Help me spend some more $$: bike racks

[smurfalicious]

Oooh ooooh ooooh! You NEED a Saris Bones! I loved my Saris, but I did the opposite and ditched my beater car for a big red truck. Where were you when I needed to sell it cheap! I got the bones three for $135 and loved it. It fit beautifully, the only downside was that my big fat tubed, small framed women's specific mountain bike was a bit of a tight squeeze. The nice thing is that it fits any rig, even over spoilers and it looks goooood! And, you can get it in colors. I got mine at RackAttack, I think that's their website too, rackattack.com. They only stock Grey, but if you're patient, they'll order a color.

love and cookies
-smurf

[melissam]

Thanks for your input so far -- this is exactly the kind of stuff I was hoping to see!!

So now you've got me thinking:

-- Saris Bones -- will it fit my car? (It should, but when I looked up the fit for my car on the Saris site, it listed the Guardian Angel racks.)

-- Maybe I should look into putting a hitch on my car sooner rather than later.

-- Maybe a roof rack isn't so bad...

-- RackandRoad (nee Sports Rack) on Camden is a nice place. Just went there last month for one of my roommate's vehicle, and they were very helpful and have a nice selection.

BTW, I bought one of my roommates a Bauer hitch rack for her b-day a couple of years ago when she had a Jeep. My roommates have since gotten a camping trailer, and installed a hitch on the back of the trailer, and put the Bauer rack on the hitch. For the maiden voyage of the trailer & bike rack, we put our three bikes on it and drove to the north bay. After we'd crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, some guy was gesturing wildly at us, and we knew the bikes were in trouble. They were. They'd come out of the part that holds the top tube in, and fortunately had gone back towards the trailer rather than out toward the road. Unfortunately, there were stacked on top of each other, and the paint was rubbed off in several places. The good news is that it was my mountain bike, and not my carbon road bike. On the mt. bike, it looks like battle scars. On the road bike, well, I would have had some choice words and shed a few tears. I think that the huge vibration from being at the end of the trailer was more than the rack could stand -- lots more force there than if it had only been on the back of a vehicle. We solved the problem with duct tape -- taped down the part that held the top tubes. We're looking into a permanent solution.

Anyway, thanks again for the great suggestions!

-- Melissa

[SadieKate]

Melissa, if you're considering a hitch rack look at the Yakima Hitchfork. We have traveled thousands and thousands and thousands of miles with it with no problems. I personally like racks that use fork mounts. They just seem more stable and the Yakima locks have been bulletproof. I would never buy a rack from which you had to hang your bike from the top tube because of the paint/cables rubbing and because you can't put bikes of all different frames shapes on them. Plus we can use the Hitchfork as a workstand when we're on the road.

The Yakima roof rack with the Steelhead mounts has also been superb and done yeoman duty.

SK

[Steph_in_TX]

I agree with SadieKate...love our Hitchfork and with the quick release thing for the hitch(sorry, can't remember the actual name for it), it comes off easily. I don't want it on all the time. I can put the rack and bikes on in about 5 minutes.

[melissam]

Went down to RackandRoad at lunch and found out that there's currently no hitch available for my car. ETA is one month.

Y'all have pretty much convinced me that I don't want a trunk rack. Of course, if the hitch isn't available in another month, then I might revisit the trunk rack. In the meantime, I'll see if my bike fits in the trunk with the back seats folded down. I can also borrow one of my roommate's vehicles for bike transport.

Thanks again for your suggestions & input.

-- Melissa

[administrator]

Just a note about vertical hitch racks where the bike mounts vertically attached only by the fork... make sure your fork has "lawyer tabs" - the little bumps at the end of the fork that keep your wheel from falling off if the quick release isn't tight enough.

A friend's bike fell off a rack of this type this past weekend. She had a racing fork (no tabs) and even though the quick release mount was fastened very tight, it still managed to work itself loose while driving down the freeway.

Fortunately none of the cars behind the vehicle were hit and the bike didn't get run over so it was salvageable, but it could have been ugly.

[SadieKate]

Huh? We have vintage and custom bikes with no tabs and never had a problem. I'll have to think about this. I hate those durn tabs.

[oldbikah]

Check this out for a super-easy hitch rack www.baxsie.com/quickclick

Mine clamps onto a 1 7/8 ball VERY securely and has stayed secure over bumpy dirt roads, interstate highways, etc. You can literally take it off and throw it in your trunk with one hand, or padlock it so it cannot be removed.
It holds 2 bikes, and is inexpensive.

BTW, a great way to keep bikes from scraping against one another on racks is to buy pieces of foam pipe insulation at a buck or two for a 3-4 foot piece and cut it into whatever length pieces you want. Slip it around chain stays, tubes, or where ever you want. They stay on in transit. I keep a length and a jack knife in my suv all the time.

[KSH]

I have a 52cm bike... I drive an Accord Coupe... as I have been too cheap to buy a bike rack... and I don't want someone trying to steal it...

I just drop the back seats down... take the front wheel off the bike... and I put the bike in with the forks in first... they fit perfectly between the two seats...

Have you tried to fit the bike in the trunk? Do your seats fold down?

And if you have multiple bikes (I can't remember???).... then forgive me for the suggestion.