OSI Swinging 4 Bike Rack Review
4 Bike Hitch Mounted Swing Away Rack w Frame Mount Cradles for 2" Hitch
51953
$319.95
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Review of a OSI Swinging 4 Bike Rack
Today we are going to show you part number 51953 from OSI. This is their four-bike bicycle rack. This bicycle rack features heavy-duty steel construction with a locking top plate that secures up to four bikes. What also is nice about this unit is that it actually swings out of the way so you have rear access to your vehicle. This rack does fit 2-inch receivers only, and the actual rack swings out up to 42 inches out to the side. And the cradles themselves will handle a bike frame up to 1-1/2 inches in diameter. We will go ahead and demonstrate and show you how it works.
First, we will start by covering some of the features of this bicycle rack. First off, it does fit only a 2-inch receiver hitch. It uses a conventional pin and clip that can replace any locking pin and clip also, even the ones with the anti-sway features, because the shank itself is hollow. And next we will talk about the swing-away feature here, and it has two points of contact to keep it in place. First, you have a latch, kind of like a safety latch. You pull on the trigger, here. And also you have this bar right here, that is basically a threaded rod that goes into here so it locks it into place. You simply unscrew it and pull the trigger of your latch and it swings away. Moving up to the top of the rack, the arm that actually holds the bike has a swing-away feature, too, so you can actually put the bikes sideways when you unfold everything. Simply push down on these two handles here, and then you can actually see how it swings away.
On top of the arm here, you also have three knobs that actually hold everything together. You have two conventional knobs that just unthread from the base, and then the last one here toward the front, you have a locking knob. When you lock this knob, you can spin it, and it will not unthread. And that is what keeps the plate on there and keeps it away from theft. If you unlock it, then it actually connects to the threaded bolt here and you can unthread it and take it off. Once that is accomplished, you can go ahead and take the top plate off, and you can start loading your bikes. While we are talking about the cradles, here, you will notice that they have a nice rubber pad that cushions the bicycles to keep them from rubbing paint, basically. And it does have slight grooves that help kind of align the cables inside there, too, and also give a good grip on the bicycle itself. Now we will go ahead and install a bicycle and show you how it looks on the rack.
We have got one bicycle frame that has a straight top tube on it. Next we will put on a bicycle frame that is an alternative frame that has a little bit of an angle to it. All right, next we will go ahead and install the top plate. And it simply screws back into place. And once you get them all seated evenly, then you start giving them a few more turns to torque them down. And with that, your bikes are ready for transport. All right, now we will demonstrate the best part about this bicycle rack. If you need to get in the back of your vehicle, only a couple of steps are needed to do that. Undo the bolt here on the bottom, pull the trigger cable, and then go ahead and pull it apart. And then you can actually rotate the rack up and out of the way. Push it out, and it is completely out of the way. And there you have it for number 51953, the OSI Swinging Four-Bike Rack.
