I need to get a bike rack for my legacy wagon. Im sick of throwing my bike in and out of the tailgate, it gets the carpet dirty and scratches up the plastic back there. Im debating wether to get a roof rack type or a tailgate mount type. maybe evven a trailer hitch mount type! I would rather go for a tailgate or traier hitch mount for aerodynamics, but I want to be able to access my tailgate easily too. FYI it will be BMX bikes and occaisionally mountain bikes going on there.
couple questions:
what would I expect to spend for a decent quality rack(roof mount vs. tailgate mount vs. hitch mount)
does anyone here have a preference between all the stated rack styles? please state why.
which is the most secure? I want to be able to get sideways without the bikes ejecting.
favorite brand of rack? Yakima and Thule are the only ones that come to mind.
thanks for any input.
I have a tailgate rack and its by far the cheapest option. The most secure style for sliding would only be the roof style the tailgate one would slide all over and I think the hitch style would be really stressed. I need a roof rack myslef, but I want the cheapest clip-on that will hold a kayak.
Steve
Midnight in a Perfect World on Amazon or order anywhere. The first book in a quartet chronicling the rise of a man from angry criminal to philanthropist. Midnight... is a distopic noirish novel featuring 'Duchess', a modified 1990 Subaru Legacy wagon.
I have looked into both brands and they are priced about the same with thule being slighly more expensive. I looked into the roof rack type. You would need to buy the rails, and then you pick which type of securing method for the bikes. Depending on what you choose this is where the cost goes up. My ideal setup that I wanted would have been in the $300 to $400 dollar range.
If you're really moving bikes that often, it's gotta be a roof. Honestly I've had all 3 types, roof-hitch-and trunk/hatch mount. The trunk's and hitches are mostly pretty ghetto, and nothing I'd put even a beater bike on. There are some nice hitch mounts, but they take a 2in receiver and are coming close to roof racks in price. And yes roof racks do kill gas mileage, but don't think that hanging bikes off the back don't take a bite out of the tank. Possibly the best part of a good roof rack is that you can securely lock bikes, AND THE RACK-it’s expensive-as you now know. Look at the full tray mounts that grab the down tube or cranks, they will fit just about any bike. I agree totally that roof racks are overpriced, but if you are serious about carrying bikes they are worth it. Check out a bulletin board at your LBS, ebay, or mtbreview.com for some used parts. I’ve bought my setup totally through people who bought a new car and got rid of the rack, or posers who have it for looks and decide they need cash to be posers for something else. Oh, and most importantly, feel free to get sideways if you use fork mounts. I read about a company, I can’t remember who, that tested the effects of the side loads on their carbon road fork. The basically put a bike in a rack with an extended steerer, and then put 50-60lbs on the end of that steerer. What they found is that even with a larger mass than a bike has, using a longer lever they still didn’t go beyond the force that a sprinting rider could produce. Crap that ended up being longer that I meant it to be, time for the Australia GP!
Yea, roof is the only way if you carry bikes often.
I had a full yakima setup on my 95. I have a Viper rack (my old 23lb XC bike) Cobra (my 50lb Downhill bike), and a powderhound 4 (for ski's and boards).
