Bike Rack Attachment for Pickup Truck Above the Cover. $20 (after the Kayak Rack Project.)

In a previous instructable I built a very useful kayak rack out of 1 1/2" steel conduit tubing. This instructable takes the front piece of that and uses it as a base for a bicycle rack. No tools will be necessary to put the bike rack piece on or off and the kayak rack still works. It also works with the tonneau cover in place.

2- 1/4" x 5" eyebolts

2- foot long pieces of stretch cord

2- dog ear pressure treated fence slats. 6"x72"

3- 1/2 steel conduit pieces about 72" each.

1- 6' section of closet wire shelfing, 12" x72"

??? - a bunch of wire ties.

the assembly is pretty easy after that. 2 of the three 1/2 conduit pipes are loner to go over the side walls of the pickup, and the third one (and the bottom of the wire shelfing are cut to fit just inside the inverted Tee metal piece.

This is really simple given he riser headache rack that was already built in a previous instructable. The wire shelf was notched so the two corners closest to the risers would fit between the inverted Tee support. one of the sections. of 1/2" conduit pipe was also cut to the same size. The other two sections of 1/2" pipe were cut a bit longer, but not so long that they stick out. The two 6"x72" boards were also cut down. The two pieces of wood fit conviently between the long supports of the wire shelf. I drilled the four corners of the wood, and also in the middle on the sides. The holes are too allow the wire ties to tie down the wood to the wire shelf, also holding the 1/2" pipe on the underside. See the pics. When done you have 3 runners the length of the shelf that are mostly supported by the sides of the pickup taking most of the weight off of the tonneau cover.

With the edge of the shelf (with its 1/2 conduit pipe underneath,) fitting between the inverted Tee brace, you can put the eye bolt through the inverted Tee and into the 1/2" pipe. I even put a hex nut on it to keep it even straighter, but its not really necessary. The two eye bolts lock the shelf into place and it can't move forward or back, the inverted Tee keeps it from moving side to side. the only issue is keeping the eye bolts from working their way out. to stop that I tied some elastic strap to the eye bolt, and after about an 8" run of the strap ran it through another hole in the wood and used a stopper knot. The elastic is only pulled a little bit of tension, just enough so the bolt won't slide out and the 8 inch run allows you to stretch the cord so you can remove the eye bolt when you want. The eye bolts also work as an axle so you can roll the whole shelf up if you want.

They tied down really well. I used the bicycle security chain to tye the bikes to the frame, and then two bungee chords to pull the bike nice at snug against the pipe at top. finally I used a bungee to secure the tires at the bottom on around the wood, through the wheels, and onto the wire shelf to keep the bikes from rolling side to side. The bikes were rock solid during the drive. Just to make sure, I fitted the riser rack with a a hose clamp that captured a ring that could tie a rope to and tie down the bikes to it around the neck of the handlebar just to make sure the bikes wouldn't slide side to side.