Opinions on hanging style bike rack for cars

[Sean B.]

Hello,

Does anyone have experience with these types of car racks? I recently purchased one, but am now seeing a lot of negative opinions on them. Worried about damaging my girlfriend and I's Rivs. I went to a local Rack Attack store and they suggested the Thule Helium Pro 3. I shouldn't have trusted them as the reviews do not look great. Then again, should I trust online reviews? Hence why I wanted to ask the good people here.

Thanks!

 

[Ed Carolipio]

I've owned a couple - both Yakimas - and I am not a fan. Not going to go into details just that for me it always took a looong time to load and secure more than one bike and have the confidence that the bikes won't move around and bang against one another. Tray style hitch racks have their own challenges but, if the fit is correct, bikes are easy on-and-off and no worries about self inflicted damage.

--Ed C.

[Shoji Takahashi]

We have a Thule 4 rack, swing away. I don't recall the exact model. 

It's fine and does the job. If I'm loading 4 bikes (2 + 2 kids bikes), I need to take off baskets and sometimes have challenges with handlebars getting in the way. (Our bikes have albatross hbars.) If we had road bikes with drop bars (on the narrow side), the rack would be easy to load. 

I do like that it swings out of the way to allow easy access to the back/rear hatch.

If you're loading two bikes on the Helium 3 (designed for 3 bikes), I think it'll be pretty easy to load. When I load 2 bikes on my 4-bike rack, it's very easy. 

Tray rack might be easier, but four-bike trays are huge. 

Good luck!

shoji

Arlington MA

[Roberta]

I had a Kuat Beta hanging rack and thought it was terrific... as long as I took precautions and didn't mind 15 minutes to load a bike.  When a Saris Freedom tray rack  was on CL for 1/2 price, I bought it.  A lot less futzing with the bike, but it's much heavier than my original rack and I need tools to secure it.  It did take much longer to load and secure the bikes on the hanging rack, but for me that was the only negative on the Kuat Beta.  also, hanging racks are friendlier to fenders; you have to make sure your tray rack is (most are not), if your bikes have fenders (mine do).

My brake wire runs along the underside of my top tube and I didn't want it to scratch the bike on the hanging rack.  So, I took an old wide inner tube, cut it to length of the exposed wire, and sliced it on the inside curve so it is now a sleeve between the wire and the top tube.  Also, I bought the widest pipe insulation (I think it was 1 or 1 1/2" --get the one without the self glue) and cut that to length for the top tube and seat tube (the rack touched both) and slipped them over the inner tube/top tube. and seat tubes  I found it was easier to just cover the entire tube, than make sure just the rack that touched the bikes were protected.  I hang my bikes on one of those "above and below" storage racks at home, so if you want a picture, let me know, because I use the same protection there.  (I haven't gotten pregnant yet, so I know that protection works!  :) )

Sway was also an issue with the hanging rack, so I used two irish straps and put one from a lower tube to the end of he "arm" so bike wouldn't sway back, and another from a lower tube to the mast, so it wouldn't sway back.   Another Irish strap to keep the front wheel from turning left and right and also to stop it from spinning.  Finally another irish strap between the pedals, tube and back wheel to keep pedals and wheel from spinning.  My bikes weren't going anywhere!

The saris Freedom is easier to load and work with, but it's heavier and takes up more room (doesn't fold), but it saves me loading time.  It's not without it's issues for me, but I use my bike rack many times a month, so was happy to save the futzing time.  Otherwise, I'd still be happy with my Kuat Beta, but still in the parking lot loading my bike.  There are other Saris tray racks that look good and are fender friendly, if your bike has fenders.  If you want to stick with a hanging rack, I do recommend the Kuat Beta (since sold on CL), along with my tips.  Otherwise, the Saris freedom is good and there is another Saris model or two that look even better, as they grab the tires rather than the frame.

Roberta

[rlti...@gmail.com]

I owned a Thule Aero Helium for a while. It did the job but I didn’t really care for it. I have a lot of weird bikes so the fact that the rack holds the bikes by the seat and top tubes didn’t work well for some bikes. I tried the top tube adapter they make but that wasn’t that great of a solution. 

I prefer racks that secure bikes by grabbing the wheels so I now have a 1Up hitch rack. Even that can be a slight pain when transporting a bike with radically different wheel size than the last bike that was transported.

Robert Tilley

San Diego, CA

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 28, 2022, at 2:09 PM, Sean B. <seanc...@gmail.com> wrote:



Hello,

Does anyone have experience with these types of car racks? I recently purchased one, but am now seeing a lot of negative opinions on them. Worried about damaging my girlfriend and I's Rivs. I went to a local Rack Attack store and they suggested the Thule Helium Pro 3. I shouldn't have trusted them as the reviews do not look great. Then again, should I trust online reviews? Hence why I wanted to ask the good people here.

Thanks!

 

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bun...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/rbw-owners-bunch/555a89c3-6e9f-4e06-8f1b-34caf6675363n%40googlegroups.com.

[greenteadrinkers]

I've been using a Saris bones I picked up off CL like 12 years ago, it's still going strong. It's the only rack I've ever used, so my perspective is limited. I drive two bikes from Western MA to S. FL through some nasty weather and pothole-ridden roadways this past January using the Saris, no issues, very solid platform. Just recheck the straps after driving your first 10 or so miles, things loosen a touch in those first few miles.

Scott