Just to revive an old thread - since day 1 of having a T5 conversion, i've dreamt of having a bike rack and awning. I always pushed the desires aside however and said 'i'm not wasting the money on a conversion'.
Now that we've splashed out on a 6 month old T6 Cali, our time has come. We're getting a bike rack fitted next week, and I honestly cant wait.
Now for the kicker......we dont ride bikes. Heck, my mrs is due to give birth to our second in late November, with our first-born currently 20 months old. We have no intention to ride a bike any time soon.
However, the selling point of a Cali (for us, and i'm sure a great many) has been it's versatility.
As a parent of a newborn (both historical and future), I cant begin to tell you of how versatile a camper is (t5/t6 or otherwise), and a bike rack is only that in name. It's also as others have said:
Clothes Line
Storage Box/Rack
Style/Personalisation
Flexibility
Future-Proofing.
For me, the Cali offers everyone more versatility than (almost) any other vehicle. The second you start removing/storing that versatility, you take away from the DNA of the vehicle, and ultimately, would be better off with a simple estate/hatchback.
At the end of the day, it's each to his/her own. I learned long ago to let others live by their own choices - but i'll finish with this rhetorical question. How many of you travel with an umbrella on a sunny day?
*drops mic*