As much as I'd love a Chase hitch, $400 just to haul my bike is a little excessive.

To the OP, you can make the rack you have work - place the long part on the trunk deck behind the top, and let the short part rest where the bumper starts to come out. Be sure to pad everything with towels or better yet, 3M clear patches. Angle the arms up about 30

 

MikeDC5,

With the setup you show, I'd be worried about the bikes dragging on inclines like driveways and ramps. I'd also worry about the heat from the exhaust increasing the air pressure in the tires and causing mysterious blowouts.

Years ago Rhode Gear made a rack called the Euro Shuttle. It was a trunk mount but instead of the bikes hanging off the bike like in your pic, the bikes were mounted facing forward, like a roof rack.

Imagine this - take the front wheel off your Fuji. Pick up your bike and place the fork in the area between the base of the roof and the leading edge of the trunk. The Euro Shuttle had a cross bar here and a quick-release fork mount.

Now imagine the rest of the bike floating over the trunk, with the back wheel trailing behind the car at bellybutton height. The Euro Shuttle had another cross bar here with a wheel tray. The entire assemblage is held up by a third cross bar sitting on the rear bumper with vertical supports.

I used the Euro Shuttle on a Miata without incident for many years. It would probably work on the S2000 too, if you can find one; they stopped making them years ago.

Good luck and let us know if you find anything...

 

Wow....that first pic makes me cringe!! I just could not do that to my S!! A hitch with a hitch mounted rack is the way to go!!

John

 

just curious - if you had a hardtop couldn't you use a regular roof rack? I wonder if yakima or the like makes something for the S2000 hard top.

 

I don't see why not, but the roof is pretty small.

 

I thought the same thing....until I got a hardtop. The OEM hardtop doesn't offer much support if you're going to be carrying anything even remotely heavy. A regular car's roof + roof rack is VERY sturdy. You could rock the entire car and most likely lift the entire car with the roof rack alone. The Honda OEM hardtop is pretty soft and probably would dent/buckle if there was any significant stress placed upon it.

As Saki GT said above, it's also very small. The Civic/Integra coupe also have small roofs and they require a "short roof adapter" from Thule that costs an extra $99. The S2000 roof is even shorter and it's quite curved. It also doesn't really have a good section to secure the "feet" of the rack against.

 

Thanks again for the help guys; I appreciate all the suggestions. I went down to my local bike shop this weekend and got a Bones rack (pic below). This is temporary as I plan on a hitch at some point but it seems like it will work well. I haven't fully mounted it yet, but the test fit looked good. When I get it mounted up next weekend, I'll post up some pictures for you guys.

btw, normally would be worried about my paint but this car has been through quite a bit as my only car and I need to get a new paint job sometime soon anyway. I've tracked it 10+ hard hard times so it's taken a toll on my poor car

Thanks again!
-Mike

 

I mounted the hitch and then started to put the bumper back on.
Once the the square receiver hit the bumper I marked it with a sharpie from inside the bumper
marked it several times and measured to center. Then cutting a small hole worked my way out
left right and to and bottom. Started with a drill bit then cut the rest with a utility knife, cuts very easy with a new sharp blade.

I feel the holes in the bumper and tub are a critical point. if you cut sloppy holes and allow the bolt to center in a oval hole that is where a receive with shift and begin to crack out the tub. I under cut my holes and had to thread the bolts through, with ZERO extra space for slop and bolt moving around. I bought larger washer and better hardware. Finally sealing it all with a healthy squeeze of silicone for water protection.

If a tub cracks? Watch your trailer tongue weight! if you are going to pull a car or jetski trailer it weighs more than a bike rack in intended it for. There is added stress in acceleration and stopping with heavy cargo. A trailer is trying to rip out the receiver from the car.

GL