When on holiday in France a Dutch chap approached and said he was the designer of the two ball bike carrier fitted to my Eriba. After a few salutations he pointed out that it was only designed for one bike! Whilst on holiday I bought another bike and came home with two bikes on the carrier. To my amazement on coming home I noticed that the designed carrier had twisted! So, just a note of caution, if you do carry two bikes on the bike carrier please be aware they can twist the 10mm plate used so inspect frequently. In my case I carry a fold up e bike in the car and an e bike on the carrier and a have had no problems since. Hope this helps

Hi Aaron, I dumped the plate in the scrap I’ll try to find it. Basically with two bikes fitted on the carrier which in turn was attached to the tow ball, the 10mm plate bent/twisted under the weight of 2 bikes. One of the bikes was an ebike and although the battery was removed, maybe the combined weight was too much. Since making another plate I rounded the corner where it is cut down to 22mm rather than a 90deg corner. This has given it a little more ‘meat’ at the stress point and I have had no more trouble but I will stick to just carrying 1 bike.

Quote: Derekcbr wrote in post #3

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Hi Aaron, I dumped the plate in the scrap I’ll try to find it. Basically with two bikes fitted on the carrier which in turn was attached to the tow ball, the 10mm plate bent/twisted under the weight of 2 bikes. One of the bikes was an ebike and although the battery was removed, maybe the combined weight was too much. Since making another plate I rounded the corner where it is cut down to 22mm rather than a 90deg corner. This has given it a little more ‘meat’ at the stress point and I have had no more trouble but I will stick to just carrying 1 bike.

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Hi Mike, I’m glad to hear you have had no problems! I posted because having had a problem I just wanted to tell others. I hope no one else has any issues and I don’t in the future.

Mike, I think you maybe right in that the steel was poor quality, but it strikes me as a little funny that the aforementioned Dutch chap who claimed to have designed it, was adamant that it was to be used for just one bike. Ah well, as said I hope no one else has a problem and I hope that I have no problems with my second attempt. Thanks for your comments.

Here’s a pic of the offending item!

4FC99EEA-A33A-40A6-AAC0-6198C6C61097.jpeg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)

interesting, we have been using the same type of bracket for some time with 2 bikes with no issues, I have just been outside and stood on the ball with my vast 15+ stone girth with no sigh of any buckling, I wonder how much extra stress is caused by
wind resistance?