We've been thinking it's time to get a better bike rack to accommodate what will sooner than later be five full-sized bikes now that the kids are growing up.
How much of a pain is it to strap and hook one of those racks to the back of your hatch-back? Sticking bikes on the roof seems to make more sense, but you have to be able to lift them up and down (and often have to take the front wheels off).
That's why we were relieved to find out that the RV we're hiring has a hitch receiver and why we went ahead arranging for one to be added to our car: there are some excellent designs that allow you to use the hitch to carry bikes at the back of the vehicle.
We quickly narrowed our search to three alternatives:
The Yakima DoubleDown Ace 5 ($300) comes from that famous Washington State bike rack manufacturer (that I always assumed were Japanese!). The two bar design limits the kind of bike you can put on the rack ... they have to have a cross-bar that's wide enough to fit.
With that in mind we found the Canadian Swagman XP 5 Folding ($376) rack that uses clamps to secure the bikes. The concern is that the clamps only work with standard diameter tubing, and Yin's Specialized HardRock bike has an extra thick crossbar.
In the end we bought the Swedish Thule Vertex 5 ($310) since though it's design is quite similar to the Yakima it seems much more sturdily constructed (perhaps the Volvo of bike racks?). The two bars look a little closer together than the Yakima and I also prefer simply bolting the rack to the hitch receiver over the Yakima's more complex "Speed Knob" mechanism.
We found a good price ($242) on Amazon and with gift cards and Prime free shipping paid just $92 (Richard should be proud of us!).
Sweet!
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