Bike Racks - Helpful Videos and How To Articles

Yakima KingJoe Trunk Mounted Bike Rack Review - Video

Today we are going to show you part number Y02619 from Yakima. This is their KingJoe 2, two-bike, trunk-mount bicycle rack. It does strap onto the rear of your car and uses six straps to do so. It actually grabs it from the top edge of the trunk lid, the bottom edge of the trunk lid - or, in some cases, around toward underneath the bottom edge of the bumper - the side of the trunk lid itself, usually typically around the tail lights. Now, we are going to show this on a car, but this rack can also be used on SUVs and minivans. The way this adjusts is that this arm here and this arm here pivot from each other if you pull this knob out to the side like that. And the one on the opposite side you can you make it wider for like flat vehicles like on a van or like we had it for a car trunk application. And when you find a position you like, you can just go ahead and put the knob back and give it a little bit of a nudge and it will snap back in position. And the same thing applies for the arms that carry the bikes. Again, pull out the same knob on the interior. Pull it out and give it a little bit of a twist, and you can move it as needed. And when you find a position you like, again, just put the knobs back in. Sometimes you rock it to help it snap in, too, if it does not snap in right off the bat. Let us go ahead and install it on our Dodge Neon here. more

Watch Video

Posted: 4/14/2009 3:24:45 PM

Yakima BeddyJo 2 Bike Rack Review - Video

Today we are going to show you part number Y01116, Yakimas BeddyJo. This is a two-bike carrier that will fit in the inside of the bed of your pickup truck. It is pretty easy to use, pretty neat. We will go ahead and install it and show you how it works. First, we will cover some of the features here. First off, it holds two bikes it holds them by the forks. The forks will fit inside of here it works just like a regular bicycle skewer. And next, you have these straps here that actually hold it against the tailgate itself. They go between the tailgate and the bed of the truck and anchors against that. There is generous padding on the sides of the bars in case you do not have a bed liner, like we do in this case, to keep it from marring up the finish in the bed of your truck. Let us go ahead and install it. more

Watch Video

Posted: 5/26/2009 12:25:50 PM

Thule Speedway 3 Bike Trunk Mounted Rack Review - Video

Today we are going to show you part number TH962XT from Thule. This is the Thule Speedway Three-Bike Carrier. And this is a trunk-mounted rack. This is also available in a two-bike version, known as part number TH961XT. First we will point out the Thule Fit Dial here. Basically, what this does is adjust the spacing of the rack itself as it goes onto the vehicle. It is really easy to use. There are a variety of positions that you can use it on. It is pretty easy. You actually unscrew this bolt, here. And there is one on each side we just have the one in for now. You can see that it adjusts the rack itself to fit a variety of contours on the vehicle. From something like that, that would sit on the back of a car, to an SUV, or a station wagon where it may need to be flattened out. And what is nice about the instructions that come with this, the Dial Fit actually tells you what position to use for the type of vehicle you have. It makes it real easy to match up to your vehicle right off the bat. And also the arms, right here, do swing out of the way if you need to. There is one button on each side. Just push them in and they rotate down. Or, if you would like, you can actually take them apart. more

Watch Video

Posted: 11/10/2008 4:09:35 PM

Thule Passage 2 Trunk Mounted Bike Rack Review - Video

Today we are going to show you part number TH910, the Passage 2 from Thule. This is a 2 Bike Trunk Mounted Bike Rack Carrier. It goes on the back of your vehicle it does not require a trailer hitch or anything. It usually installs onto the deck lid of your trunk. One of the nice features about this bicycle rack is it can adjust to virtually any shape of car or SUV. This is where you make your adjustments, depending on the type of vehicle you have. You simply just unscrew this, and you have one on each side. It is basically just like a little bolt with a handle on the end. And you can take this and adjust the bicycle rack to whatever shape you need. Again, the rack comes with instructions on how to adjust it for your particular model. On ours we will use number 6. And also for storage, the arms will actually rotate and fold out of the way, too. And that is easily done by pushing in two buttons. And there will be a button here and there is one on the opposite side. Just squeeze them together, and you can see they rotate out of the way. more

Watch Video

Posted: 10/31/2008 3:06:32 PM