If you are searching the internet for a bike rack you can quickly get overwhelmed with the many different manufacturers, brands, and styles available. Here is some feedback from customers on a few of the racks carried at Ultimate Bike Hitch . I’ve also worked with these bike hitch and trunk racks personally so I will include my opinions as well.
Hollywood Racks are known to be tough, durable racks that won’t hit you hard in the wallet. The Hollywood Traveler series is a bike hitch mount rack available in 3,4,or 5 bike capacity. This is a very economical choice and will work well if you are carrying your average mountain bikes and traveling on paved roads. If you plan on using your bike hitch rack often and sometimes travel on rough, bumpy roads; you need to upgrade to the Hollywood Road Runner series of bike hitch. The Road Runner is one of the most durable bike hitch racks you can get and it comes with a lower anti-sway stabilizer bar to really hold your bikes tight when you are traveling off road.
Softride Racks are some of the easiest to use bike hitch racks on the market. These high-end racks are aesthetically designed to look awesome on any vehicle from a pickup to a luxury suv. Softride bike hitch racks feature a patented “parallelogram design” which keeps the bike rack level with the ground when tilting to load and unload. This feature makes Softride by far the easiest bike hitch to load, unload, and maneuver your bikes. If you want a bike hitch rack that your wife, mom, or kids will have no problem using, than check out Softride. The Dura model is a fantastic 4 bike capacity product, and the Elite model is wrapped in an aluminum coating for additional weather resistance.
Raxter Bike Racks make a truly unique and probably the most versatile bike hitch rack. Raxter is different from all the others because it holds the wheels of the bike rather than clamping around the frame. This offers some advantages over the others. If you have a really expensive titanium frame bike or a thin-walled frame bike, you might not want to use a bike hitch rack that clamps around the frame which could cause your brake wires to rub against the frame. The Raxter Rack eliminates this issue as well as the annoying bike sway and wheel spinning that you can sometimes get from frame holding bike hitch racks. The other feature I like with Raxter Racks is it is much easier to mix styles of bikes on the rack in case you are traveling with road bikes and mountain bikes and kids bikes. The Raxter Bike Rack easily adjusts for each size and style of bike.
There are a few other manufacturers worth checking out. Thule and Yakima bike hitch racks are very solid and get great reviews, although they seem to be a little pricey. Saris makes an excellent bike hitch rack, but in some models the receiver is very long and adds a lot of length to the vehicle.
So, here is my final recommendation for your bike hitch rack. If you just travel locally with a few mountain bikes and don’t need to take your vehicle off road, go with the Hollywood Traveler series. If you go on long trips, or go off road with your vehicle to get to trails; get the Hollywood Road Runner bike hitch rack. If you want a rack that compliments your luxury vehicle, or want an easy to load/unload bike hitch rack for the whole family get the Softride Dura or Elite. If you travel with a combination of road bikes, mountain bikes, and/or kids bikes; go with a Raxter Rack.
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