For the folks making various suggestions about clever bike racks - a number of these suggestions are really quite sensible, but they miss some key points (for me.)
(Which I'll expand on here mostly hoping to be of use to some future person who finds this thread and wonders "why did this guy sell a perfectly good Revel???")
1. A large part of being a bicycle race van is the ability to stand up *inside* and have a lot of space for working on the bikes, and their pieces, inside, out of the rain, wind, and sometimes snow - we're talking MTB and cyclocross here. The awning doesn't help since most races there's no space to open it, some places the easy way in/out is through the rear doors. The Revel, like any RV, has an interior full of "house" - thus doesn't do so well at this.
2. It's super important to be able to get in and out of the back of van without obstruction. By far the best solution to this is the Owl rack, which attaches to the hinges and swings with the door. The problem with it is that it's always there on the back of the van.
1-2 -> in short, I didn't really want an RV, a cargo van is a better answer for me. I tried it, really. Lesson learned.
3. I sometimes stop in sketchy places, and no bike lock in the world will make me feel secure - but having the bikes inside a generic looking van, with the windows covered, giving no hint of being anything other than a used plumbers van with nothing worth steeling inside, is a feature. For that matter, not having an awning (which I never use), solar panels, graphics, etc. is also a feature.
3 -> in short, I want the bikes, tools, etc. inside a cargo van. I didn't really want an RV. It was an experiment.
One more thing for perspective. Most folks here go on longish trips and do things like overnight in their RVs a bunch of nights a year. That's sort of the point.
I didn't, and won't. I have overnighted in the revel about 5 times. It works well - nice bed, heat, nice lights, handy toilet. That's just all the races that justified it. Then 2020 came. But the wonderful sleeping for those 5 nights doesn't offset the other 360 days a year where I really would have preferred to be using a cargo van.
*IF* what you want is a very small RV that you can stuff into all manner of places, that attracts very little attention compared to larger RVs, buy a Revel. In fact, buy mine.
*IF* what you really want is an adaptation of a cargo van, dont' buy an RV, you will be unhappy.
