Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
44 of 44 people found the following review helpful.
By R. Brock
Pros - Assembly was easy and fast. Rack is rock solid. Doesn't wobble or sway in transit. Rack swings out far enough for truck tailgate to come down. Unloading camping gear with bikes in rack was a breeze. Security cable is a plus!
Cons - The rubber straps aren't permanently attached and don't lock in to their starting position easily. They Lost one right away. Order an extra set. Also- order the quick attach locking bolt. The bolt for the neck of the trailer hitch means you need a rachet set or wrench every time you want to take the rack off. The lock for the security cable is not included.
This was our first rack. We are "occassional" users. (Car camping, local bike trail, etc.) Good rack for us. If you are hauling women's or girl's bikes order the mounting adaptor. Adaptors much less expensive online. We didn't order them with the rack. Rookie mistake. Wish the instructions had some pointers on best way to mount four bikes.
Overall - Great value!
08/25/2008
Just came back from a weekend camping trip. Had a chance to compare notes on racks with a couple of people (and check out their bike racks). When I compare what we got for what we paid to what they got to what they paid... we definitely got the better value!!
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
By christopherpines
I ordered this bike carrier right before taking my kids to the SuperKid Triathlon. I ordered it via 2 day shipping, however it took 3 days to get here. When I opened the box, the directions and parts were easy to find and understand. I was able to put it together and install it on my vehicle in under 30 minutes. It was not too heavy for me (a woman) to lift. I have a Ford Expedition, and it easily glided away from the back so I was able to open my full lift gate and load the back of the car. While it is installed in the secure position, I am still able to pop the back window and access the back of my vehicle without having to glide it away. It is very sturdy and does not have alot of slack or movement when driving. (on a side note, I have parking sensers on the back of my car and when I have this rack on, they beep when I attempt to back up, so I have to remember to over ride it when backing up) The rack has two arms that fit into the body of the rack and are held on with hitch pins. When installed they are fixed in the horizonal position. They are very easily and quickly removed to store in the back of the vehicle, however, I wish that they folded down as most other racks do so that I did not have to store them in the vehicle. The other issue I had would be the tether straps. They are rubber and have tabs that fit into the arms of the horizonal bars, then go over the bike frame and then have a hole on the other side that fits over a tab on the arms. The straps were a bit of a struggle to get onto the frame, when the bike was on they seemed stable, but when I would lift the strap from the tab to remove the bike, the entire strap would pop off. This made me uncomfortable. It seemed they should go all the way around the horizontal bar so that it created a complete circle to hold to the bar. I ended up supplementing a couple of small bungees over the bikes just to make sure that if a strap became disengaged that there was a back up to keep it secure until I could stop and address it. The other issue that I had, was that I could not find any information online that explained how a child's bike could be attached to this rack. I looked at several sites that sold this rack, and read many reviews. I have two girls and thus girls bikes. The only thing I could find anywhere was in a forum where someone had posted that you could attach the extender bar used for women's bikes to the bike and place it on the rack. This might work for a tween or teenager size bike, but my daughters are 4 & 6 and their bikes were too small for the extender bar. I ordered two of them, and they were longer, unextended, than the distance between the seat and the handlebar post, I tried various ways to connect it, but they were simply too long. On the larger of the two bikes I was able to get it onto the arms of the rack (barely) but not the way it was intended. The little one with training wheels would not fit at all, and I ended up strapping it to the top after the other bikes were loaded. This might be a problem on all bike racks, but it was not something that I found much information on anywhere. Overall I am very happy with the rack. It does what I was looking for, and I appreciated the sturdy quality, the ease of assembly, and the quick installation. The glide feature was one I specifically looked for and I am very happy with it. I like that I can glide it out, fully loaded with bikes, and have complete access to my rear hatch. The straps and arms could use a redesign but are still functional. There should be an adaptation or suggestion for loading children's bikes.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
By Cakie
My boyfriend loves this bike rack so much more than the latch on he had. His only complaint is that the bikes are really close together on the rack if you have 3 or 4.
However my complaints are long...
My first complaint is it is very hard to fit a girls or woman's style bike on this rack, it takes extra effort to get it on where the men's style just glides right on. My second complaint is with a 4 bike load it makes it top heavy and the whole thing hits on the street. We drove from Colorado to Oregon with 2 bikes on it and it was still heavy enough to hit in driveways and such unless you drive though them at an angle, which is sometimes impossible to do. I do love that it attaches to the hitch and it swings out so you can still open the back of the car. But even that is a pain, because the heaviness of the bikes you can't unscrew the knob to let it swing out. You literally have to push the bikes back and hold them to take the weight off so you can unscrew it to swing out. I can't do that on my own, which is very inconvenient.
