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To access a vehicle’s rear, you step on a release lever to tilt the rack down, which is easy to do. The Saris Solo is a single-bike trunk rack that’s very light and inexpensive. Buy Now. Photo: Rik Paul, When it’s not carrying bikes, the EasyFold XT can be folded up vertically. Of the roof racks we tested, the Yakima HighRoad was the easiest to work with—both when mounting it on the vehicle and when loading bikes. Folding cheap bike rack to suit car with no towbar Start price. A simple design, easy portability, and low price make this the best choice for carrying a bike in a pickup truck’s bed. It’s the electric bicycle version of the well-reviewed Sport Rider SE2. If your bikes are mounted on the tow ball, ensure the load doesn’t exceed the maximum weight allowance, your specific requirements can be found in your car’s owner manual. Read on for the full list. The RockyMounts BackStage is the first tray-style rack we’ve seen that swings to the side, and it also tilts down to give you full access to a vehicle’s rear cargo compartment. Also, the FullSwing fit so snugly into our vehicle’s hitch receiver that it was difficult to insert it while also supporting its weight. The two-bike Yakima Dr.Tray is fairly lightweight (41 pounds). In addition, the suction cups held so tightly that if the bike swayed from side to side, it caused the car’s roof to flex underneath (this is a concern we saw echoed in an Amazon review). If your car doesn’t have a trailer hitch, or you want something you can easily move between vehicles, we recommend the Saris Bones. But in our testing, it was difficult to get four bikes onto the rack because of how closely together they had to sit. The NV 2.0 has a gorgeous design, with a nifty integrated work stand. It can hold bikes up to 45 pounds, which is the upper limit for most roof racks. At just a couple hundred dollars, the Beta is one of the least expensive hitch racks we tested—a genuine bargain. The curved arms clear most trunk-mounted spoilers, and the Bones provides an anti-sway strap that can be tightened around a bike’s seat tube to reduce the amount of swing while driving. Whereas other racks require you to fiddle with brackets and Allen screws, the HighRoad uses three rubber straps that slide under any type of crossbar. Our bike racks are easy to install, pair perfectly with a U-Haul hitch receiver and carry anywhere from 1 to 5 bicycles. This process isn’t even as seamless as on some more expensive hanging hitch racks—you have to unclasp a wire retainer and remove a pin, rather than just using a one-step latch—but we didn’t find it difficult. (The company claims the Bones has the strongest frame on the market, but we couldn’t verify or disprove that claim.) It was more cumbersome to reposition the Bones’s arms than on other hanging-hitch racks we tested, and while we were driving, the rack let the bikes wobble more. We also found no way to lock the whole setup to the vehicle. As is true of any hanging model, though, it isn’t as easy to load and secure bikes on the Kuat Beta as it is on the Sherpa 2.0, and you must unload your bikes to access the rear of your vehicle. The fully adjustable curved arms fit over all but the most massive rear trunk spoilers, and the whole contraption folds flat for storage. It’s one of the most expensive models we’ve tested, but its premium price includes luxury-like features that also make it one of the best overall racks we’ve tested. The Kuat Trio is similar in design to the RockyMounts SwitchHitter. The Sherpa 2.0 also has one of the lowest lift heights—only 26½ inches, compared with 29 inches or more for most other tray racks (and even higher for other types of racks), so you don’t have to strain to load your bikes. The EasyFold holds bikes by the frame, rather than by the wheels, however, which some riders don’t prefer, and the clamps can be a little awkward to use. Overall, we found it to be well made and easy to use, but it’s a little awkward to have to climb over (and possibly lift your bike over) the closed tailgate. The HighRoad fits a wide variety of bikes, and it lets you lock your bikes to the rack as well as lock the rack to the vehicle’s roof, which not all roof racks do. But it’s more expensive than the Sherpa 2.0. But let’s face it, with any model it can be a struggle to get a really heavy mountain bike onto the roof of your car. This makes it relatively easy to get the rack on and off the car. Photos: Rik Paul and Kristen Hall - Geisler, The best bike carrier for pickup-truck beds, Our pick for hitch racks: Kuat Sherpa 2.0, A two-bike hanging hitch rack on a budget: Kuat Beta, The best rack for carrying electric bikes: Thule EasyFold XT 2, If you need to carry more than two bikes: Saris SuperClamp EX 4-Bike, Best choice for pickup-truck beds: Inno Velo Gripper, The Best Bike Racks for Hitches, Cars, and SUVs, One per rack; can usually fit three to four on a car, With bikes unloaded (and possibly rack removed), Front wheel or forks for most; frame for some, tray-style (platform) hitch racks, which mount to a vehicle’s trailer hitch and support bikes from underneath, hanging-style hitch racks, which support bikes by the frame, trunk racks, which strap to the back of almost any vehicle and support bikes by the frame, roof racks, which attach to a base crossbar system on the top of a vehicle and hold bikes by the front wheel, front forks, or frame, pickup-truck carriers, which let you securely carry a bike in a truck’s bed. The two-bike Saris Bones 2-Bike stands out because it’s solidly built, lightweight, easy to mount (and store when you aren’t using it), and affordably priced. During our test drives, this setup held a variety of bikes rock-steady through bumps and swerves—more tightly than any other roof rack we tested. Best Car Bike Racks FAQ: Q: Will I have to drill holes in my car? And when two different people separately tilted it down with bikes loaded, the release handle came so close to the ground that it almost caught their hands in between. It can fit 1¼-inch and 2-inch receivers, and it’s also available in two-bike and five-bike versions. *At the time of publishing, the price was $460. The Ultra Compact 2-Bike, also from Allen Sports, is a highly portable rack that weighs only 8 pounds, making it one of the lightest racks we tested. 112 sold. Photo: Rik Paul. Finally, the Insta-Gater 501 is more than twice as expensive as the Inno Velo Gripper, so it’s worth considering only if you need a rack that doesn’t touch your bike frame. We’ve made more than 300 budget picks across our catalog of product reviews. If your car didn’t come with them, you can buy them from Thule or Yakima (this also gives you the option of carrying other gear, from skis to canoes to a cargo carrier). To access a vehicle’s cargo area, you can step on a wide release lever at the rear and tilt the rack down. The Swagman Race Ready is a beefy, extruded-aluminum wheel-mount rack with a ratcheting arm that clamps over the front wheel. The Inno Velo Gripper is easy to install, and it secures a bike to the side of a pickup truck’s bed. Everything you need to know about bike racks or carriers for your car Learn more. We liked its wide, solid stance, and minor design touches that made it especially easy to use. The Bones also garnered one of the highest ratings from bike owners in a survey we fielded to more than 20 bike clubs across the country. Northrock Bikes Presents - A closer look at the ways you can transport your bike using various styles of vehicle bike rack systems. But at only 18 pounds, the Beta is the lightest hitch rack we tested, making it easy to tote around and install. The RidgeBack also lacks a built-in lock, which is something we expect to find in this price range. Your vehicle needs to have roof rails to mount the rack onto (something that’s true of all roof racks). All of the bikes need to nest against one another, with the front wheels turned in the same direction. Made of lightweight molded plastic, the Bones is easier to lift onto the back of a vehicle and strap on than its competitors. Photo: Rik Paul. The weight capacities, rack weights, and prices are those of the tested models; n/a = not applicable. This allows you to swing the rack to the side and gain access to a vehicle’s rear, even with bikes loaded. If you need to carry multiple bikes for a short distance, the Yakima GateKeeper Tailgate Pad is a relatively inexpensive option. As its name implies, the Apex Swing 4 swings to the side, allowing you to open the rear hatch without unloading the bikes. The Yakima HoldUp EVO is a less expensive two-bike cousin of the Dr.Tray. It’s made of cheap plastic and doesn’t have any adjustments; on cars with trunks, the rack’s set angle allows the bike to contact the car’s rear (which it did on our VW Jetta). The Velo Gripper’s clamps are also compact enough that you can simply toss them in a toolbox when you aren’t toting a bike. But instead of swinging to the side, it extends rearward in a smooth, easy motion, which makes it easier to use. The EasyFold is also quick to install and lock to the vehicle, and integrated cable locks let you secure bikes to the rack. The Saris Glide EX 4-Bike is another hanging-style hitch rack that lets you access the rear of your vehicle without having to unload the bikes. It doesn’t require any assembly, but we didn’t find it as easy to use as the Kuat Transfer. Like all trunk racks, the Bones can work on nearly any kind of vehicle (pickups being the exception) without needing the extra hardware required by roof and hitch racks. Car Roof Bike Racks allow the whole bike to be mounted on the roof of your car. Like all roof racks, though, the HighRoad is harder to load bikes onto than our other picks, and it can reduce your car’s highway gas mileage. From Thule, Saris and Exodus, buy online for delivery or free click & collect in store. Trunk and roof racks won’t work on a pickup, and you may want to keep the hitch free for towing. Although it’s the priciest roof rack we’ve tested, it doesn’t require you to have a base crossbar system, so it could end up being cheaper overall. He’s also a seasoned auto journalist, with articles and reviews appearing in Cars.com, The Christian Science Monitor, Consumer Reports, U.S. News & World Report, Green Car Reports, and elsewhere. The Thule ProRide was the only roof rack we tested that supports a bike by clamping around a frame tube, rather than supporting it by a wheel or the forks. The Glide EX 4-Bike is a relatively light 37 pounds, can carry bikes up to 35 pounds, and doesn’t require any assembly. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. We don’t think the extra cost or the extra weight is worth it for most people. But tray-style hitch racks are still easier to use—especially when you’re hauling more bikes—and they’re more stable. A potential drawback for some cyclists: The Sherpa 2.0 can’t expand to hold more than two bikes (although nearly 70 percent of our survey respondents told us they carry only up to two bikes). *At the time of publishing, the price was $220. The Transfer will hold a bike up to 40 pounds, it’s simple to load, and it holds the bike securely. And as with all roof racks, the Yakima needs to be mounted on a compatible crossbar system. The rack is also unusually wide, which can make it unwieldy. It wasn’t as easy to use as the latest designs, though, lacking a knob for securing the rack to the hitch receiver and the nifty pull-handle tilting system of the Pro XT and SuperClamp EX. Be seen. And even with only three aluminum bikes mounted on the rack, it sagged enough that we had to lift all the bikes and the swung-open rack to get it back into place. It’s lighter than other heavy-duty racks, and when it’s off the vehicle, it folds up to the size of a large airline carry-on bag. But there’s no way to lock the clamps to the truck. A plastic knob on each leg allows you to loosen its grip on the toothed part of the tube to slide it over to a smooth section, where you can freely spin the leg to the perfect position. Same Day delivery 7 days a week £3.95, or fast store collection. However, it swayed more than the Kuat Highline or the Saris Bones, likely due to a lack of side straps. With the Bones, we grabbed the straps, gave them a couple of good yanks, and voilà—the rack was on straight and tight. One caveat with the Velo Gripper: Many of today’s pickups have relatively short, 5-foot or 5½-foot beds, which may not provide enough room for you to carry an adult-size bike with both wheels on—at least not without lowering the tailgate. ( four in rare instances ) front wheel of a bike up to 65 pounds each which..., although neither version folds flat for storage or down for access to music, movies, TV shows original... 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