Today we are going to review the Yakima Trunk Bike Rack part number Y02621 the QuickBack II. We have got it setup on the table and we will show you the features of it. First off you can see the two cradles and that it carries two bikes and also what is nice about it is the straps that hold the bike on to the trunk itself, the straps are individually labeled for the top, side, and the bottom. You can tell here that the hooks themselves are covered in a plastic rubber coating and that helps out when you attach this to your car, it will not scratch up the edges. 00:32
You can see that we have the bicycle rack fully compressed you can see just by the arch right here. The arch is helpful to go around spoilers and around different curves of the vehicle. To make this a little bit bigger all you have to do is loosen the knob and you pull it out. That is pulled to its farthest point but again you can put this anywhere you want to. This will adjust to about any vehicle out there. Next we will move on to the arms that actually hold the bikes. Right now it is in the folded down position up against the bike rack and it is very easy to pull out and level out once you have your bike rack installed on the vehicle. You simply loosen this red knob and you can see how it comes apart and then you can adjust it to the height that you need and then just tighten it back up where the teeth engage on both sides. Finger tight is really all you need. 01:32
Next we will move on to the cradles that hold the bikes. You can see that where the bike sits has a felt base to it so when the bikes sit on there the cables will sit on to the felt and sink in a little bit so it does not ruin the paint job on your bike. We are looking at the one side here with just the strap that holds the bike in place. On the other side it has the anti-sway cradle. This part will go against the feet tube and it has rubber straps that hold up against it. Next we will show you the feet that actually sit against the paint job of your car. As you can see these are soft and pliable so it will match the contour of your vehicle when you tighten it down plus it puts a wide surface area on there so it will not put any dents into the sheet metal as well. It also gives a good grip on the vehicle as well. When it sits on the vehicle it should be sitting on here like that. Now we will cover some accessories that come with the bike rack. This long strap with this end on it is the security strap. There is a reinforced steel cable on the inside of here. What happens is this part gets installed in the trunk area, the trunk lid shuts on this, and this will be tied off to the QuickBack so no one can steal it. 02:45
These two accessories right here are called glass mounts. Basically if you are going on a vehicle that you have to put the hooks behind some glass, what these parts do is replace the top hooks so this part actually gets caught inside the glass area behind it and then pulls over the top edge of it so it can not pull out. There is a nice rubber coating all the way around so it will not mar up or mess up anything on the inside of the vehicle. Finally we have got a nice little strap here. You wrap that around your wheel and the frame of your bike to keep the handle bars straight and the tire from spinning. We are going to install this on the vehicle. First off we are going to work with our security strap, basically what we are going to do is pull out this bar here, we are going to wrap it around and pull this back through just like so and take the bar and put it back inside. Remember this will go inside the trunk lid. Now we can start installing this on our car. The first thing we need to do is lay it on the vehicle. Make sure you adjust the QuickBack so you have enough room to clear your spoiler. Once you have that established take your security strap, put it behind the trunk lid, and just let it fall into place and it is fine. Next you want to work with the top straps, these will hook up to the top edge of the trunk lid and just pull those tight. Make sure your feet are flat on there and do the same thing for the bottom. Also since this one is sitting on the license plate, if you have a frame around it it might be a good idea to take the frame off so it does not break it. Make sure you have it centered on the vehicle. Once you have it centered on the vehicle take the straps labeled at the bottom and that will go on the bottom edge of the trunk and then you can go to work on your side straps. Snug those down. Do the same thing on the other side. 05:13
When you tighten down these side straps you can also see that they are connected to the bottom strap as well so when you tighten this one up it does both. Once you have them all started evenly get them hand tight. You do not really have to crank on them just enough to get them secure and test the rack and tighten it if you need to anymore. Once you have the bicycle rack secured to the trunk lid make sure it is shut completely. Then we will tidy up the straps. Basically fold them over themselves and slide them into the strap holder. Each strap has these holders which is very nice. Now lets adjust our arms to their final position, right now they are kind of tilted down towards the ground you want to have it at least level or pointing up whichever closer you can get to. We will undo the red knob and see how it spreads out and in this case we will have to be slightly up a little bit. At this point we can load on our bikes. Lets undo the straps first. It is always good practice to put it closest to the bike rack especially your heaviest bike. In this case we are going to put it on the edge so you can see things easier how they get strapped down. We are going to put the seat post next to the cradle with the anti-sway. Make sure you have the bike balanced on there too as well. This is going to sit just right just like that. Lets do our strap. Now we can do the top straps. Go to the other side. Next we can do the wheel strap with a simple buckle. In a few minutes we are good to go. The great part about this rack is at the end of the ride your bicycle will help you out one more time with a bottle opener on the end and there you have it for Yakima QuickBack II part number Y02621.
