Recommendations for bike carrier with hitch mount

[Hi Ho Silver]

I'm going to be riding bikes with my niece and we'll probably be using my vehicle (Explorer Sport) to transport the bikes. We may both be riding road bikes, or we make have one road bike and one wimped-up Klein mountain bike (which has a radically sloped 1 1/2" diameter top tube).

Anyone have any tips and/or recommendations for a 2-bike carrier that attaches to a 2" hitch receiver?

[indysteel]

We have a Thule T2 XT carrier. It holds the bikes my the wheels, rather than the frame itself. It is super easy to use and doesn't interfere with getting in and out of the trunk. Saris and Yakima have similar products. They're all pricey, but worth it if you transport bikes on a regular basis.

[Hi Ho Silver]

That looks like a great carrier, but I'm afraid it is beyond my price range since I just bought another bike. Have you tried any other carriers?

[indysteel]

I had a Saris Bones trunk rack. It worked well although it scratched up both my car and bikes a bit. It was just cumbersome to take on and off the car. I mostly just put my bike inside my car. When I got married a couple of years ago, we opted for the Thule. You can often find used Saris (and other racks) on Craigslist.

[ny biker]

REI had Thule racks on sale last week, probably still on sale now.

[Cataboo]

do a search on craigslist for yakima or thule. People sell their hitch racks fairly cheap often.

I have an earlier version of this:
http://www.rei.com/product/767986/yakima-doubledown-hitch-rack-4-bike

It's great for holding my bikes, very easy to get the bikes on. I leave it on my car almost all the time since the arms swing down and it's not sticking out.

I got rear ended once, and my bike rack was slightly scratched while the woman's mercedes bumper didn't look as good :) I figure it's protection.

I have a subaru station wagon, so it's slightly annoying to lift the tailgate, you gotta swing the bike rack down. Is that hard? No, it takes like 5 seconds. Do I always do it? No, I'm more likely to go in the back seat doors and throw things over into the back, or just open it as much as possible and stick my arms in to get whatever I want. I can duck and stick my entire body in. Yes, I'm lazy.

I also have the
http://www.rei.com/product/723237/thule-hitching-post-pro-hitch-rack-2-bike

It's fine. It also holds bikes. Only 2 of them, mine doesn't have the arms swing down - so it's a little bit worrisome when I reverse if I want to get close to something. I don't think it sways as much as the yakima, and it is further away from the bumper, so I can open my tailgate a lot more. I think it's also shorter so I don't have to lift the bikes quite as high.

[Hi Ho Silver]

I tested an "Xport Flatbed" carrier sold by Performance and was really unimpressed with the adapter for a 2" receiver - it made installation and removal a real ordeal. I'm returning it this week because I don't want to leave the carrier permanently mounted and I'm not willing to put up with the hassle of attaching/detaching the carrier on a weekly basis.

I'll have to go down to the local REI (thanks for the 'heads-up' on their ongoing sale) and see what they have to offer, especially the models mentioned above. Hopefully the ones they carry will have a better system for mounting the carrier in the hitch.