TWO cyclists have invented the first bike rack that fits inside cars.
After years of strapping mountain bikes to the backs of their cars, engineers Ken Johnson and Peter Hindmarch, from Washington, Tyne and Wear, came up with the idea.
They have invented the X-Rack-3 after becoming increasingly concerned about exposing their bikes to both the elements and thieves.
They approached the North-East Business and Innovation Centre's (BIC) product and process unit with the idea.
Mr Johnson said: "When we first approached them, we just had an idea and some sketches of how we thought it would work.
"We were fed-up with having to attach our mountain bikes to the roof of the car every time we set off and wanted to use our engineering skills to invent a solution for this problem.
"They did a patent search to ensure the rack was completely original and tested our theories by transforming our idea into some initial prototypes made from metal.
"It was fantastic to watch our idea taking shape."
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