Hello all. I thought I would share this little project if it helps someone. I wanted to haul my bike inside my vehicle and set out to build an internal bike rack setup. Others had posted good ideas, but they were not quite what I wanted, mostly because they required dropping or removing the seat. I wanted to use the internal rails as fixation points. My initial idea was to place a fork mount near the rear of the vehicle. But the bike is too high to mount that way without eliminating either the bike seat or the grenadier seat. I compromised by switching to single bike capability and mounting the fork forward. While it could be mounted to either the right or left rail, the right rail proved better as it gives access to the thru axle on the left. I started the project with a 1x4x24 piece of wood (purchased from Lowe's and labeled "project board"). I chose red oak as it was the hardest of the woods available (harder than pine, poplar) which gave a nice stiffness and a surprising nice appearance even in the unfinished state. IF someone did not like the color, a gray or ebony stain could make the rack stealthier. I purchased a Kuat Dirtbag as the fork mount and chose 3/8 inch hex bolts, locking washers, and stop nuts. The 1x4 proved not wide enough to properly countersink the fork mount, so I switched to 1x6x24 to allow proper countersinking. The 1x6 proved too wide to mount on center, so the L-track hardware was mounted 2" from the outboard side of the wood slat. For L-track hardware, I chose to use 2 fixation points to prevent movement in transit. I chose a version with a knob for easy install and removal. The hardware with the knob was barely longer that 1", so I needed to buy a second set of L-track studs (1.8" long) that had nuts and mate the hardware pieces. The L-track hardware is mounted 8" from each other. Attached are the photos of the project. Seems pretty clean and bespoke. Yet the tolerances are tight. It works for my road and cross bike, but not sure it would work for my mountain bike. It seems pretty adaptable and could easily be flipped 180 degrees to the other side to mount the fork at the most rearward position (but the seat would need to come down - objectionable for me but maybe not for others). A second set of drill holes 2" from the other side of the board would allow mounting in any orientation. Being more aggressive with fork mount placement or even flipping the fork mount might improve the tolerances. The bikes shown are 56cm and I am 6'0" of that helps with tolerance questions.
