MINI Bicycle Holder, Looks can be deceiving

Here is a close up of the bike rack

And this is what it looks like with a bike on it.

If you release the holding mechanism the rack slides forward so you can open the rear hatch

Looks can be deceiving because it looks like it won't open without hitting the vertical portion but it clears it with a few inches to spare.  The vertical bike holder also can be folded down when there is no bike on the rack to open the hatch.

Northern Rail Trail - fka B&M Northern Line

The Northern Recreational Rail Trail, also known as the Northern Rail Trail, is a 58-mile multi-use rail trail in western New Hampshire, USA, running from Lebanon to Boscawen. It uses the right-of-way of the Boston and Maine Railroad's former Northern Line, which was acquired by the State of New Hampshire in 1996. - Wikipedia

My goal for this ride was to ride the entire length of the trail from Boscawen to Lebanon and back. I decided to go with 5 water bottles for this trip because in my reconnoiter of the route I didn't see many places to stop near the trail and didn't want to be caught short. The weather report wasn't looking good either, there was 60% chance of rain today so I was glad for the fenders and I brought a rain jacket, too.

Lake Winnespaukee Gravel Grinder

After I solidified my plans to drive up to Epsom, NH to buy the MINI Bike Holder (what a dumb name, probably mis translated from the BMW version, Fahrradträger, meaning Bike Carrier), I started looking for 50 to 60 mile gravel routes near Epsom, NH.  Didn't find anything that looked good so I started looking at the maps and marking roads on my Roubaix to Brew Gravel Map. Once I found enough dirt, I developed the following route:  

It will be interesting to see how the Sex Machine works have only the granny and big ring available for the ride.

First Dirt, pictured above, occurred around mile 5.

MINI Bicycle Holder

I have never been happy with my rack mounted bicycle trays for the MINI Cooper. The road bike rack just never seemed to hold the bike tight enough and I could hear it rocking. Don't get me wrong, they worked fine, none of my bikes ever came off but the rocking noise is what bothers me the most.

5 Bottle Mounts on the Sex Machine

I am starting to explore new areas and some of them can be remote so access to stores along the route could be limited or non-existent during the Pandemic. So I mounted two more water bottles holders on the fork of my bike.