My son's vision of us and my plane - notice the bikes in the back reflecting my favorite two-hobbys-in one activity

love it

I can't fit 2 bikes inside my Mooney, and I have a long body ??

I can't fit 2 bikes inside my Mooney, and I have a long body ??

You bet!  Which model do you have?  I have the M20k - the rocket I guess you can tell from Adams picture.  

Rear seats folded down, two full size bikes fit nicely.  The hardest part is monkeying them around the front door - the only change I wish was that we had a larger rear hatch door.  But they go in - much easier with both wheels off.  But I even can get my bikes in with the rear wheel on.  I do this with my time trial bike since it has a horizontal drop out and that is a pain to get the wheel off - so then I take off the seatpost and front wheel and it goes in fine.  A fun summer time activity for me is to travel around the state in and pop in on various time trial series - ride out the airport gate to the TT, then do the race, back to the airplane, and fly home.  Two hobbies in less than the time of one!  

I also sometimes travel by Mooney with my oldest son and we go fishing (we call it "fly fishing" - I fly - he fishes), and we bring full size 29er mountain bikes which also go in nicely with both wheels off.  Okay - I am a bike enthusiast, but I also have two folding bikes, which go in nicely through the rear hatch and I bring them for a quick back if I am only going to need 2-5 mi of ground transportation, like a $100 hamburger in the neighboring town.  Plus those bike stay in my hangar at the home airport for noodling around the airport.

Word to the wise for packing bikes - you don't want to get dirt and grease all over the interior of your nice airplane - or have pointy pedals or chains or derailers scratch or rip upholstry.  Trick is to put the bike into a BBQ cover - it is made of tough weather proof cloth.  Wrap it all the way around and tie off with bungies.  Now this is with wheels off.  Then the bike slides in through the front door easily.  Then I have proper wheel bags from the bike story for the wheels.  No grime or grease anywhere in the airplane.  Actually I transport my bikes in the car the same way.

As another biking enthusuast, I do somehting very similiar to carry our two 29er MTB's in our 252. But rather than use BBQ covers, my wife found a pair of square nylon bags that are zippered along the top. Each frame, with seat and wheels removed, fits perfectly into a bag. She got a couple smaller zippered square bags that fit a pair of wheels perfectly as well. She found all these at a duffle bag speciality shop and were very affordable. The two bikes & wheelsets and travelling bike accessories all fit nicely into the back.

Real Biking enthusiast don't let there friends ride foldable bikes!

Now that's real art....

Rocket On...