Video Transcript for The Low-Down on the RockyMounts GuideRail Bike Rack for 2 Bikes

Hi everyone, it's Evangeline Wright here at etrailer.com. This is gonna be the Rocky Mounts Guide Rail. It's a two-bike platform rack that makes it easier for you to unload and load up your bikes and this one is designed for inch and a quarter hitches. So even if you have a smaller vehicle you can still have the whole adventure. (upbeat music plays) If you already have a two inch hitch receiver on your vehicle, you don't really need to watch this video. Check out the Rocky Mounts Guide Rail Bike Rack for two inch hitches right here at etrailer.

I have a pretty cool video you can check out to see the full specs and measurements and features. Here we are gonna focus on our smaller sedan, smaller vehicles, and smaller hitch sizes. So what types of bicycles do you have This can work with pretty much any bike of different shapes and different sizes whether you have a larger mountain bike with a long wheel base or a light carbon fiber frame bike, you have zero frame contact so no matter what type of frame you have, it doesn't really matter even for your different tire sizes. Thin road bike tires, wider mountain bike tires. Now the maximum tire width though is gonna be up to three inches.

So if you do have larger fat bike tires, this actually might not work for you if they're over three inches. Now for the bike weight capacity, that's where it gets pretty impressive. It has a capacity of 60 pounds per bike, so for your heavy electric bikes, this is approved. Now the downside though, to that weight capacity is you are limited to a class two inch in the quarter hitch. If you have a class one, it might not be strong enough to carry around those heavy e-bikes.

Now for different tires, not only the width matters but also what type of wheel do you have on your bike For example, I have some 29ers on my bike so I can have this set to a top setting, but if I had a smaller tire I would need to adjust this. So it is technically an easy adjustment. You are gonna need to use two tools an allen key on one side and then a wrench on the other side. These stamp tools are included so just use them to loosen that bolt With the nut and washer off. You can just push this other bolt out and this slides up and down to the height you need it to be.

For example, we'll have it at the second hole. Great for if you have 27 inch large tires and try to find where the hole lines up and pop it through. So kind of a hassle compared to the other bike brands that have a similar design like the Inno Tire Hold or the Kuat Piston, but does get the job done, you still can change it and you have the tools included. In the beginning of this video. You saw me take the bike off of the rack and it was a very fast process. I also put it right back on. That's because this is a dual wheel mount meaning you just have these little levers here and then you can move this out of the way. Take your bike off. Because of that there's zero frame contact. You're not worrying about warping or cracking your frame you're not worried about having to get an adapter for a step through frame. But also this can work with really long wheel bases because of where it starts ratcheting this can go all the way out even to the ground to make it easier for you to unload your bike, but compared to other dual wheel mounts, it starts clicking right there. See how far apart that is If you have wheel bases up to 55 inches it can still hold onto them. This also gives you more versatility for if you need to avoid handlebars and seats, you can just move your bike a little further out. So those are the types of bikes this rack can carry but what about the types of cars that can carry this rack I did mention that it's an inch and a quarter bike rack and that it requires a class two inch and quarter hitch receiver. So just double check the differences between class one, class two and make sure yours is class two. And depending on, let's say you have a sedan with a trunk or a hatchback with a hatch, you can tilt this rack away to get access to that cargo area. There's a lever underneath. You pull the lever and then you drop this down to a tilt. It actually has a pretty deep tilt. So now you can open up your trunks, your hatches. You can also hang out here, switch out your shoes and grab your waters and helmets because your bikes are tilted away on the rack you don't have to take them off. The downside to that deep tilt though is all of that you're gonna have to lift. So if you have heavy bikes on here that adds to the weight of the rack. I like to hold it by that mount and then support it down here by the mass to get it up into place. So make sure you hear that click which you know it's engaged before you start to drive away. Now I did mention the bike rack is heavy. Let's take a look at how that installs. So this is what your bike rack is gonna look like all folded up, sorted inside your garage or in your shed. I do recommend finding a spot to lean it up against just because it has that tendency to lean because it is so heavy. So lifting this up into your hitch this is going to weigh 49 pounds so I guess 50 pounds rounded up. We're just gonna lift that up at least it's easy to carry. Fit that right into your hitch receiver and slide it through until the hole and the rack lines up with a hole in the hitch. You then have this anti rattle bolt which goes through and tightens down. So it has a thread which used to tighten but also you get that stamp tool included with this, I recommend using your own three quarter inch wrench just because it's faster and easier that way. Once you've fully tighten down, and I do recommend to shake the rack as you tighten down just the double trick that you've taken all the play out. Your final step is to pop this hitch pin lock on the end take the key and cover it with that dust cap. So this is what it looks like in the folded up position. It actually sits pretty low profile but that's mostly because the hitch receiver on the vehicle is low profile too meaning it sits a little lower to the ground doesn't take up as much space. Now when it's folded up, be mindful of if you can open up your trunk or your hatch. In our case we can if your taillights are gonna be visible. Most importantly, people want to know if the backup camera or their license plate will be covered, with this taking up less space, this makes it easier to drive around town and park into tight spots. It makes it easier to load the bike rack up onto your car if you have a smaller garage. Now when you're ready to load your bikes up see this bright blue handle where you're just gonna lift that and bring the entire rack down. Now let's get our bikes back on there and take this around on our test force so we can see how it all works together. So we have the alternating speed bumps where you see that side to side movement. There is a little bit of sway there and I definitely could see the bikes moving around even through my rear view mirror. But then we have our normal speed bumps so that's the up and down movement. This was actually really good looking and while the whole vehicle went up then the bike rack went up too so everything was moving together. Now when we went on our slalom, which is our sharp turns I did see both bikes swayed to the side but that's the bike rack swing. So as the car swayed, the bike rack swayed. So a little bit more movement than I'm used to seeing with a two inch bike rack. But everything was definitely sturdy and still there. So we saw what types of bikes this can work with. We saw what types of cars this can work with. Another question though is can this work with your lifestyle So let's talk about other features like security ease of use, how nice this bike rack looks behind your car. Starting with the chain lock you get this heavy duty mega monster chain with this bike rack probably the biggest chain I've seen for a rack. And this is just for extra security. So the way this works is it feeds into itself and then it locks into the rack. You've got these thick chain links but you have them wrapped around with this fabric which is good because as it makes contact with your bike's frames you don't want it scratching it up make sure your lock core at the end is unlocked. You can see how the that's pushed out and then you can place your chain down and inside and in that receiving end. And then to secure push that lock right back in and everything is nice and secure. I always recommend taking off your cable locks when you are driving around. When you're parked at the gas station parked in a parking lot, go ahead use that cable lock. But as you're driving you have a lot of extra touch points things rubbing up against your bike's frame which I do not recommend. So that is something to keep in mind if you're going out and about. Fortunately the cable lock is key to like to the lock court on your hitch lock so you only need to use one key to access both your bikes and your bike rack or to lock them down. Now there is a lot less plastic on this bike rack compared to some others. It's mostly made of aluminum and steel and you can really feel it with the different touch points like this is aluminum and you have the nice chrome plated levers to adding to the aesthetic now on the guide rail though why really like the solidness of the rack, with it having an inch and a quarter shank you still have a good amount of wobble like it's still gonna hold up and it's fine as long as you tighten everything down properly but it won't have as much of a secure feel compared to the two inch version. This also has a rise both on the bike rack and the cradles. So your trays are stadium style trays meaning one is higher than the other just to give you more ground clearance helpful since most of the cars this will be on have hitches low to the ground, with all of its premium features though, this is also a premium bike rack so if you want something a little bit more affordable, Rocky Mounts also has the Rocky Mounts monorail that has a front wheel mount style rack so it's not gonna be as flashy as this one but still has a 60 pound weight capacity. Also a similar bike rack would be the coup at Sherpa I mentioned that because it's a lot lighter than the guide rail. This is a hefty rack and if you don't need that extreme wake capacity, you might wanna consider a lighter rack as well for your lighter bikes. There are pros and cons to different types of bike racks. It's all about finding which one is best for you. But right, you're here right now. This was a look at the Rocky Amounts Guide Rail two bike platform rack for inch and a quarter hitch receivers right here etrailer.com. My name is Evangeline and I hope you enjoyed the journey.