Yeah the price tags on those things are nuts, especially for carbon. Also to update this thread, I got a new bike and decided to stop trusting my $40 hatch rack. So I got this 1.25” hitch recommended in another thread: https://torkliftcentral.com/2014-2016-mini-cooper-hardtop-convertible?options=cart And of course it goes on sale 2 weeks after I bought it LOL. You do have to cut a couple of the plastic internal bumper supports to install it, but the hitch does hold the bumper up in the middle so I wouldn't say there's any noticeable sag. I paired it with the Kuat Transfer 2-bike rack. It's a bit heavy, you can tell the Mini suspension definitely sags in the rear a bit with a bike on it, but I tested it out with 1 bike last week and it was excellent. I drove about 50 miles and used around 40%, with most being on the freeway, so it seems to impact range even less than the hatch rack.
Do you happen to have any installation pics? If you did the install yourself, how difficult was removing the bumper? I'm currently working on designing my own hitch but trying to measure and evaluate space claim without removing the bumper has been tricky. I'll probably end up removing it to measure but need to wait for a long weekend to get it done
i have one and run it on the Q7, but haven't even thought about it on the Mini. The mini only goes 100 miles, I cannot imagine a time I would need that much extra space to go such a short distance. But I have 4 cars, so I may not be the target audience to your question.
Probably a lot less with a roof box! MINI/BMW made a whole article about it but failed to mention the range hit.
I'd mainly just need it to hit up my local mountain during the winter months. It's just a short 50 mile roundtrip, so range isn't something I'm needing to consider too much unless I go up from Vancouver to the resort at Whistler-Blackcomb. I also only have the naked roof in Canada, so I'm still trying to retrofit some clips to work on my Yakima crossbar system. Will report back if I end up getting a box. There's a good deal on FB Marketplace that I am eyeing right now.
http://www.motoringfile.com/2021/05/19/yes-the-electric-mini-can-camp-too/ There's also this article about the rooftop tent that's available in Europe that nobody is going to buy haha Looks really cool though!
One thing with the roof rack that I've discovered on my Clubman, is that the heavier the bike, the more unwieldy and difficult it is to mount the bike on the roof without incident. My Trek 8.6 DS is basically a no-go for me because it's huge and probably over 30 pounds with all the gear I have on it. I'm looking to get a gravel or adventure road bike that will be much easier to handle. I can get my single speed MTB up there with smallish 2.1 tires. If there were a way to install a hitch rack, the Kuat Beta 2 is great as long as you don't mind that it rides on the top tube. It's very light. I just wish it had a built in lock. I use it all the time on my Jeep.
Unfortunately I don’t have any pics, but the installation was almost exactly the same as the installation for the ICE model that’s covered in the manual: https://dealer.torkliftcentral.com/images/docs/ecohitch-instructions/X7290%202014-16%20Mini%20Cooper%20Hardtop%20NO%20S%20MODEL.pdf Pulling the bumper was moderately difficult, mostly just because of the stupid wheel arch clips.
