Roof rack?

 

Thank you, I thought of that too, but I'm a scrawny 71 year old female and can't imagine how I would get my bike on the roof.

 

Get a hitch mount with a riser. So much easier, more convenient, and less expensive. I won't be going back to roof racks, ever. Edit: Hybrids require some minor modification to fit a hitch, which I'll eventually get around to. For now my bike fits in the cargo area with the front wheel off.

 

💯 I've done it all, many decades ago. Once I reached the hitch mounted bike racks, I never went back, and at any given time, I had at least one car with a hitch.

 

I'm going to try an old trunk mount bike rack on the civic, but i think it will require substantial additional padding to not cause damage. The top bracket must touch the glass, there's no alternative I can see. In addition, I will limit it to one bike albeit a heavy old one, and no high speed use. Not happening immediately tho.

 

Saris Bones 2 Bike Trunk Rack will mount on damn near anything and I used mine on several new cars before selling it last year. If you only have 1 bike this one will let you put the bike a little further from the vehicle.

 

As the original poster indicated, trunk/hatch mount broke the hatchback.
This is likely because the Civic's hatch is NOT steel. It's composite/plastic.
I was kind of sad I couldn't stick any of my magnetic stickers onto it (LOL).
On a side note, I can't stick a magnetic light onto the hood either, because it's aluminum.

 

Thank you all. I doubt it will handle a hitch. The underside is not metal either.

 

It doesn't mount to the underside. It mounts to the metal part of the body underneath the (plastic) bumper cover. The underside is also just a plastic cover for aerodymanic purposes. There are already numerous manufacturers of hitches for non-hybrid Civic hatchbacks and sedans. It's not that difficult or expensive.