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Really, just save yourself further headaches and get a 1up rack. Doesn’t touch the frame, just the tires. No other racks even come close to 1up for quality durability, and convenience. Get their extender too for a no wiggle fit.
I had one of those for YEARS with my old mountain bike. It was the only thing holding it to my car. It never had a problem. I would recommend/thumbs them up if anyone needed to use it to secure their bike. The only time I EVER had a problem with a bike mount was the one time I had it on a roof rack and drove into a parking garage. But that was clearly an epic amount of carnage caused by user error....
Forgot the brand that I have, but it basically is a quick release from the seat post to the stem. It was bulletproof and very simple.
With you on that. I’ve used them for years, they are extremely sturdy. And to address the previous poster about banging around, I would never just suspend the bike on the rack and let it swing and sway. Dollar store pool noodle, cut to fit various parts of the bike, and the bike cargo strapped to the frame or rack will ensure a scratch free transport. Mine don’t wiggle a fraction at highway speeds or around town.
With you on that. I’ve used them for years, they are extremely sturdy. And to address the previous poster about banging around, I would never just suspend the bike on the rack and let it swing and sway. Dollar store pool noodle, cut to fit various parts of the bike, and the bike cargo strapped to the frame or rack will ensure a scratch free transport. Mine don’t wiggle a fraction at highway speeds or around town.
Pool noodles are cool and all but I'm not worried about scratches on our abused bikes. The rack itself broke.
Here it is in all its glory
Thule rack with a built in pivot (broke in under a month)
Had a cheapo Saris for years. Clipped on to the body work just fine. Did the job until the kids got too big for their bikes to be put in the trunk. Upgraded to hitch mounted Thule. Had to use the crossbar adapter for the kids bikes as it was a PITA without (not shown in the pic above). Adding pool noodles to the mix sure sounds like fun but not for me.
Having gone to a platform rack, they are just so much more user friendly and robust. I'd never get any other kind again. Buy once, cry once.
As a side bonus, when not on the car, it's mounted to the garage wall and stores our paddle boards and camp chairs nicely between it and the wall.
The need for a bike rack is exactly why I opted to have the hitch receiver install after my Defender arrived. I originally thought it would only run $700 (similar to my LR3) and was shocked to find out it was $2k. Unfortunately, I have to haul 3-4 bikes pretty consistently and I'm not too keen on mounting all of that to the roof. A bitter pill, but a necessary one for our needs.
sheesh! I was quoted something similar for my RRS hitch. I ended up just buying a hitch from etrailer.com for like $450 and installed it myself. They have YouTube videos of the install and it was a piece of cake. Basically just five heavy duty bolts screwed into the frame. And I had to cut a square opening in the lower section of bumper that isn’t really visible which I just did with a jigsaw. it’s worked great for hauling the jetski and bike rack!
I went with a Thule T2 Pro XTR - and it was really simple to assemble and attach to the car. The tension dial really make it feel secure and there’s no wobble.
Pretty pleased with how it looks/feels - but once it has two bikes on it and we’ve completed our road trip to Cape Cod this weekend, we’ll see how it holds up.
I have a very similar solution. I had made this for my wife's old Disco one, years ago. Spare stuck out even further. I use mine in the reverse of how you illustrated, since I want the rack lower, the Yakima will tilt completely down so I can open the door without a bike on it. One thing I did a week ago was saw mine down shorter, since I didn't need so much extension. So I foreshortened and tack welded a coupling nut inside it, so it makes it very non-wobbling. The Yakima also allows me to remove, quite easily, one bike mounting. Makes the assembly much lighter. I usually ride alone for the most part. Should one of my buds want to ride, takes almost 5 minutes to re-attach the mounting point (two bolts). I do have the Backswing, but only use it if I should go out and need to have the bikes and rear access. Tend not to use it, since it weighs a ton. Yakima and others have a lock that picks up their special, but not so expensive mounting bolts you can place a lock over to preclude its casual removal. I highly recommend a visible locking system on your bikes. I had some nice folks try to remove my bikes in Taos in less than 4 minutes it took me to walk into the B&B their to enquire if they had space for me and the bikes. They responded,"OMG, you have bikes, go get them now!" It was remarkable how quickly they tried to take them from the B&B parking lot.
One note, if your bike rack obscures your license plate, you either need to move it or place a copy on the rack. Lots of sheriffs (think obscure counties, Humboldt, Pershing and Washoe, Pyramid Lake Tribe and many more) in Nevada will ticket you, so will many Tribal Police units. Nice revenue stream for them.
Last edited by Dogpilot; Jul 21, 2022 at 06:27 PM.
To revive an old thread. I have been looking round for a good bike rack solution for my 90 for a while. I finally decided on a Yakima Spareride. Works well and is a real tidy simple solution. Being a 90 I will only really ever carry a couple of bikes and people so this rack is fine for that. And it does not obscure the number plate.
To revive an old thread. I have been looking round for a good bike rack solution for my 90 for a while. I finally decided on a Yakima Spareride. Works well and is a real tidy simple solution. Being a 90 I will only really ever carry a couple of bikes and people so this rack is fine for that. And it does not obscure the number plate.
Recently went with the 1UP Super Duty and Rack Attack to carry our mountain bikes out camping. Really just pleased as punch with how the solution worked out.
To revive an old thread. I have been looking round for a good bike rack solution for my 90 for a while. I finally decided on a Yakima Spareride. Works well and is a real tidy simple solution. Being a 90 I will only really ever carry a couple of bikes and people so this rack is fine for that. And it does not obscure the number plate.
Clean install NZDriver, I had thought this would be the rack I'd buy but then read about some fitment issues on the Yakima website about the tongue not being long enough for the rack to fit on wider tires. Yakima website also says it doesn't fit the Defender so it has me concerned. I bought 275 tires so they are a bit wider than stock as well which adds to the concern. Did you have lots of thread left on the tongue for the **** to fit or was it close? Thanks.
