikes, and then it's only gonna fit 1 and gear. A long travel DH bike would definitely be a challenge, with the fork alone. However, I have only looked at the cargo space on the demo and a couple of in process airplanes. Haven't tried to do it yet.
I think the technique will be for the front brake to come off, fork to come off, and both wheels to come off. Place a travel bag in the cargo compartment and put the parts in the bag. Then stack gear on top. My trail bike comes in at around 28 lbs, Niner RIP 9 RDO with Carbon everything, 160mm travel up front. So, two would be roughly 60 lbs. bags and tools.
Now the questions that will probably present. More tools? Do I bring a work stand? What about room for additional gear? Multi-day trip? I think with two DH bikes, you're gonna chew up a 100 lbs quickly. You guys tend to wear a lot of protective gear and big helmets.
Honestly, the BearHawk with the cavernous cargo space and optional side door is probably the best way to go for this type of use. If I thought I'd be doing a lot of fly and bike stuff. . . I'd take a serious look at that machine. Plus it has the ability to get you right to a trail head in certain parts of the country.
Well, the DH was more of a worst case - I have two Enduro bikes but the weight seems similar.
Murphy was going to release the Radical (seems to have adapted the Cessna bike rack from the pilot in New Zealand), but they're not being very forthcoming with performance numbers.
In any case, the point is moot since I'm already well into an RV-14 build. I'm just wondering if a combination of removing the seats and tetris'ing the frame/fork/wheels would be feasible to a 700 mile flight to KCNY.
So I have a -7 with a tipper and also ride a Specialized FSR Stumpy 6F and I've gotten it in the airplane for a test. You won't get two bikes in a -7.
1) Remove both wheels and put the plugs in the brake calipers to prevent piston expansion and brake fluid leakage.
2) Remove the handlebars at the stem, but don't disconnect any of the cables. Handlebar should lay along the longitudinal axis of the bike just fine and the fork can remain on the bike.
3) Lower seat or remove it
4) If needed, remove left pedal
5) Remove co-pilot bottom seat cushion and put a towel or blanket over the seat back.
6) Place the bike in the seat, with the fork over the seatback so the aft frame points to the front of the aircraft, the frame should fit nicely where legs normally go. Be careful if you've removed the stem, so the fork doesn't come out.
7) Strap it down.
8) Put wheels in the baggage compartment.
Here's a link to my Rockhopper 29r in the seat to give an idea: https://1drv.ms/i/s!Al5IppCB40wPgux4MKBnjPXAjQVjhQ
I'm currently building a pair of racks based on the Murphy plans for our Dream Tundra. Racks are done and we've flight tested them bare with no issues. Hung bikes on them and weren't satisfied with their stability (side to side) so I'm building some stabilizer struts that will attach it the seat post, then we'll give them a try.
I flew the Radical with and without bikes and there was very little difference in speed, and power off descents showed surprisingly little difference as well. High wing strutted airplane's have plenty of drag already, so the increment with the bikes isn't that much. I don't think I'll want to fly more than 90-100 knots with them anyway.
None of this is aplicable to the RV's of course - but it's a whole lot easier than reducing the bike to kit form to fit into the baggage compartment.
Paul
So I have a -7 with a tipper and also ride a Specialized FSR Stumpy 6F and I've gotten it in the airplane for a test. You won't get two bikes in a -7.
1) Remove both wheels and put the plugs in the brake calipers to prevent piston expansion and brake fluid leakage.
2) Remove the handlebars at the stem, but don't disconnect any of the cables. Handlebar should lay along the longitudinal axis of the bike just fine and the fork can remain on the bike.
3) Lower seat or remove it
4) If needed, remove left pedal
5) Remove co-pilot bottom seat cushion and put a towel or blanket over the seat back.
6) Place the bike in the seat, with the fork over the seatback so the aft frame points to the front of the aircraft, the frame should fit nicely where legs normally go. Be careful if you've removed the stem, so the fork doesn't come out.
7) Strap it down.
8) Put wheels in the baggage compartment.
Here's a link to my Rockhopper 29r in the seat to give an idea: ...
Tried mocking up a bike in place on a QB-9 fuse today. Your solution is very similar to what we thought would work, (but without our finish kit, it was hard to tell if it would really work out.) Nice to see it will! My thoughts were to mount one of these on the floor in the baggage area, to help stabilize the frame/fork.
I'm actually curious if this bike mount can be generally adapted to any high wing plane while moderating airspeed (I can't help but think of a worse case scenario where the bike would rip something off on its way backwards at high speeds).
These are two 26? bikes that fit right into the RV-14 without any tools. They slide right into the baggage area.