We will cover some of the features of this rack, starting at the base. We will talk about the hitch pin or lack there of, instead of a hitch pin this assembly has a bolt that locks it into place. You screw it in, tighten it down, and essentially it makes the bike rack one piece for your hitch so it does not rattle around, move or make noise. Another nice feature about this rack is that the rack itself tilts in case you need to get into the back of your truck, SUV or whatnot. You simply unclip the pin and let the rack down so you can get in the back without having to take the whole assembly off. Next we will talk about the cradles themselves. They are real nice in the fact that they can be adjusted front to rear or left to right. Also the cradles themselves have grooves in them to keep room for your cables on your bike so they do not mash up against the frame. As an additional note, we will take an outside measurement of the cradles to see if it is compatible with your bicycle frame. It looks like overall it will be 12-1/4 inches. Now we will show you how a couple of different bike frames will fit on the rack. We will start off with the standard frame bicycle. As you can see if you look down the line of the cables, they go right into the grooves already made into the cradles so they will not get pinched against the frame. Now we will go ahead and install an alternative frame bicycle on the rack to show you how it mounts up. As you can see an alternative frame bicycle fits just nicely on this rack too. There you have it, part # TH957 from Thule, their Parkway model.
Today were going to talk about getting your bikes together with your vehicle so you can go riding. Over here we have a variety of different bikes, the mom and dads bikes, and the kids bikes. Obviously, they have all different types of frames and sizes. What we are going to do here is figure out what kind of bicycle rack works with your type of bikes. To start off there are three different types of bicycle racks, i guess you could say three different configurations. One is the single arm version, on the left hand side here. It is pretty much the original design bicycle rack, not much has changed besides clamps and the hinge part at the bottom. It is the most economical one, for the most part it is the most tried and true piece of equipment. The next one in the center here, is called the two armed version. Basically, it is more stable, has two points of contact on the bicycle rack. It has pretty much been around as long as the single arm version, again it has proven technology, and pretty much there is not much to it except for the width on them. And then the last version is the wheel mount, which is relatively new. It grabs the bikes by the wheel and the frame so you have three points of contact compared to the other two.
