Best 1980 Volkswagen GTI Bike Racks

At first I had high hopes when I revived a personalized looking email that my package had been shipped early. When the package arrived it had no secondary box. I literally came home to a Thule box sitting on my porche with a shipping label slapped on the box. No packing beans or anything. The box had been dented in on the right corner, ussualy I would blame this on ups. But ETRAILER decided to ship my package with absolutely no protection whatsoever. To add to insult to injury as I unboxed the unit I found that the the plastic buckle was broken yielding my bike rack useless and unsafe.. to add piss to the grave they are not responding to my emails regarding setting up a return. I'm not trying to slander this company, I'm just posting my exact experisnace. I hope they can at least respond to my email for a return..

Shipped fast, fit great. Can’t wait to use it.

This is a very strong and secure Bike Rack. But the modeled rubber saddles are too big and the kid's smaller frame bikes will not fill over them. I ended up cutting off the lower attaching posts on each of the 8 saddles to get the bike frames over the saddles. Smaller saddles would make it easier to load and unload the bikes.

Superb. Since we got it, our family has been on several biking trips. It's easy to install/uninstall. It accommodates for bikes with relative ease, but three go on easier than four. Yet we do have to fat tire bikes and two mountain bikes which take up space.

I have to get a trailer hitch extension in order for the bike rack to fold up when not in use. Definitely will go through etrailer for this item.

Great product. We just got a new convertible and I could not use the roof mount or trunk mount. Using the bikes was important. Taking care of the bikes is important too. This bike rack is really the best I have ever had. It is extremely easy to use. I like that it has built in locks. I can use the hard top convertible on the VW Eos if I only have one bike positioned outward. It also works with no bikes installed. I could not be happier with this product and the incredible price, fast shipping and overall value from etrailer.com.

I had to put my electric bikes into this rack, backwards, to make them fit. Not ideal, but it works.The receiving 'trays' that are intended to provide support for holding the bikes, by being placed under the bike tires, are forced to be moved to a location that is not directly under the bottom of the bike tires. While it works in this manner, it is not ideal.For the support that attaches to the diagonal bike frame, we had to remove it from the vertical rail of the rack. We reinstalled it, upside down, because that's the only way we could make it fit, or 'grab', the bike frame. Again, we made it work, but it's not ideal. We chose to keep the rack because it was so much less expensive than the Thule rack we considered buying. The bike shop owner didn't agree with us. He observed that we are putting $3000 worth of bikes on the rack and risking that investment. So far, no problems, other than the ill-fitting installation.

Although I have net transported bikes yet ( picking up 2 bikes later today), I do want to share that purchasing it thru etrailer.com was very easy and it shipped very fast to my home. The Sarris Freedom was extremely easy to put together. It took about 10 minutes, basicly 3 bolts. Its very sturdy yet light, not bulky. Looks easy to store in my garage when not in use. Straps and wheel holders appear to be very well built. Got it on sale and the price was very good. Looking forward to trying it out later when picking up 2 new bikes. I plan on transporting somewhat locally between 5 and 25 miles each way. Initial feeling its a very nice rack.

Great bike rack. Very light, but strong, and folds up very compactly! Easy to store and carry down to car from apt. on 11th floor! Good looking, sturdy, and color matches VW grey. Bike rack tightens easily so no rattle (and no tools; uses a handle on bottom to turn and tighten). Also tilts back to get access to hatch (you just have to take your bike off first). Definitely recommend it!!!

I was looking for a light weight bike rack for my 2015 Honda Accord. Your videos stated that the Kuat Beta was light and easy to install. You were right. I opened the box, read the instructions, and had it installed in about 10 minutes. I don't use a rack lock. It is so easy to pop on and off the hitch that I keep the rack in my car trunk.

Bought a new Mazda 3 HB and decided to go with a hitch bike rack. I've had a Kuat Trasnfer bike rack. That rack did it's job, but I felt the Sherpa or NV 2.0 Base would be better in every way. I've bought hitches and Kuat from etrailer and I knew their online prices and customer service was the best in business so it was a no brainer to go back to buy another bike rack. It was a tough decision between the Sherpa and NV 2.0 Base, but I felt had all the right checks for me to go with the NV Base 2.0. Once I ordered the rack, it was shipped the same day and arrived at my doorstep a day earlier! The box was ok, but the packaging inside was excellent. The quality is top notch and the manual is easy to read. Not gonna lie, the rack is heavy. I knew it was going to be heavy after researching on it and it's not a big deal, but doing a solo assembly wasn't going to be easy. Luckily I had my son with me to assist. Assembly took 15min (with another person). Manual doesn't state NM torque, but I set it around 8-10nm to bolt down everything. Once I put it on the hitch, I turned the anti-rattle knob and it locked the bike rack down to the hitch like a vice grip. It's solid and wont budge at all! everything on this rack is sturdy and top quality. The bike and rack barely sways during the drive. I can't express how impressive this rack is! The only down side to this and it's not even the rack, it's the hitch lock pin. It feels like an after thought and it's too thin. it flops around. With the price I paid for this, I was hoping for something little better. Overall all, the Kuat NV 2.0 Base is hands down the best bike rack on the market and I'm glad I went with it.

Great rack! This is our third hitch rack: we had a 4-bike Thule for hanging bikes by their tubes and then a 2-bike Thule platform rack whose 100-pound rating didn't permit loading 2 e-bikes, so that was our criterion for the search that led to this purchase. Assembly was not intuitive, so we had to re-do a few steps, but the final product is excellent: very stable. Two cautions: (1) Be sure to check whether any panniers block your tail lights; (2) Always use the included lock because each bike's rear wheel sits on a relatively flat surface and a big bump might dislodge it if the back strap isn't firmly seated.

Love this bike rack! The NV 2.0 firmly keeps my road bike and beach cruiser securely in place. The added lock is a great feature for keeping the bikes safe after a day of riding. Even on my tiny Corolla the rack looks and fits great. I never have to worry about the bikes when they're locked onto the NV 2.0

Ok at 1 year I still remember how good customer service is with etrailer.com. This rack remains awesome as well, favorite features are the locks and the flip down capability so even with bikes loaded I can open the back hatch of my SUV with no issues. Also I think it is easy to take on and off so I don't just drive around with it on, hangs easily in the garage.

One of the few racks that will clear my Jeep's large rear mounted spare tire without using an extender. The other is the Allen which doesn't have the nice features the Swagman Titan has. Tips enough to allow partial opening of Jeep rear door, but enough to open the soft top rear window. The vertical portion of rack tips slightly toward vehicle (at least it does on mine). Would be better if the horizontal "S" shaped piece could be turned around to dip down, moving it further from the spare tire, but there are only holes drilled to mount it as shown. Can't attest to the durability yet, but it doesn't wobble even a tiny bit. Have to compliment everyone I spoke with at etrailer. very nice and extremely helpful.

Operates well as demonstrated in the excellent pictures and videos on website. Only caveat- if you have a ladies bike you need an adapter bar which is a separate purchase, and be careful to get the right size. Also if your bike has a seat with a rod that cushions from bumps, you may not be able to use an adapter and therefore cannot use a hanging rack!!! Lucky my bike shop had an adapter that could go lower on the frame. So I can use the rack but the bike is at an angle. And this morning not can be done for the outer hung bike not the inner one.

The rack arrived very quickly. Upon opening the box I observed that the covers for the suction pads had come loose during shipping. Probably not an issue. The instructions for assembly and mounting were clear and easy to follow. I planned to secure the cups to the glass roof on my VW. So, I thought it would be best to clean the glass and roof with auto detailing spray. After doing that I attached the carrier and gave it a prett y good shake. I have attached three photographs that may add clarity. I'm very optimistic. This may be the best carrier I've had for my bicycle. Keep Eager.

Your product is still working great. It’s on top of a fiberglass truck top. Speeds up to 75 mph. It’s a heavy hybrid Fugi. Well I do lose some suction in one of the cups but not much. I’m always able to pump it back up. Sorry I can provide a picture at this time.

Goes together quickly, appears that it will fit my needs in terms of being cross-compatible on a variety of vehicles. Fit on a Subaru Outback factory crossbar and transported bike locally with no issues when I got it out to set up and test (not quite warm enough to ride much yet where I live). Instructions are not super, but the assembly is pretty straightforward so that is not a problem. At the price point, if this rack indeed holds up to swapping onto multiple vehicles and lasts me a few years, I'll be thrilled with the purchase.

I purchased two of these racks, along with another rack that is meant to hold bikes with both tires still installed. I am extremely happy with all three of them. This rack specifically is very sturdy. Installation was sort of a pain, but that was mostly due to me installing it on the top of my 2004 GMC Yukon XL...it is so high that it was a little hard to install. But now that it's installed, it's actually very simple to take the bikes on and off. I've made one round trip with these racks, so I've put the bikes up there and removed them twice. Both trips (about 100 miles each way) they bikes were super sturdy and I had no concerns about them falling off or anything like that. I would definitely recommend this rack if you're looking for a fork down roof mounted bike carrier. In fact, I will very likely get another one when we add another bike to the family. I think I'll be able to fit four racks on the top of my Yukon easily. One last note - I was initially concerned about the height of my vehicle when bikes were on top of them. I brushed a couple of tree limbs when pulling into my camping spot, but it was no big deal. I think the total height of my load was about 10 feet, which was lower than the camper that I was pulling.