Best 2003 Mazda 6 Bike Racks

This is the third bike rack in the last three months. Finally a solution that is easy to use, installed without problems and carries two bikes safely. Best of all, no scratches on the car!

This items is good too!!!!!!

Have used Swagman carrier to haul our bikes on short & ling trips & it continues to perform flawlessly. The bike are secure & there is only final movement at highway speeds. My brother-in-law bought a Swagman also & has been happy with its function also. Easy on / off of hitch & bikes from carrier. Quality product & good price.

Both of my mountain bikes are XL and 29.5 tires and both fit on this rack very well. No shaking on the highway, had ample room between bike and car.

The good: I like the way the bikes are held in and the ability to add the upright adapters to the bike frame holders. The straps are quality too. For a jeep with a spare tire, this is the perfect length to clear it. This rack is 5 stars from the bike holders to the base of it. The bad: the 2"receiver adapter and bolt are insufficient. I wish they made this in a solid 2" hitch. The entire setup is held into the receiver by a very short bolt. It only goes about half way into the receiver tube. So your hitch is only "secured" on one side. A hitch pin or bolt should go through the receiver tube completely imo so it can be secured on the other end with a retaining clip or nut. Because this only goes in the one side, the entire weight of the rack plus bikes are held tight to one side of the receiver by the undersized bolt and washer. A few bumps down the road and that bolt loosens. Now instead of distibuting the weight of the rack and bikes on the receiver and post, it's completely up to the bolt to keep you from losing the rack. The bolt threads get damaged too. I took this down a dirt road and nearly lost everything. I had to buy my own bolt with hd fender washers and lock washers to correct this. Thule should've provided this from the start. The current short bolt design where only one side of the receiver secures the rack is unacceptable. This rack is 1 star at best for the connection to the receiver.

Click to Enlarge

Hitch pin broke before I got it. Looks like a poor design for the locking pin, they might want to consider a different design. I got a 3/8 shear pin from Home Depot to replace and it works great. Bike rack is great!

Click to Enlarge

Excellent and prompt customer service! When I first ordered my product it wasn’t in stock— staff were quick to let me know and offered me comparable products. I ended up waiting for my original order and shipping quick and they stayed in touch with ideas! Thule: The instructions could be a little more detailed. I ended up watching YouTube videos to help me instal. Overall it was easy, and this was the first rack I’ve ever installed and I did it by myself! I was surprised to learn the bike rack is in no way secured inside your vehicle, so.. I store it in my garage when it’s on.

Click to Enlarge

etrailer has the best pre- and post-sales customer service I've ever seen! I started out not knowing anything about hitch-mounted racks. So I wrote to etrailer telling them about my car and type of hitch I was about to have installed. Samuel wrote back with lots of great information tailored specifically to my car. He even included a photo that looked just like my 2017 white VW GTI with a hitch and rack installed. Okay something of a coincidence. But the rest of the assistance I got from the crew at etrailer was just as prophetic. I went into this a novice and came out knowing lots more about hitches and racks and finding the rack best suited to my situation. I have a small car, a class 1 hitch and a heavy mountain bike. I got exactly what I needed. As to the Swagman rack itself, it works fine. If I had a different situation I would probably buy a platform rack as they are easier to load. There's no reason to buy a bike rack anywhere else.

Click to Enlarge

First off, thanks to Jason T. or "Troop". The exemplary customer service he provided is rare these days. Troop made several calls to the various manufacturers to ascertain which bike rack would afford me the most ground clearance as my new VW Golf sits low to the ground and my old bike rack frequently scraped the ground when I went up even a slight up hill grade. His efforts paid off as he found me the best bike rack for my car, the Swagman Trailhead 2 Bike Carrier. It sits up off the ground just high enough that it doesn't scrape on my driveway. It is also sturdy and holds my bikes securely. And, the delivery was amazingly fast. I had my rack in about 2 days! Note to Troop, see my Pittsburgh Pirates Logo on my bumper in the attached pictures? Pirate Fans persevere! The Bucco's will be coming after your Cardinals this year! Thanks again Troop!

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

All in all pretty good. The arms that grab the front wheel have loosened a little bit and move side to side. They have never failed, just feel a little wobbly. The hitch receptacle is also hard to tighten but might be due to the receptacle it self. Used rack on a long trip and the bikes moved slightly side to side, but nothing serious.

Click to Enlarge

Car: 2017 Honda CR-V This is a great rack! There's not a lot to the assembly, other than getting the first two long bolts in, those were tricky. Once those were in there, aligned properly, the rest of the assembly was pretty easy. Attaching the rack to the hitch receiver was the easiest part of the whole thing! The rack is really nicely portable, and will easily store in our apartment during the off season. It takes less than a minute to get it loaded into the hitch receiver. The cable lock is a little bit flimsy, but should hopefully deter casual thievery. What I would have loved to have seen were locks in the retaining arms as well, so those couldn't be messed with by strangers. Otherwise, this rack is really great, and I would highly recommend it.

Click to Enlarge

Overall I am happy with these bike carriers. They mount to the racks over the bed of my Tundra TRD Pro. Installation is simple. I think they could be just a bit sturdier because there is just a bit of wobbling when driving on bumpy roads but I'm not too worried about them coming dislodged. Take note that although they come with a cable lock to attach the bike to the carrier, the key is sold separately.

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

Very good product. It holds the bike securely on the roof without contacting the frame. It is easy to adjust from my road bike to my 29er mountain bike. Our drives are all relatively short, so I like that I do not need to remove the front wheel to lock in the bike. It's also nice that the SKS locking system allows me to use the same key for this rack that I use for my Yakima roof box and hitch rack. This is my first roof rack and I chose this route for a couple reasons. Some of the roads we travel to get to our trail heads are a bit rough and with a roof rack I don't have to worry about bottoming out a hitch rack hanging off the back of the vehicle. Also, it takes up less room in the garage. Our vehicle is a 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee with an additional 4 inches of ground clearance. That makes it a bit of a reach for my 5'4" wife, so we take our two-step along to help her. This is my third time purchasing from etrailer, and each experience has been very good. They are a very customer service oriented company. I really appreciate all the additional information they provide on their products, especially all the videos they produce to aid in reviews, assembly, and use.

Click to Enlarge

eTrailer has the best prices and free shipping, what else can you say? Except they post videos of most everything they sell that may need installation. This is a great help. I bought my bolt-on hitch from eTrailer and also bought the Thule TH903202 bike carrier. It's the only one that will carry our 60# electric bikes on my car with the hitch I purchased. Great, heavy-duty carrier. Expensive, but it's built to last. Quality product with no assembly required, The videos from eTrainler helped me make the decision. Thanks.

The BEST bike carrier by far!! We are both in our 7th decade and even I alone (5’2” 120 lbs) can manage to attach this in my hitch without any issues. It’s so easy to load both our hybrid and e-bike and they are super secure. We love that it folds up small and wheels away when not in use. This bike carrier is worth every penny!!

Seemingly well-constructed and supported bike rack. It fits my 2018 Toyota Camry SE just fine and I haven't had any issues with sway or even feeling my bike while driving. I've only carried one bike on it and have used it a limited number of times, so I cannot speak on durability and longevity. Although you shouldn't open your trunk while the rack is attached, I have been able to do so with no issue (without the bike attached).

While getting a bike rack for a sports car isn't ideal, I really wanted to transfer my bike with my own car instead of borrowing my friend's pickup truck. After hours of trying to find a bike rack that would be good for my 07 Mustang, I decided to give this one a try and I gotta say, it has been pretty good so far. It fits very well over the factory spoiler. One of my biggest concerns I was worried about when ordering a rack for my Mustang was ruining the paint, but the feet on the legs haven't left one scratch. I have used this to transfer my bike at freeway speeds (up to 80 mph) on car rides that typically last an hour and my bike was perfectly secure throughout each ride. For extra security, I wrapped both bike wheels with a ratchet strap so the wheels and pedals wouldn't shift in transit. So far, I am very pleased with this bike rack for the price and quality. I would highly recommend this if you want a rack that is affordable and durable.

Click to Enlarge

Fits perfectly on our Lexus CT200h. Only on the old LS400, the side straps have to be fastened to the wheel arch edge, since the upper trunklid gap is to narrow for inserting the strap hooks. Mounting of two bikes is (with some routine) quickly done, and they stay safe even for longer and faster routes. For transporting three (mountain) bikes, though, the design doesn't seem big and robust enough. Nevertheless, the price-benefit-fun ratios are way better than reasonable.

Click to Enlarge

Love this rack! I did a lot of research before deciding on this one and I made the right choice. The trail dock is awesome to have available.

Love the fit and solid quality build of this bike carrier. Can't wait to try it out. I am using this carrier for two e-bikes and I am confident that it will hold up very nicely and will have no problem holding the weight of the 2 bikes.

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

I’ve had the Kuat Sherpa for about a year now and could not be more happy with this bike rack. When not in use I keep it safely in the garage- it only takes a few minutes to install it to my Honda Civic and safely secure two bikes using its exquisitely engineered and designed system. I’ve used this for 900+ mile trips with no issues whatsoever - the perfect bike rack!

After doing extensive research before buying my first ever bike rack, I chose the Kuat Sherpa 2.0 platform rack. I considered trunk mounted, hanging and platform racks before settling on a platform rack. I like the stability, the ease of loading and unloading and very importantly, the absence of contact with the frame of my bike. My bike has a beautiful paint job that I want to preserve. I looked at lots of racks online and at a bike shop and opted for the Kuat Sherpa 2.0 because of the excellent engineering, including the design of the packaging that becomes a work bench for assembling the rack, the relatively light weight (32 pounds), the inclusion of a hitch lock and a bike lock, the stability of the platform, even with a 1.25" connection and a class I hitch, and the ease of operation. Additionally, the overall appearance of the rack suggests high quality. Time will tell how well it ages but I'm pretty confident that I'll be pleased with it. I was very fortunate to find a used, like new Kuat via Etrailer at a meaningful discount that still qualified for the manufacturer's warranty! Thank you Etrailer! A tip to pass along that was shared with me, U-Haul is an excellent source for buying and installing hitches to accommodate bike racks - very attractive pricing, high quality installation and a super unlimited lifetime warranty. Can't wait for Spring and the chance to transport my bike to inviting riding venues!! PS The hitch and bike rack work very well with my 2011 Honda Accord Coupe, EXL V6 model that remains in excellent condition.

Planning on bringing bikes while camping. I mounted 2 of the Swagman bike racks to my new Sportrack on my pop-up camper. The bikes fit perfectly. The racks seem sturdy enough. Not heavy duty, but for my needs they should be fine. Assembly was relatively fast and easy.

Click to Enlarge

We have used the Swagman Roof Rack a number of times when we have needed the additional bike carrying capacity. It took a couple attempts to get the initial spacing of the bike rack properly balanced on the van’s roof rack as recommended by the instructions. But it was easy to do and once set was very easy and quick to put on and take off. The rack works great, the bike is easy to put into place and secure. The bike and rack are very stable and quiet and haven’t required any mid-trip adjustments. We always put the cheapest bike on the roof (lol) but do use a bit of duct tape to protect the finish just Incase. We are very satisfied with the rack and consider it quite a deal for the money.

Click to Enlarge

Goes together quickly, appears that it will fit my needs in terms of being cross-compatible on a variety of vehicles. Fit on a Subaru Outback factory crossbar and transported bike locally with no issues when I got it out to set up and test (not quite warm enough to ride much yet where I live). Instructions are not super, but the assembly is pretty straightforward so that is not a problem. At the price point, if this rack indeed holds up to swapping onto multiple vehicles and lasts me a few years, I'll be thrilled with the purchase.

Click to Enlarge

I purchased two of these racks, along with another rack that is meant to hold bikes with both tires still installed. I am extremely happy with all three of them. This rack specifically is very sturdy. Installation was sort of a pain, but that was mostly due to me installing it on the top of my 2004 GMC Yukon XL...it is so high that it was a little hard to install. But now that it's installed, it's actually very simple to take the bikes on and off. I've made one round trip with these racks, so I've put the bikes up there and removed them twice. Both trips (about 100 miles each way) they bikes were super sturdy and I had no concerns about them falling off or anything like that. I would definitely recommend this rack if you're looking for a fork down roof mounted bike carrier. In fact, I will very likely get another one when we add another bike to the family. I think I'll be able to fit four racks on the top of my Yukon easily. One last note - I was initially concerned about the height of my vehicle when bikes were on top of them. I brushed a couple of tree limbs when pulling into my camping spot, but it was no big deal. I think the total height of my load was about 10 feet, which was lower than the camper that I was pulling.

Click to Enlarge

Check out my other review on the hidden hitch for a 2015 BMW 4 Series for the majority of the review, but this thing is great. Easy setup and install, does all the things it's supposed to do. Mounting and removing bikes is a snap with the included clips (big difference from some of the cheaper variants with nylon ratchet straps). Fits very snugly in my 2" receiver, and pretty solid on the highway and over bumpy roads.

Click to Enlarge

Click to Enlarge

The rack itself is fantastic. Not too heavy, easy to attach to hitch, and very easy setup. The only real downside is if your bicycles don't have a standard frame, you'll need to buy the Yakima Tube Top Bike Adapter Bars (~$50 each) in order to be able to mount them on the rack. I will say that smaller bikes (for my 9 year old) can be a challenge to mount with larger bikes as you'll need to finagle the handle bars and such to get them to line up but once you do it a few times you figure it out.