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http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/European_Union_Flag.jpg Ride through the spring and summer time with the all-new VW bike collection. (cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=205148)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/VW_Mountain_Bike.jpgWayne Gerdes – CleanMPG (cleanmpg.com) – May 2, 2009

Dreieich, Germany -- Time to get on your bike to actively enjoy nature, the sun and fresh air. With the bicycles from the new VW Accessories - bike collection, you can live the passion for VW on two wheels just as many do on four! In doing so, the 2009 bike collection has the right bicycle for our two-wheel fans.

26” Mountain Bike

The white outdoor bicycle is just as functional as it is sporty. The RST sprung fork can be adjusted simply using a mechanical lock-out function when necessary. Further highlights are the 24-speed Shimano Deore gear system, the Schwalbe Black Jack tires, the black aluminum hollow chamber wheels, and a comfortable yet sporty black and white Rigida mountain bike seat. A further optical highlight of the mountain bike is the red anodized headset on the handlebar.

24” Junior Mountain Bike

For our small mountain bikers, VW Accessories is offering a 24 inch Junior mountain bike with frame size of 33 cm. The design is the same as the 26 inch mountain bike including the adjustable RST sprung fork and 24-speed Shimano Acera gear system enabling it to be switched to the different riding requirements off-road.
The black aluminum hollow chamber wheels and comfortable Rigida seat ensures a lot of for the junior mountain bikers.

28” Trekking Bike

Versatile and multi-functional, this bike is suitable for various off-road tours as well as relaxing city bike tours. A brushed aluminum frame, 28 inch aluminum hollow chamber rims, a 24-speed Shimano Deore gear system as well as the hydraulic Magura rim brake HS 11 make the sporty bicycle an all-round. The bike is available in either a ladies’ and men’s version.

28” City Bike

This bike is ideal for taking you to the market and is suitable for longer road trips. The brushed aluminum frame promises a shiny appearance on the road and the 7-speed Shimano Nexus gear system, aluminum handlebars and the V-Brakes are responsible for the look, feel and real world sportiness. Easy to mount thanks to a low step over height plus the adjustable RST sprung fork make it a winner.

Chopper

This is a special ride and is included in the VW Bike collection again in 2009. The tornado red special edition 1976 as well as the special edition Goal with Copper Orange Metallic paintwork is limited to just 500 units. Banana saddles, chrome-plated wheels, rear-view mirror and hub-cleaning rings round up the perfection of the cult bike.

Racing

For racing cyclists, VW will offer an all-new Racing bike whose detail and availability will be released in the summer of 2009.

Transporting your VW bicycle on your VW of choice

To ensure that all the VW bicycles are transported safely, VW Accessories will offer the correct transporting solutions for most of its lineup. The assortment ranges from roof carriers to interior bike racks up to carriers for the towing hitch. Using an expansion kit, you can even transport a third bicycle. The Bike collection including bicycle holders and carriers can be purchased at all participating VW dealerships.

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/VW_Chopper.jpg
The Chopper – To retro for me :D

Automaker-labeled bikes are almost always either cheap junk, or overpriced. The componentry that is mentioned in the story is mostly half decent, so I'm guessing the latter will be the case.

This is what I want to hear more about:

To ensure that all the VW bicycles are transported safely, VW Accessories will offer the correct transporting solutions for most of its lineup. The assortment ranges from roof carriers to interior bike racks up to carriers for the towing hitch. Using an expansion kit, you can even transport a third bicycle. The Bike collection including bicycle holders and carriers can be purchased at all participating VW dealerships.This is a HUUUUUGE problem for bike enthusiasts who want to be fuel conscious. 4-5 years ago most of my mountain biking friends drove trucks. Now most of them have sold their trucks and are struggling to figure out the best way to transport their bikes with their cars, and there's no method right now that isn't either a PITA or a fuel waster.

Basically you have the following options:


Roof mount. I always did this in the past and it worked great, keeping the bikes out of the way and not requiring modifications to my car. BUT it seriously SUCKS gas. I never got much above city mpg on the highway with bikes on the roof. Simply no longer an option for me.
Trunk mount. These are the cheapest racks, and work fine for occasional use -- or for road riders. BUT if you drive any distance on bumpy back roads to get to a trailhead (1) the rack will shift and sway back and forth a bit no matter how tight it's cinched down and (2) dust will get under the pads, combining with the motion of (1) to destroy your paint. 50 miles on gravel = permanent paint damage. Also, trunk mount completely prevents access to your trunk while the bikes are on the car.
That leaves hitch mount. Ironically this fuel-saving option works great for fuel-sucking truck owners, because the hitch is a decent height off the ground. BUT it's not a great solution on cars, because mounting the hitch below the bumper is usually a couple inches too low, causing the rack and/or the bikes themselves to drag on the ground on just moderately uneven terrain. My Golf's hitch (even without a rack installed) scrapes the ground on some parking lot entrances without a load in the trunk.


The problem with hitch mount is exacerbated by the fact that most bolt-on hitches place the receiver lower than necessary. There's enough room under the bumper of my Golf to place the receiver a full 1 1/2" higher, which would eliminate the problems, but the part was obviously designed by orangutans on heroin. Then there's the fact that many bolt-on hitches for cars aren't very solid because they only thing to which they can be bolted is the trunk pan. My U-haul dealer sternly warned me to always use stabilizing straps on the sides whenever transporting bikes or cargo boxes in back because the sway that they cause can pull the bolts through the trunk pan.

All this could be alleviated if automakers would step up and acknowledge that there are people who would like to transport bicycles on their automobiles and not on trucks. What we need is a receiver or other mount point at bumper height (possibly behind a hidden panel in the center of the bumper) and supported by the frame. This could easily be designed in if the automakers cared. In fact, I believe some European automakers have offered such a system in the past, but since Euro hitches are a different design than American ones it does us no good over here.

The few automakers (such as Subaru) that do offer bike-carrying solutions invariably offer roof rack mounts, which are no longer a reasonable option in these fuel conscious times.