Hitch bike rack?

mattybfat said:
Do you stare at the ass of your car or just the ass of men in tights ?

3 hours I thought was pretty good, in all honesty it could of been weeks. Only reason i noticed we went for a hike and wife went into the store where we parked and i decided to open the hatch of the van and have a seat. When i sat down it occurred to me oh shit! Never liked the friction clamp on it it always loosened up, yes easy on/off but it's a flaw but again it was first gen. It also had a tray lost hardware and drop to ground so had to rig it with wire. It was old so i wasnt that heartbroken.
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I don't normally stare at men's asses but I'll make an exception for you as I would expect a review of a spectacular self dismounting bike rack coming out of it any time soon...

P.S. Sorry, I meant to start 'with all due respect' using my best Ricky Booby impersonation...
 
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serviceguy said:
If that is what superior design and craftsmanship looks like I will gladly stick to my crappy Yakima.
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i've always said this rack looks like a high school metal shop project.
The newer versions look the same, with a few notable upgrades in the ratchet system.
very light, very strong, butt ugly. yet the perfect 1 bike rack, i'll take a pic folded for storage
next to the 4 bike kuat.
 
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Patrick said:
i've always said this rack looks like a high school metal shop project.
The newer versions look the same, with a few notable upgrades in the ratchet system.
very light, very strong, butt ugly. yet the perfect 1 bike rack, i'll take a pic folded for storage
next to the 4 bike kuat.
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What's funny is my project for MechTech was a CNC router that I built out of aluminum bars, threaded rod, linear rods, etc. It could have almost been made out of a disassembled 1up rack.

I wish I still had access to the Bridgeport & CNC mill as I'd just make my own 1-up style rack and fix what I see as design flaws.

I'm not anti 1-up racks. I'm just pointing out some of the design flaws, just as I pointed out the Saris design flaws and the Kuat design flaws from my experience. There's no perfect rack.
 
trener1 said:
You can also have a look at the Swagman Semi 4.0 https://www.swagman.net/product/semi-4-0-2-bike/
I have the 2 bike version and it's great, Comes with all the usual features, locking hitch pin, small integrated cable locks for the bikes.
they have a local rep in Putnam county NY
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I have their cheapest XC2 and it's pretty sturdy for the price. The attachment bolt for the hitch really clamps it in, the only movement is from the flex of the steel. Looking at their website it looks like the higher end models are built much sturdier.
 
Apparantly 1up now has redesigned their hitch mount so that it accepts a hitch pin/lock and they are going to ship new racks it with it. Backwards compatible with their older racks so people like @Magic can upgrade their old racks.

Still kind of dumb that I can use a wrench and remove the rack from the hitch mount but it's definitely an improvement.

Their website seems to be broken from the excitement.
 
Santapez said:
Apparantly 1up now has redesigned their hitch mount so that it accepts a hitch pin/lock and they are going to ship new racks it with it. Backwards compatible with their older racks so people like @Magic can upgrade their old racks.

Still kind of dumb that I can use a wrench and remove the rack from the hitch mount but it's definitely an improvement.

Their website seems to be broken from the excitement.
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Well shit. Now I need to email them and demand the upgrade for free.
 
Saw a bunch of cars with these racks in Moab last week:
http://recon-racks.com/
The pivot design looks smart. $1200 seems like a ridiculous for a bike rack but we saw countless trucks driving around with six $8k bikes on the back the math works out I suppose.
 
Delish said:
Saw a bunch of cars with these racks in Moab last week:
http://recon-racks.com/
The pivot design looks smart. $1200 seems like a ridiculous for a bike rack but we saw countless trucks driving around with six $8k bikes on the back the math works out I suppose.
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Its $850 shipped for the 4 bike version.... not ridiculous compared to other 4 bike racks IMO.

Are there comparable 6 bike hitch racks that make the $1200 ridiculous? Serious question since I have 4 kids, and their bikes will only fit in the cargo space for so long. I'll eventually have a rack like this (I get away with 4 bike hitch rack + roof rack)
 
Delish said:
Saw a bunch of cars with these racks in Moab last week:
http://recon-racks.com/
The pivot design looks smart. $1200 seems like a ridiculous for a bike rack but we saw countless trucks driving around with six $8k bikes on the back the math works out I suppose.
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Yup just like the northshore rack. It must be a west thing ?
 
Matt_ said:
Its $850 shipped for the 4 bike version.... not ridiculous compared to other 4 bike racks IMO.

Are there comparable 6 bike hitch racks that make the $1200 ridiculous? Serious question since I have 4 kids, and their bikes will only fit in the cargo space for so long. I'll eventually have a rack like this (I get away with 4 bike hitch rack + roof rack)
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We have an older Thule T2 with the 2 bike extender kit. Useful when we were doing CX races with 2 bikes per adult. Also useful for family trips now that the kids' bike are getting larger. My complaint about the the Thule T2 w/2-bike extender is that it is really damn long. Tilting it down when fully loaded with bikes is nearly impossible.

MSRP for the T2 classic is $480 these days and the 2-bike add on kit is another $350. That's $830 by my math. So $840 shipped for the 4 bike version isn't crazy by any means.

North Shore/Recon/Hang-over racks seem to work well for MTB's but probably don't work very well when you throw drop bar bikes into the mix.
 
Delish said:
North Shore/Recon/Hang-over racks seem to work well for MTB's but probably don't work very well when you throw drop bar bikes into the mix.
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I only know because when we went to Zion it was the same week as tour de Utah or something and teams had those racks.
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Delish said:
We have an older Thule T2 with the 2 bike extender kit. Useful when we were doing CX races with 2 bikes per adult. Also useful for family trips now that the kids' bike are getting larger. My complaint about the the Thule T2 w/2-bike extender is that it is really damn long. Tilting it down when fully loaded with bikes is nearly impossible.
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I currently have both the Thule XT Pro with 2 bike add on, and Kuat NV 2.0 with 2 bike add on. The newer Thule is easy to tilt even with 4 bikes on it. The Kuat, not so much.

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That said... both of the racks are monstrous and I've been intrigued by the hanging style racks every time I see some pics. One of the few reasons I havent purchased one yet is because I've also thought about getting a small enclosed trailer to store our (primarily ridden) bikes and then just hook it up to the hitch for family rides.
 
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