Buying a Bike Rack

Recommended Racks

Here are some good quality hitch platform bike racks that are sturdy and reliable. In our circle of family and friends, we have all of the below racks, so we've seen all of them in action. They each have their pros and cons, so it depends on what's more important to you. I'd suggest watching YouTube reviews and comparisons of the racks. That will give you a much better idea of how they work and to see what you like or don't like.

Thule T2 Classic Hitch Rack

We have the older model of this rack. It's very sturdy and has worked quite well for us, but the biggest issue is that it takes a lot of strength to fold the rack up. My mom and kids can't do it. We eventually might get one of the other racks below. We originally purchased the 2-bike rack, and then later when the kids were older we got the 2-bike add-on to extend it to a 4-bike rack.

Pros:

• Integrated Thule cable locks in the rack for locking the bikes
• Lock for the hitch receiver
• If you get other Thule products that have locks (i.e ski rack), you can get the same lock cylinders so that you can use the same key for all the locks.
• Can purchase from REI so you can try out and return if needed
• Less expensive than the others

Cons:

• Takes a lot of muscle to fold the 4-bike rack up.
• Takes up a lot of space when not in use (we pretty much leave our rack on the van year-round)

Kuat NV Base 2.0 Hitch Rack

This is a very sleek-looking, sturdy, and well-built rack. Again, comes as a 2-bike rack with a 2-bike add-on.

Pros:

• Much much easier to fold up than the Thule rack due to a pivot system
• Integrated cable locks in the rack for locking the bikes
• Locking hitch pin for the receiver
• Looks very nice and sleek
• Can purchase from REI so you can try out and return if needed

Cons:

• Requires an adapter to fit wheel sizes 20" - 24"
• Takes up a lot of space when not in use
• On the expensive side

1UP Heavy Duty Double Bike Rack

This is a very appealing rack for those who don't care about sleek looks, but care about compactness and space-saving storage. It's very sturdy and well-built as well, but just very industrial looking. This is a 2-bike rack, with a choice of 1-bike or 2-bike add-on racks. When installed, each bike track angles up higher and higher, so saves more space than the other flat platform racks, and not as easy to scrape the bottom of the bike rack when driving over dips in the road or over steep driveway entrances. When not in use, the racks can be folded, and once folded, it's compact enough to fit inside the trunk. Once you learn it, it is also much quicker to load the bikes onto this rack compared to the others.

Pros:

• Flexible rack configuration (2, 3, or 4-rack configuration)
• Compact when folded up for storage
• Angled platform configuration (less chance of scraping bottom of rack going through ditches or steep driveways
• All metal, no plastic parts to break
• Quick bike loading and unloading
• Snug adjustable fit inside hitch receiver (no wobbling or rattling)
• Still heavy, but lighter than the other racks

Cons:

• Requires separate padlock to lock the hitch
• Requires one-time adjustment to fit different wheel sizes
• Requires separate lock accessories for locking the bikes
• Requires separate EZ Pull handle to make tilting/folding rack easier
• Looks industrial
• On the expensive side
• Hard to find in local stores, but their website offers free shipping on orders over $550, and free return shipping with full refund

Not Recommended

Hanging Hitch Rack

Not sure if "hanging" is the correct term, but these are the ones with two arms coming out and small cradles on each arm for you to hang the bikes. We had one of these before we got a platform rack, and we wouldn't recommend it. There are no integrated locks, and with different size bikes, it is VERY TIME CONSUMING to position the bikes "just right" to get all the bikes to fit. With no integrated locks, if we wanted to go somewhere to eat after a bike trip, we had to use separate cables to lock up all the bikes, another VERY TIME CONSUMING endeavor. We got fed up with it very quickly once we had to load more than 2 bikes onto that rack, and pretty much anyone else in our circle having to load 3-4 different size bikes agree, haha. I guess if you don't mind spending time to load, unload, and lock bikes, then it's a much less expensive alternative, but with impatient kids and time being a precious commodity, we'd rather have our wallet hurting than our heads :P

Yakima Hitch Rack

One of our friends has a Yakima platform rack. In general, it's not as sturdy and well-built as the other racks recommended above. The pivoting mechanism has already broken on our friend's rack, and she ended up getting a Kuat rack instead.