If you plan to carry bikes on the road, on rough terrain, or on the back of an RV, most racks aren't rated for all three. The HoldUp is, so you can take your bikes wherever you go with one rack instead of switching racks between trips.
This 4-bike setup is made from a 2-bike base rack with a removable 2-bike extension. Pulling the add-on off leaves you with just the front trays, reducing overall length and weight on the hitch. This configuration is useful when you are only carrying one or two bikes and want less rack hanging off the back of the vehicle. Reinstalling the extension brings it back to full 4-bike capacity using the same connection point.
Weekend rides or group trips come down to how weight is distributed across the rack. The front two trays support bikes up to 60 lbs each for road use, while the rear two trays carry up to 50 lbs each. For off-road and RV use, capacity drops to 40 lbs per bike in the front and 33 lbs per bike in the rear, where added movement from the road changes how weight is handled. This setup covers a mix of standard bikes and e-bikes, with lower limits on the rear positions and during RV travel. This matters most when loading heavier bikes, where placement affects how the rack handles the load.
Frame shapes vary, and accessories like fenders or battery packs can get in the way. The StrongArm hook presses down on the front tire while the rear wheel strap holds the back in place. Contact stays at the wheels, so frame shape and add-ons do not affect how the bike mounts. There's no frame contact, which is especially important for carbon frames, custom paint, or bikes with mounted accessories.
Four bikes side-by-side increases the chance of handlebars and pedals running into each other during loading and transport. The trays shift side to side, letting you offset each bike's position across all four trays. This spacing reduces overlap and keeps components from pressing into each other while driving. This helps avoid reloading bikes multiple times to keep them from making contact.
Accessing the rear of your vehicle often gets blocked once bikes are loaded. The 3-position tilt lowers the rack away from the vehicle, even with bikes in place, so you can open a hatch or trunk. When unloaded, the rack folds up to reduce how far it extends from the vehicle. So you don't have to unload your bikes to reach tools, groceries, or other gear in the back.
Different bikes bring different wheel sizes, tire widths, and wheelbase lengths. The HoldUp fits 20" to 29"/700c wheels, tires up to 4-13/16" wide, and wheelbases from 34" to 50". This range covers most adult bikes, including many mountain and gravel setups.
Alternate Instructions
Videos are provided as a guide only. Refer to manufacturer installation instructions and specs for complete information.
Hi, I'm Matt with etrailer. Today we're we're talking about the Yakima Holdup Bike Rack. We have the full version today, and we're gonna have this on our 2021 Ram Pro Master 2500. So this is gonna be a great rack if you're looking for something to hold your e-bikes. Now what's also cool about it is you can easily detach the two bike add-on here on and off of the rack. So that's pretty unique about this.
But right now let's focus on how it's interacting with the vehicle with the bike on. So with the bike on here, we do have a more lower road bike, so we're gonna have complete clearance out of our back window. Now if this was a pretty large bike, you might notice it a little bit, but that's something I do like about this design. It does have your bike sit a little bit lower. And if you're on any bumpy roads, we're not gonna make contact with anything on the back of our vehicle.
But keep in mind, if you have a mountain bike, that might change up a little bit. Now when it comes to the tilt away on here, it is not gonna be that impressive. And I'll show you what I mean real quick. So we're gonna have two pins. The best way I think to do it is to kind of lift up on the rack, hold this first pin all the way out.
The second pin you just gotta pull on and it stays in place. And this is gonna be a tilt here. Now in the four by configuration, this isn't too bad at all. It is nice because if it went down any further, it might make contact with the ground. But this will tilt back enough where if you need to get back here, grab anything smaller, like your shoes, anything that's gonna be at the edge by the door, this is gonna be a good spot for it.
Now to put it back up, we just gotta lift on it until it clicks. Once it clicks, we'll go to put that other pin back into place. You won't lose it 'cause it does have a cable attached to it, so that's nice. If you have a frame for this process, it makes it way easier. Now I do wanna say the weight capacity of this, for the first two trays, it is gonna be 60 pounds if you're on road. Offroad is gonna drop down to 40 pounds. And for these two back trays, it's gonna be 50 pounds if you're on road. And if you're doing some offroading, it's going to drop down to 33 pounds. So I'd recommend putting your bikes on here, but thinking about what type of bikes you have, if some of them are e-bikes or if some of them are just standard bikes. But let's go over how to take off the bike. So we're gonna have two touch points. One's gonna be on the back tire with this strap here. Easy to remove, tuck it away. And the front one is just gonna be a trigger on this hook. Squeeze that in and push it out of our way. That's it. Now I can just pick it up and take it out for a ride. Now when we're looking at the cradles, we're gonna have that one on the backside. And what's nice about that is that pivot so it can accommodate a wider range of wheel bases. And the one on the front is gonna be more of this open style. So that allows your tire to sit deeper in there and it gives it a really good hold. Well, let's put everything back up, make it look pretty. And that doesn't take very long. Just put that hook down, push this strap up. And from here we can get a couple measurements. So the first measurement I'm gonna get, there's gonna be ground clearance, and that's gonna be about 22 inches. So when you have a lot of weight down here, it's gonna drop down maybe by two inches. But if even if you're going up a steep incline like a driveway or a hill, you're not gonna bottom out. And then the total distance away, this is gonna be a little bit further out. That is gonna be sitting at about 53 and a half inches. So it does take up a little bit of room on here, but we can save space in two ways. The first way is just gonna be tilting it up. So the way I do that is just like how we tilted it down before, pull that first pin, pull that second one and pull up on it. And this here would be a little bit easier if you have two people, but it's fine too just by yourself. Now I'm gonna put that pin back up. And now it only sits just about 13 inches. So that'll save you a lot of room. The second way you can save space, this is what I'd recommend if you know you're about to take a trip and you know only two people going with you to go bike riding, there's gonna be this anti riding bolt here. Just remove clip on one side, loosen it up, and this just slides right out of there. So it'll probably take you maybe three to five minutes. But the way it installs is gonna be a two inch shank that goes into two inch hitch receiver, you'll then have an anti-rattle bolt right here that goes through, since it's down and you can hold, it'll connect to a lock core on the other side to give you that security. Now overall, I do think this is gonna be a solid option if you're looking for something that's gonna look pretty sleek back here, it's gonna block a few things, like a little bit of your back window if you have into the four bike configuration and a little bit of your license plate, but it is pretty light for a four bike carrier. Now another good option that has a similar feature to this is gonna be the Benton Shifts&Grins, because that's one where you can take that two bike out on and off. I will say the downside to that one is it's gonna be much heavier, even when you are working with the add-ons. And that's why I like this one because it is just gonna be lighter and just easy to handle than that one. And if you do decide to go with this, let us know how it's working for you in either a comment or a review. And if you have any other questions, let us know here at etrailer. And again, I'm Matt and thanks for watching.
Ratings & Reviews
Easy to install in about 15 minutes with all required tools included in the box. I love that the rack tilts down to allow access to the rear hatch, and has build in security locks for both bikes and the bike rack itself.
We have had this bike rack for one year and use it every week-end. My wife has a Trek e-bike (52 lbs) and I have a regular Trek hybrid (23 lbs). The rack is very sturdy and I have no issues driving at highway speeds, there is no movement of the bikes. Very easy to load and unload.
The bike rack works as advertised, but the powder coating on the 2" steel was to thick and got stuck in the hitch. After an hour of trying to get it out and a call to a friend, I belt sanded the powder coating and it is all is good now.
Love my rack. Customer service expertly answered all my questions and pointed me to the best bike rack for me. The Yakima rack looks great. It’s built great. It folds, it tilts, it locks, I love it and I’m usually very critical. And it was delivered free in like two days. I love that it still fits in the garage when it’s folded upright.
The Hold Up worked well for us. We did get the extension so we could carry 4 bikes total. And that also worked well. The one problem we had , when we off loaded our friends bikes we didn't remove the extension for the rest of our trip. Within 20 miles we heard a sound, the last locking bar had slipped down and was getting ground down on the pavement. We will need to replace parts of the last locking bar, if that is possible.
Love this product so far! I’m using this with the Yakima Backswing for my 2018 Jeep Wrangler JLU. Makes loading and unloading a breeze and uninhibited access to the rear hatch. Installation was a breeze. Sturdy set up that also looks good!
Great bike rack. Bought a new RAV 4 and needed the rack ASAP for a bike benefit in Milwaukee. Ordered it on Tuesday, got it on a Thursday left for Milwaukee on Friday. Highly recommend ETRAILER for their exceptional advice and follow up.
Just received my Yakama 2 bike rack for my 2012 VW Tiguan. It is very well built and simple to install. I especially like how it folds up close to the car when not in use. The rack is not heavy like the Rola that I had before this one. This was my second purchase from e-trailer and will definitely buy from them again. The staff is so friendly and eager to help. The web site is incredible, with install videos on the products.
I was excited to finally get the bike rack after a long back order...but it was well worth the wait ! It took my husband and I about 35 minutes to assemble it. It was very easy. I had been having to lift my bike in and out of my truck bed and it was taxing on my back. I have used it everyday since installing it and love it. Thank you to the Customer Service department for being so nice when I called several times for updates on my order.
Love my Yakima rack. Now I can take two bikes and all my fishing and camping gear on all my adventures. Thank you etrailer for tye great service.
Just finished installing my new rack. I am VERY happy with the rack from installation to loading and unloading the bikes. Also I was very impressed with etrailer. I was looking for a specific rack and and only knew of one company that offered a rack that could be expanded to hold 2 more bikes. I was about to make my purchase of the very expensive other brand when etrailer suggested I look at the Yakima. I was very impressed with their videos and could see how the rack fit on my car so I purchased the rack and everything was exactly like they explained. I look forward to using this rack for a very long time.
Built well, works well! Not a cheap price but worth it.
Solid and sturdy and holds up (pun intended) to a lot of abuse. I believe I've already had this product almost a year if not more and it is showing some signs of minor rust and I lost one of the red end caps but no issues. The locking mechanism works flawlessly... My only gripe with is that it's advertised to hold up to a 3" diameter tire without issue but my bike is a 29er with 2.5" tires and you really have to push down hard the locking arms to secure the bike properly. Also, it does fit 18" kid bikes as well.
It only took a couple of days for the rack t arrive after I ordered it. I was impressed how sturdy the rack is. My wife rides a Trek Townie E-bike which is heavy (48 lbs) that I needed a sturdy rack to carry it in addition to mine. My hanging rack in no way would handle the weight (Total with all the gear, 70 lbs). My new rack handled it easily.
This rack has some nice features that I looked for in a good rack. It was easy to put together and install on my car. It is fairly heavy but fits perfectly in my 2" hitch. With all the bikes loaded, there isn't any sway or movement with the rack as I drive. The rack sits nice and tight in the receptor. It has security locks that make hauling bikes a safe and secure experience.
The cost was a little higher than I wanted to spend but I was glad I did. I know I bought a great product that will last for many years of riding. I highly recommend this rack to anyone looking for a quality rack for their bikes.
This rack is your best bet if you’re looking for an economical and quality platform rack. The comparable Thule and Kuat models do not have an integrated lock system like the Yakima. It was very simple to assemble and even easier to hitch up and load my bike. Works great with a Tacoma. I used to have a hanger-style rack and this platform is far superior.
The bike rack exceeded my expectations! Well-designed and sturdy , yet not so heavy that I couldn't install it on my vehicle myself. Also E-trailer delivered the product as quickly as promised.
Been a Yakima user for some time. Last bike rack was the Doubledown 4. Great rack but with the newer bike frames having top bars in different shapes and sizes, putting bikes on the Doubledown was a challenge. Had to go to a platform rack.
Holdup was the fit. Carries 2 kids bikes without issues as well as my 29” and 27.5”. It is big and heavy but is solid and stable. Just makes it so much easier to carry 4 bikes. Just did a 500 mile round trip drive with them and no issues. Built in security cables is a nice feature. I did change out the two SKS cores to match up with the others.
I’ll need to replace the stabilizer pin’s holder. It’s make out of plastic and broke right when I pulled out the pin so the cable is just hanging now.
If I had to do it again, I’d buy it again. etrailer has quick shipping and great customer service.
The bike rack works extremely well and fairly easy to get two adult bikes and two kids bike. The rack can be a bit heavy if lifting all in one piece. I would recommend installing the base, then the add on. Bikes are stable and secured. The locking cable is just long enough to go throught the frame, but don't expect both tires to be locked.
The only issue I had is the stablizer bold for the add on did not fit through the base rack. I called supprot and I am going to make the hole slightly larger so it will fit. Support was very knowledge and had heard of one other issue like mine so they noted my account. etrailer is great in customer support and deliver.
This is a great rack and extremely well made. The consumer assembly is only the two cross arms with two bolts each. I debated between this and a similar Thule. The cable with integrated lock and the lockable hitch pin sold me on this one. I have two K2 29'ers and they fit well in the tire saddles. The pivot arm locks down tight on the front wheel as does the strap on the rear wheel making the bikes are very stable for traveling. The large threaded hitch pin dampen all the slop in the hitch receiver. The only con I have is the 20 degree fold down does not allow my 2009 Town & Country rear hatch to fully open. This may not be a problem with other vehicles. For all the pros on this rack I can live with the con.
I have used Yakima products for years. They are always well made and durable. Great bike carrier and easy to assemble.
First-time buyer, can't complain about anything. Another first, my first hitch-type bike carrier as well...did a lot of research and came upon etrailer. The website was easy to navigate with plenty of detail and customer reviews. I took advantage of a nice holiday sale they are running, the unit was out-of-stock, which I wasn't aware of at the time of order. However, I was notified quickly and provided a new ship date which was very reasonable. Shipping was free as well, another reason why I went etrailer. Everything went well, I'm very happy with the Yakima HoldUp rack...easy to assemble, very well constructed, heavy-duty, hold our two bikes nicely, easy to put on and take off, very please with my decision.
As etrailer reminded me, I have had this thing for a year and it is awesome. I did a lot of research before buying and am certainly glad it steered me towards this product. My hatch just clears the rack when it is in the stowed (up) position and it just clears my handlebars in the tilted (down) position. Fits like a glove!
The bolt fits snugly and makes for a very quiet ride. I love the anti-theft bolt-end but I make sure to pull on it after installing because it is hard to tell for sure if it is on. Mine was not and I drove away, losing it. They're not super expensive, but are super back-ordered rn so I had to find one from MasterLock that fits. I actually take mine on and off a fair amount because I'm hauling stuff around and loading/unloading is much easier without the rack in place even with it all folded into the stowed position.
I've taken this rack across the country a few times (with and without bikes) and it has been great. I try not to exceed 90mph with a bike in the rack...
Two things to know:
1. When you are only carrying one bike you have to make certain that the other spot's ratcheting arm is as ratcheted-down as possible. I once had it slip and it was dragging in the roadway before someone started flashing lights at me and I caught it.
2. I use a Voile strap (elastic cargo strap) to hold my front tire down. See attached photo. If you don't, it is possible for the front wheel to roll back a little bit and loosen the fit. I don't know why Yakima hasn't made this change themselves but it's simple and makes your bike WAY more secure especially on winding roads.
I just installed this on Friday and we used it for a short trip to the bike shop. So far, it is not bad. I had to laugh; Yakima applied their logo upside-down! I read the directions at least 3x to be sure I didn't have them reversed...I did it right. The directions also show a logo on both, upper & lower rack. I guess they wanted to save some $$ ? Assembly was easy with just three steps. The hitch has a lock to lock it to the car, which is great, but the cover won't stay on. It takes 2 hands, one to hold the lock in place and the other to try to put the cover over the lock. It just pops off the second you release pressure. I will try again in warmer weather, then tape it on so hopefully it will mold to the lock and eventually stay put without the tape.
I am not convinced of the stability of the bikes, really. Going over bumps they do shake. For safety, we are going to add straps from the luggage rack and through the bikes, just in case.
I really like the cable locks to secure the bikes to the rack. With our old rack there really wasn't a way to lock the bikes to the rack, and I always worried when we were traveling and stopped for food.
Works well for transporting two 29" wheeled mountain bikes. However, after one year it's starting to rust in several areas (see attached photos), and the front wheel arms are becoming increasingly difficult to raise and lower. Finally the locking cable is extremely rusty as you can see in the attached photo. I'm not sure how durable this rack will be long term.
I couldn’t be happier with this rack. After researching the 1Up racks extensively, I decided on the Yakima HoldUp because the 1Up couldn’t properly secure the rear wheel of my REI Co-op Generation e1.2—the rear cargo rack interfered with the wheel clamp. With the Yakima, I only had to remove the front rack on the e1.2 so the wheel mount could grip the front tire, and it’s worked perfectly ever since.
In addition to the Co-op e1.2, I’ve also transported my Trek road bikes, a Trek Domane+, and an Aventon e-bike with no problems. The rack is sturdy and a bit heavy, but still easy enough to handle. The up-curved hitch design, shown in the photos, provides excellent ground clearance, and the tilt feature makes it simple to lower the rack for full access to my RAV4’s hatchback—even with bikes loaded.
The photos show the rack mounted on my Toyota RAV4 with an EcoHitch receiver, carrying both the Co-op e1.2 and the Trek Domane+. The EcoHitch has also been an excellent product.
Overall, I highly recommend the Yakima HoldUp. It’s versatile, secure, and works well with almost any bike.
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