[Ronny Grady]

Hey Monkeys:

Can you give me your input on my rack design?

As you can see it holds the bike by the rims, pulling down with bungee cords to the third arm. I have been using arm pads to separate my friend’s bikes from my own so their fork legs and chain stays don’t get scratched. I don’t use pads between my personal bikes, I don’t care if they get scratches and the DJ1 on my hard tail is now scratched on the lower legs, the stanchions are fine though, they don’t rub. My Shiver DC isn’t worse for the wear, the stanchion guards seem to be doing a good job.

I use a hitch pin lock to hold the rack to the car, and use a kryptonite cable lock to lock the bikes to the rack. No problems with theft so far.

As you can see, the approach angles for your truck are better with this rack than a tray rack design, the empty rack sits higher off the ground than traditional hitch mounted tray racks.

The rack isn’t collapsible; it can hold 300 lbs of bikes no problem. The rack weighs about 50 lbs unloaded. Would this be a problem for storage? Would you be scared about people rear-ending you while no bikes are attached? What would your wife think about this big rack riding around on the back of your car? Why wouldn’t you buy this rack?

My target price for the rack, which holds 3 bikes with Monster T’s or 4 bikes with 888 or Shiver DC size forks, is $300. From what you can see, is this a significant innovation over a tray rack to make you think of switching the rack you use now?

Are their issues that I haven’t addressed with this design? What am I forgetting?

Thanks for your input, I appreciate it.

 

[Ronny Grady]

Here is a picture of the rack loaded:

 

[MMike]

Sorry...I wouldn't give up my Sportworks for that. The folding up feature is important to me.

 

[UiUiUiUi]

i think its a good idea.
i dont know whatgerman traffic authorities would say about it but oh well.

as mike said try to make it foldable, so it doesnt use that much space in the garage and doesn't use so much space while parking your car.

better think about another way to fix the bikes. those elastic things wont work too great.
finally make a padding for the upper bars.

EDIT:
how does it work with different wheelbases, i mean from the bikes

 

[MMike]

Slayer2003 on here has a rack on his Blazer that works the same way (hang the bike from the rims). the arms that the bike hangs from fold in. It's certainly not as robust as this one, but it's essentially the same rack. I forget if it's a Yakima....I want to say that it is, but I could be wrong.

 

[buildyourown]

Thats awesome. It makes me want to put a dagger on my truck to puncture radiators of people who rear end me. That would do some serious damage in an accident. The only disadvantage I see would be damage to the bikes and speed of loading/unloading. The sportworks is so fast, you can use it for shuttling. What if you bent the tubes so they had valleys in them that would hold the bikes together and away from each other. As for having to use a bungy, how about a mech that would grab the crank like an ankle biter. Also, it would have to be alot cheaper than a sportworks since they are nice and fold.

Hope that is constructive.

 

[OGRipper]

Nice job coming up with your own design. I'd be worried out a 40lb rig bouncing up and down and putting a bunch of dents in the rims (maybe even pulling spokes, or at least creating stress risers). Have you had those problems? Have you shuttled three or four bikes up a bouncy OHV road with no problems, other than the obvious issue of bikes banging together? Lots of shuttling gets done on pretty sketchy roads and it seems your design could lead to lots of banging up and down and side to side.

I don't see the innovation over a tray rack. My Sportworks holds bikes securely without damage from mounting or from banging into each other. I can shuttle four full dh bikes on OHV roads with no problems. Since you don't have foldability, bike separation, the ease of a wheel tray, or other features, I think you'll need to focus on being a lower cost alternative.

Your design wouldn't make me change, but it would be one more rack to consider if I didn't already have one especially if you meet your target cost.

 

[Repack]

I think that it looks pretty cool, but that $300 seems a bit stiff, even if it folded.
It would have to fold and be $50-$100 less for me to consider buying it.

 

[Monkeybidnezz]

Nice idea, but several areas that the rack should be addressed before trying to sell.

As mentioned before, provide something like ridges on the top bars so keep the bikes separated. Personally I care if my bikes get banged up, and I think others do too. Why devalue ur expensive bike any more than you have to.

Another important feature would be for the rack to fold down. It would be pain to not be able to open the trunk w/o taking the entire rack/bikes off. At least that's how it looks in the pics.

Pad the top bars so that they dont rub the rims, and make the arms collapsable for ease of storage.

Not a bad start, props for trying. Just several convenience and function issues that should be addressed.

 

[ÆX]

i like it.

i would lower it to keep them out of the wind as much as posible.

 

[DRB]

Can't quite tell if you have or not but the arms that the rims rest on I would cover with tires like you did with the V shaped piece. That would protect the rims if they started bouncing.

Weld rings to the part at the bottom where you are attaching the bungee cords. That way they don't slide along that bottom.

Lastly, I'd weld a ring or attachment point for a cable lock/pad lock.

Not sure about how to keep the bikes from hitting into each other. foam blocks? My bikes have been so badly abused from shuttles..... I'm not sure I'd care.

If you are trying to beat the big boys you got a long way to go BUT if you are making a rack for cheap for yourself and a few buds, I'd say you got a good solid design that will work just fine with a few refinements. If you did yourself, you can't have that much in it.

I think its pretty bada$$.

 

[Ronny Grady]

The big comment I am hearing is foldability. I went for an all welded design for brute strength, I like to be able to do dips for exercise on my rack For production I would have to make the arms foldable just for shipping costs, I think two grade 8 bolts to bold a plate holding each arm would do the trick.

Since those preliminary photos, I padded the top arms with old road bike tires, no scratching the rims at all. I also covered the arms with red duct tape, no traffic accidents yet. Once the bungees are secured there is no chance of the bikes bouncing and denting the rims.

I have about 15,000 miles of use with the rack loaded down, shuttling on some nasty ORV trails. My buddies like to use my rack because it is faster to load than most tray racks.

I could lower the bikes for less air resistance, but I think a major advantage of the racks is the superior approach angle it allows while off roading with the bikes mounted high.

 

[Ronny Grady]

I use a security cable and U lock to secure all the bikes and wheels around the welded horizontal brace. The bungees don't tend to shift at all while in use.

 

[Ronny Grady]

I will make the arms longer in the next itteration. The rack is very sturdy and longer arms would still provide adequate strength and allow easier loading of more bikes.

I would appreciate more comments. What else you guys think would go wrong with this rack. Scratching the bikes frames is a serious issue. So is the size. I would not make the base foldable to open the door, the main design criteria is brute strength to hold 4 heavy bikes.

Thanks for your help.

 

[phillyvanilly]

I like it, I agree that it would need to fold if you wanted to sell it, at the very least, the lower rear end death spike would need to fold up To be honest, and detracting nothing form your design, I dont see anyone paying 300 dollars for it, maybe cut that in half... Not so much an issue of design, but of warrantry(companies like Saris usually have a lifetime warranty), and of low techiness in that you have to use bungee cords. Maybe if you integrated a mounting system other than bungee cords?


Also, what kind of welder do you have?

 

[spookydave]

That looks kinda like a beefy yakama (sp) rim lok to me. I have one an it holds 3 DH bikes (even 3.0 gazzies) no problem.
AND it folds up really small, AND it tilt down so you can open tail gates or the rear door of an SUV (even loaded with bikes).
You might want to take a peek at one to get some ideas as you have already pretty much knocked it off as far as holding the bikes goes.

 

[DßR]

I like the idea, but I agree that if you're going to sell it, it needs to fold down to get lift-gate access. I would never sacrifice the ability to get into the back of my 4runner; that's where all my bike repair stuff is and getting into it while on a ride is pretty critical. Not to mention non-biking uses, and I'm not about to install and remove a 50+lb rack every time I go grocery shopping, etc.....

 

[loomist]

That rack looks beefy! If you could find a way to grab the crank from the bottom rail that you have the bungee's attached to now, it would stop the bikes from swinging. Do the rims slide up and down the road tire padded top rails? I like the lock pin that locks the rack to the reece hitch so that you can lock the bikes to the rack alone. I think i would pay around 300 after some modifications were made. WWW.RONNYRACKS.COM?

 

[Toshi]

Originally posted by MMike
Sorry...I wouldn't give up my Sportworks for that. The folding up feature is important to me.

ditto. has anyone found that sportworks can't handle four heavy bikes? (this with the 2" hitch version of course)

 

[fonseca]

Originally posted by spookydave
AND it tilt down so you can open tail gates or the rear door of an SUV (even loaded with bikes).

The downside to folding/swinging Yakima hitch racks is how much they flex and sway when loaded with 3-4 bikes, especially on unpaved roads. Bikes just get bashed against each other. I actualy "downgraded" to a non-swinging Yakima rack recently.

I think the above prototype could benefit from some kind of clamp for the rims to rest in, with a strap to go over the tires. I don't like the idea of depending solely on bungee cords, and I think the bikes would jostle around when driving on bumpy roads as is.

 

[Repack]

You should mount reflectors on it for visibility. Thule puts reflective tape on theirs.
Could you get some BMX top-tube style pads to put on the arms?
I wouldn't worry too much about the foldable issue making it weaker. It takes a lot to sheer a strong bolt. You could even design the fold points in a similar way to how DH r shocks bolt up- a steel pin held thight by a bolt.
Just some ideas.