roof racks for bikes? or what?

Our Cub camper has an integral roof rack and I made my own bike racks to fit the roof bars.
8mm threaded rod to hold the front forks with the wheel removed and a C section to locate the back wheel. Then a ratchet strap up and over to hold it all down. We took three bikes from Sydney, Port Augusta, up to Dalhousie, then across the desert and back home with zero problems apart from heaps of dust on them. Tied a plastic bag over the seats to keep them clean and dry. They all needed the chain cleaning when we got home but all travelled ok.

Nicki,
Most of the triathletes and serious bike riders seem to have their bikes up top. Mind you, their bikes are usually ultralites and seriously expensive bits of gear secured in seriously expensive purpose built bike racks.

The biggest problem with bikes up top is that it's easy to forget they are there and they don't fit under roller doors on your garage, the rack secures them well and they just disintegrate into a pile of expensive tubing. I've seen grown men cry after doing this.

IMHO most average bikes, properly secured, will be OK on the back of the van. Again there are bike racks and BIKE RACKS, some are better than others.

Cheers

Disco.

We've tried a couple of different options and nothing completely successful. On one trailer I built a rack on top of the trailer. But I'm just in the process of building another trailer and I'm going to mount them on the drawbar for ease of getting them on an off. Not sure whether that is an option for you.
Cheers
Dion
My Camp Gear

Tried and varied many ways. I have mounted them on the roof rack and this works well but a bit tedious getting them on and off. I have a full rack but use a roof bar that has front fork attachments on this so have to remove the front wheels but they are very secure. As mentioned they ride a bit high so have to watch out for lowish branches etc.
Once I mounted them on the back of a caravan but one time I stopped walked around the back and one had been touching the road at times. The bracket had moved and as it was a pop top I could not see it. So I canned that idea.
Next and sometimes now I fit them on a bike rack on the front of the van. I can see them, and they ride well there. It restricts me with access to the big door on the Patrol and as the Van now is an expanda, I have to take the bikes off to set up the front bed. However the rack is a fold down type so I dont have to remove it but I can once at the destination and put it on the Nissan if that makes sense.
Each of my systems worked and the best was the front draw bar one. The roof rack one is also good but then I have to sore 3 front wheels and assemble the bikes but that probably takes no longer than removing the bikes from the rack etc.

I've carried bikes all over Oz in many different ways. About to travel Tassie again. My bike has quick release wheels and just sits ockie-strapped to the spare wheels.

My advise though is to set up the bikes on your roofrack. If you only have to lift them onto a Falcon, you shoudn't have any probs. Used bike racks are easy to resell.