I wanted one of the front mounted bike carriers that AL advertise but was put off by the price. If, like me, you baulk at the idea of making your own carrier out of sheet steel (see Michel Gueguen's 'How to' for details) your best bet is to buy a kit comprising a tow ball specifically made to mount onto the Eriba draw bar/chassis and a bike carrier designed to mount onto this.

The towball for this kit has a locating lug on it which means that the only carrier that will fit is the one specifically designed for it. I know I have seen ordinary towballs without the lug on caravans so I thought that any towball mounting bike carrier would work if the lug was removed. This means that the same carrier would also be usable on the car's towball.

The full kit was supposed to be nearly £500 fitted but the towball adaptor on its own was supplied by Jandi for £129 plus vat.

I knew that nose weight would be a problem but a recent post by Andy (SDA) pointed out that his commonly used red plastic nose weight 'gauge' was out by 35kg! So off I went to get one that is actually calibrated (Millenco £29) and the result was very surprising. The red one's indicated 75kg was much nearer to 45kg !!!!!! Our 2 bikes weigh in at 27kg so that was all the info I needed to proceed.







The tow ball is designed to use the bolt holes that join the hitch to the draw bar but you have to cut a hole in the aluminium or plastic cover .

The size of this hole depends on the particular tow ball adaptor that is required for your Eriba. There are different sizes of draw bar. The shape of the item is such that the hole has to be quite a lot bigger than the visible part of the adaptor. I will try to scan the German instruction document which has pics on it.

The cutting was a bit nerve racking because, obviously, you have to avoid the draw bar. I removed the rivets which attach the aluminium cover to the plastic hitch cover so I could lift it out of the way then after some careful measuring and template making I got to work with a metal cutting disc in an angle grinder.
I was warned by one of the service guys at AL that the hole required to fit the attachment was bigger than the pice itself and this proved correct. The finished cutting was covered with a second piece of checker plate with a circular hole.


....and finally....ready for a France with nose weight 65kgs (only one Calorlight bottle).