07-17-2016, 04:51 PM
Looking for some advice on car racks...
Growing up, we had a Thule roof rack for our Volvo wagon that my dad swore by, and we had a custom-made hanging rack on the back of our camper that my dad had fabbed up at a local shop. We used to do trips to the States and ride all the "Rails-to-Trails" runs we could find. As I got older, I made a bike adapter for the "basic" rack arch on my Smart fortwo out of extrusion (extruded aluminium profiles) when it was my daily driver, but the Prius does all the long-distance drives now, so I need to find a better solution than taking off my front wheel and laying it in the back all the time.
I've narrowed down my choices to installing a Curt hitch (1-1/4") and going for a tray-style (vs. hanging) style rack. Couple of reasons: my bike's brake and shift lines run along the bottom of my upper tube, which I don't like the idea of suspending a bike on... And I don't like the idea that they'll be swinging around. 2" reciever isn't available for my car. Folks around the corner from me (Velofix) have a Yakima HoldUp that I ride by every day and it looks really sharp and solid. It doesn't look like there are any local dealers for Yakima though, which I find strange. There's a Thule and Küat equivalent but they're hella expensive... The Küat intrigues me because it has some kind of expandable mandrel that removes all play between the reciever socket and the stem of the rack. I really like the concept on that.
Any thoughts/experiences/recommendations?
Growing up, we had a Thule roof rack for our Volvo wagon that my dad swore by, and we had a custom-made hanging rack on the back of our camper that my dad had fabbed up at a local shop. We used to do trips to the States and ride all the "Rails-to-Trails" runs we could find. As I got older, I made a bike adapter for the "basic" rack arch on my Smart fortwo out of extrusion (extruded aluminium profiles) when it was my daily driver, but the Prius does all the long-distance drives now, so I need to find a better solution than taking off my front wheel and laying it in the back all the time.
I've narrowed down my choices to installing a Curt hitch (1-1/4") and going for a tray-style (vs. hanging) style rack. Couple of reasons: my bike's brake and shift lines run along the bottom of my upper tube, which I don't like the idea of suspending a bike on... And I don't like the idea that they'll be swinging around. 2" reciever isn't available for my car. Folks around the corner from me (Velofix) have a Yakima HoldUp that I ride by every day and it looks really sharp and solid. It doesn't look like there are any local dealers for Yakima though, which I find strange. There's a Thule and Küat equivalent but they're hella expensive... The Küat intrigues me because it has some kind of expandable mandrel that removes all play between the reciever socket and the stem of the rack. I really like the concept on that.
Any thoughts/experiences/recommendations?