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Bike Rack Comparison
Today we're 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, and kids bikes. They have all different types of frames and sizes. What we're going to do here is figure out what kind of bicycle rack works with your bikes.
To start off there are three different types of bicycle racks, one is the single arm version. It's the original design as far as bike racks go, not muck has changed besides clamps and the hinge part at the bottom. It's the most economical one, for the most part it's the most tried and true piece of equipment. The next one in the center here, is the two armed version. Basically, it's more stable, has two points of contact on the bicycle rack. It's been around as long as the single arm version, it has proven technology, and there's not much to it except for the width on them. 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.
Bike Rack Installation
The first thing to do to determine the bicycle rack is check what the size of your hitch opening is. You just measure across left to right and you'll have either a inch and a quarter inch or a two inch receiver. Two inch receivers are the more common of the two if you can, get that type which will give more options with bicycle racks. Also most bicycle racks come with adapters to change from one size hitch opening to another.
Single Arm Bike Rack
First we'll use the single arm bicycle rack. It will attach to the hitch just like any ball mount you would use, with a pin and clip. Another option is instead of the pin and clip, some versions come with a bolt that goes through the hitch and bicycle rack . It also doubles as a security and it keeps it from rattling around. Now we'll load up the single arm bike rack and show you how the bikes fit on and what problems you can come across. As you can see, we didn't get too far. The different types of frames compared between the standard frame and the alternative frames with the sloping down tube you run into problems with the bikes fitting in closely. We can show you a few options on how to make it work better.
What we're going to do to level things out is we're going to use the bike adapter bar. What this does is make a straight line from the handlebars and the seat. This will let it sit level on the rack. We'll go ahead and install this and put it on the rack. It's still close quarters but it fits better. With little kids bikes, you might want to take off the padding temporarily take off the padding to get it on the rack easier. With adapters everything fits a lot better. Now we'll put our top lid on which will clamp all the bikes down into place. Match the clamp with the thread holes. Start them out evenly and crank them down at an even pace. Once snug give a quick shake to make sure everything is stable and then take the keys out of your locks and you're good to go.
On some of the more advanced single arm racks, you have the cradles that are individually mounted. What that allows you to do is you can actually change the tilt of the cradle and you can move them back and forth. It gives you more variety assembling your bikes on the rack. Lets go ahead and load it up and see some of the advantages. With our next bike we'll have to do some test fitting to get the right angle. We'll set it on there and clamp the cradle in the right angle, take it off and tighten the cradle. Now we can put it back on and the bike is level without the use of an adapter bar.
Dual Arm Bike Rack
Now we'll move on to the duel arm bike rack where it holds the bike in two different spots. We'll install this one and show you how the bikes set on it, and what we would run into. In this instance we run into the bikes making too much contact with each other. This is due to way they are built. We'll try an adapter bar on it and see if we can straighten it out that way. That fits much better and of course you'll take into account the handlebars touching which will happen. As you can see the kids bike does not work well with the dual arm, the dual arm is more suited to adult bikes.
Wheel Mount Rack
It looks complicated but it is one of the easier ones to use. First we'll fold up the bicycle rack which will make it easier to install on the hitch. Now we have the rack installed and opened up we can install the bikes and show you how the middle bar works. As you can see the kids bike works well on this rack, even though there are only two shown here there are four bike versions of this rack as well.
To recap, the economical single arm will work with most bikes but will require an adapter arm. The dual arm will offer greater use of flexibility, but smaller bikes do not work with them. The wheel mount can virtually use any kind of bike, and they have three points of contact.
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