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best bike rack

blt2ride

Turbo Monkey
May 25, 2005
2,333
0
Chatsworth
PoserNewbie said:
Why do you even need a rack if you have a truck?
That looks like a nice rack; there really is a lack of truck racks that will work for DH bikes.

I've been really happy with the motorcycle rack I have in the back of my truck. It's from a company called Versatrax, who I think is now out of business.

To answer your question: Why you need a rack in a track? It keeps the front tire from twisting up.
 

PatBranch

Turbo Monkey
Sep 24, 2004
10,451
9
wine country
....if you don't want pile them bikes in the back, you get a rack so they don't get scratches from being driven around;(so you can only sratch them on the trail).

That rack is an awsome idea. You can leave the base in and then just use diferent peices for different sports. I found THE rack.....just need to find a truck to put it in.
 

1000-Oaks

Monkey
May 8, 2003
778
0
Simi Valley, CA
I'm working on a hitch-mounted design, got one prototype so far.

Just bought a $3,000 tubing bender to make more with less welding, hoping to have a little side-business running in 2006. Stay tuned!
 

PatBranch

Turbo Monkey
Sep 24, 2004
10,451
9
wine country
Cool, that will be fun, and hopefully lucrative.

I like a bed rack, because when offroading I won't have to worry about the rack hitting the ground on (a tiny g-out/dip).
 

PatBranch

Turbo Monkey
Sep 24, 2004
10,451
9
wine country
On a truck though, I would rather put them in the bed, just so they don't get hungup offroading. The sportworks is nice. My friend has one for his grandmas volvo. We have an older yakima 4x bike rack (the bikes hang by top tube only w/ rubber straps) that we use on our suburban.
 

TtotheJ

Monkey
Jan 23, 2005
215
0
B'ham, WA
For a hitch mount rack check out www.northshoreracks.com. They have a pretty cool design that looks really good for big bikes. It also looks like the ground clearance is better then on some of the tray type hitch mounted racks. The only down side is they say it will only hold mtb's with suspension forks.
 

Kntr

Turbo Monkey
Jan 25, 2003
7,526
21
Montana
TtotheJ said:
For a hitch mount rack check out www.northshoreracks.com. They have a pretty cool design that looks really good for big bikes. It also looks like the ground clearance is better then on some of the tray type hitch mounted racks. The only down side is they say it will only hold mtb's with suspension forks.

My bike is saying ouch to that rack. Talk about shuttle scratches.
 

konabiker

Monkey
Jun 30, 2004
669
0
Santa Barbara
Kanter said:
My bike is saying ouch to that rack. Talk about shuttle scratches.
They had a set up in the Whistler village during crankworx. I've been really interested in it since I first saw it. Scratches shouldn't be a problem with it, I dont understand how you got that idea?
 

PatBranch

Turbo Monkey
Sep 24, 2004
10,451
9
wine country
It looks like it would cause a lot of scratches. The bikes are high, it looks like the suv might wheelie....Interesting idea though.
 

Kntr

Turbo Monkey
Jan 25, 2003
7,526
21
Montana
philsthrills said:
I have tried many hitch and roof racks with a lot of dissapointment. I have finally found one with which I have no gripes. www.1upusa.com hitch rack - holds5 DH rigs.:thumb:

Ive seen that rack before. The bikes look real close. Do they touch. Do the bikes bang together on bumps. Is it designed for DH bikes? That is a lot of weight.
 

PatBranch

Turbo Monkey
Sep 24, 2004
10,451
9
wine country
Gfreak said:
The biggest problem I have with putting my bikes in the back of my truck is storage space for everyones gear. Especially when we are going to spend a weekend in Whistler. This is what I decided to do.

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The picture has to be on the web; you can't just put img tags around the address when its on you computer.
Upload your photos to photobucket.com, you don't have to resize them like you do here; it auto resizes them. Once they are on there, copy the img tag and paste it here (it already has img tags on it, so you don't need to use the photo icon. If you copy the url tag from there, then you need do need to click the photo icon that puts the img tags.

photobucket.com
 

OGRipper

back alley ripper
Feb 3, 2004
10,647
1,116
NORCAL is the hizzle
I have standard yak bars and sportworks roof mounts. I can get four DH bikes on my roof and it is strong enough to shuttle up OHV roads. No wheel removal, easy on and off, and out of the way. Sportworks rocks!!
 

oly

skin cooker for the hive
Dec 6, 2001
5,118
6
Witness relocation housing
Moto straps have always been the best truck bed rack for me, then i got an instagaitor from sportworks. The thing worked awesome, but now i drive a minavan and need to get a hitch rack. When i do, hands down the only rack to use is the sportworks. They work so well everyone copied them, and those who didnt copy then just purchased them. good thing i have a line on a used one so i dont contribute to the new owners.
 

RhinofromWA

Brevity R Us
Aug 16, 2001
4,622
0
Lynnwood, WA
Or for the back of a truck bed you sould spend $20 and make one.....

http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97090&highlight=rhino+bike+rack+pvc

I have one and it is set up for 3 bikes in the back of my '00 Dakota. I made it after seeing directions for it on this site before. It is light and colapsable. If you build it right the DH bikes don't need any thing to tie them down (assuming you can close the tailgate)

Check it out. I spent Like $21 on all my materials, it took no time really to do and it has held up nicely.
 

buildyourown

Turbo Monkey
Feb 9, 2004
4,832
0
South Seattle
philsthrills said:
I have tried many hitch and roof racks with a lot of dissapointment. I have finally found one with which I have no gripes. www.1upusa.com hitch rack - holds5 DH rigs.:thumb:

I'm seriosly looking at this rack. I've got a bad taste in my mouth from Sportworks and the quality of construction/materials on the 1up looks like it would be worth the extra $100. The ground clearance would be nice for my new wagon too.
My only reservation is that there looks like there is nothing holding the bikes "down". It looks like if you wailed a speed bump that you could bounce a bike loose. Tell me I'm wrong.
 

1000-Oaks

Monkey
May 8, 2003
778
0
Simi Valley, CA
Daver said:
Thats not a rack- this is a rack!
Not bad!

I'm almost paranoid to drive around with my prototype, I really need to build another with my revisions and get a patent. I've been ripped off before in the off-road truck part market, not that I would have had the cash to defend the patent anyway though...got a little more $ and more business sense now than I did seven years ago.
 

1000-Oaks

Monkey
May 8, 2003
778
0
Simi Valley, CA
Well, I got rear-ended the other night and my prototype hitch rack is twisted up pretty good. Some young chick who wasn't paying attention, at least my almost-new FXR wasn't damaged.

No big deal though, I need to build prototype #2 and was going to sell #1 to a buddy anyway.
 

intensified

Monkey
Mar 31, 2004
519
6
Canton,Ma
funny, my bike rack is always on and gets tapped by cars every couple of months at a stop light,,,,, Does that happen to anyone else? I used to care but, it's an old hollywood so now I just wave out the widow and keep going, some of the nicer folks pull me over to make sure it is all good. My next one is agona be the thule spare tire mount.
 

Tootrikky

Monkey
Jul 31, 2003
772
0
Mount Vernon
buildyourown said:
I'm seriosly looking at this rack. I've got a bad taste in my mouth from Sportworks and the quality of construction/materials on the 1up looks like it would be worth the extra $100. The ground clearance would be nice for my new wagon too.
My only reservation is that there looks like there is nothing holding the bikes "down". It looks like if you wailed a speed bump that you could bounce a bike loose. Tell me I'm wrong.

The picture one the website shows an arm dealie on the front and rear tire holding the bike down?

Holly smoke $449 for two bikes + and additional $134 per tray......You could totally build some better with your skills for that cost!
 

1000-Oaks

Monkey
May 8, 2003
778
0
Simi Valley, CA
I don't even want to admit how many hours I put into my rack, there are over 100 separate welds. You wouldn't think so just looking at it, but start counting and it adds up FAST.
 
R

RiDurbin

Guest
I bought one of those racks to replace my sportworks that had worn out. I really wanted to love this rack. It is very expensive by the time you get the add on's for extra bikes. It has a couple of good features. But the bad far outweighs the good.

Its only good features are, easy to load bikes (even easier and quicker then sportworks), VERY LIGHT!!!, and the best feature, it steps up higher as you add bikes (no more dragging the rack when going up steep driveways, etc.)

Now the bad. YES THE BIKES ARE WAAAAY TO CLOSE TOGETHER. I could not put 2 downhill bikes side by side without the frames and forks touching. With inverted forks the stanchions of the fork would be rubbing against the swingarm of the bike next to it. On top of that, the supports that hold the tires are very flimsy. They are probably plenty strong enough to hold the bikes down, but they allow the bikes to sway fore and aft SEVERELY. Considering that the bikes are already touching as they flop back and forth while driving down the road, hitting bumps, etc, I would watch them in the rear view mirror going at it like two fat guys belly slamming each other. I dented one stanchion and severely scratched a swingarm the first time I used it.

In order to safely haul bikes on it, I would have to put foam pipe insulation at all the contact points in order to keep from trashing my bikes. It took 8 or 9 short pieces to haul 3 bikes. No longer so fast to load. Plus I was constantly losing the foam pieces.

Also this thing has more nuts and bolts then you can imagine. Now most of them are factory installed so it actually goes together pretty easy, but I was constantly paranoid that some might work their way loose and the rack would start falling to pieces while driving down the road. In fairness, that never happened to me, but I only kept the rack for a half a dozen trips and then sold it on EBAY.

The other thing to consider is that it is all aluminum. If you get the full setup for 5 bikes, thats a lot of weight, with a lot of leverage. Bumping up and down, constantly being put under amazing stress and fatique. Aluminum does not have good fatigue characteristics. If it were built extra beefy that might not be a problem. But it isn't. It's built to be light and compact.

Now the company guarantees that it can haul any and all bikes, including downhill bikes. But after I received it and saw how flimsy it looked, I called the place I bought it to inquire about the guarantee . I wanted to know what the guarantee encompassed. In other words; were they going to just fix their piece of cr*p rack if it broke or were they also going to pay for my $14000.00 in downhill bikes lying in the middle of the #4 lane of the 91fwy. Well, it took about 2 weeks to get a straight answer. After being told 3 differant ways that the rack was gauranteed without once mentioning the bikes, I finally got them to admit that I would be SOL on the bikes. They wouldn't pay for anything other then the repair of the rack. No matter if it was totally the racks fault.

All that said, it worked great for road bikes, but I only had one.

Honestly, I couldn't get rid of the thing fast enough. I regard it as one of the worst purchases I have ever made.

By the way. Go-ride was considering carrying these at one time, when they were being marketed under the U-Haul name (this rack is marketed under several names by the way, all the same manufacturer). I remember Scott saying he was going to check them out in person before making a decision. Don't know what came of it, but he never brought the line in, so I don't think he was to impressed either. That's purely conjecture on my part however.

Anyway, sorry to pee in your cheerios, if you like this rack. Don't know what your seeing in it. But honestly. It's a piece of junk. To bad, because with a little thought, it could be a great rack.

Just my 2 cents.


buildyourown said:
I'm seriosly looking at this rack. I've got a bad taste in my mouth from Sportworks and the quality of construction/materials on the 1up looks like it would be worth the extra $100. The ground clearance would be nice for my new wagon too.
My only reservation is that there looks like there is nothing holding the bikes "down". It looks like if you wailed a speed bump that you could bounce a bike loose. Tell me I'm wrong.
 

1000-Oaks

Monkey
May 8, 2003
778
0
Simi Valley, CA
I've gotta get a patent before I'll post pix of my DH bike rack, I'm actually glad to see no one has seen it and posted a photo yet. Actually I've seen guys take photos of the rack, but I asked them to not post them online - so far so good.
 

DirtyMike

Turbo Fluffer
Aug 8, 2005
14,437
1,017
My own world inside my head
the Rack in a bed is Nice....... good idea.... just make sure you have enough spacing between bikes...... I Myself Have a little car.... Yakima King Cobras for me.... hold anything from a 20 inch to a 29 without touching the frame.... Seen more than a few people mount these in truck beds also they are rated to hold up to a 65 lb bike.. Yakima>Thule anyday
________
Nexium side effects
 
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