Hollywood Racks Crosstrack Bike Rack for 2 Bikes - 1-1/4" and 2" Hitches - Wheel Mount

Video Transcript for Manufacturer Interview with Hollywood Racks about the Crosstrack Bike Racks

Hey, everyone, it's Evangeline, right here at etrailer. Today, we have a fun guest appearance. So we have Hollywood Racks in the building, well, technically, in our parking lot, helping us get some hands-on training on some of their brand new bike racks. So right over here, we have this whole setup, and I'm super excited to share what I learned today about these brand new things. So, hey, I'm Evangeline, how's it going Hi, Sean, good to meet you. It's so exciting that you're here.

I've heard some really cool things about different people with their experience with trying out your new bike racks. So if you don't mind, I'd love to hear so much more about them. Not a problem. So this is our new CrossTrack 1. It is designed to carry one bicycle.

It is holding by the tires only, so it doesn't matter what kind of frame you have, whether it's a full-suspension mountain bike, a carbon road bike, beach cruiser, whatever, it doesn't matter what frame shape you have 'cause it grabs the tires. It doesn't matter if it's carbon, aluminum, or anything, and it just wedges up against it. We also include with it a wheel block that pushes against the front wheel and that helps keep front wheel wobble as you're driving down the freeway, back country roads, and just helps keep the bike a lot more stable. So that's a nice feature that we've added in on this rack, comes stock with it. And handle up front for folding down, so if you need to get into your trunk, super easy, so you can pop your trunk, get your gear out, get ready for the ride, clears everything.

Does this on, obviously, the one-bike and the two-bike. That's so cool. So I see it has a pretty good tilt-away here. Love that. Does that change in terms of, let's say, when you get like the larger bike rack, do you have pretty much the same tilt there It is gonna be the same tilt, the two-bike's gonna tilt the same degree down, but, obviously, 'cause it's longer, it'll come a little bit farther down.

We haven't seen that it hits the ground on anything. It stops pretty well. I have a very tiny Fiat and I've used the two-bike and it doesn't hit the ground. So if it's not gonna hit the ground on a Fiat, it's probably not gonna hit on anything else. That's awesome, like, good ground clearance here. I have a smaller SUV here, so, like, my hitch sits pretty low to the ground and I do like how high up this sits. Now over on the truck, though, I see we have the other bike rack. Yep, we've got our two-bike version over here, and you can see, obviously, on a larger vehicle it's up much higher. When you do fold down, you still got plenty of ground clearance, you're not gonna run into any problems or anything like that. Plenty of room for the tailgate to come down. Nice. No issues. That's awesome. Even if this is up. Oh! Your tailgate clears. (chuckles) I was not expecting that. That's gonna be a little different for every truck, every vehicle. Yes. But on this one it works. We tested on this and the, I think it's the Toyota, it's fine. Okay, that's good to see. It's got a 45-degree, so a regular hatchback if you're just the rack on, no bikes, you can still get in without having to fold it all the way down, and then up for normal transport. All right, cool. And these are only available as a one-bike or a two-bike, we are not doing a four-bike. You either ride by yourself or you have friends. You have to decide, when you buy the rack, if you wanna keep anybody in your car with you or just ride by yourself. So there's not an expandable option to it. That's a good overall view of it, like, it's definitely helpful for carrying your bikes of different shapes and sizes. Yep. I know you guys have a lot of cool other bikes. The Destination 4 is something that I always recommend to people that are first starting into riding their bikes. They have a family of bikes, and they want something good for their family. Like, you mentioned, this doesn't go up to four, but it's also a very different type of bike rack. It is. So what did you guys see in, I don't know, like the cycling world that had you think of the CrossTrack So our family of racks, that's kind of how we look at it, we have the Destination family, the Destination 2 and Destination 4, those are entry-level racks for people that don't ride all the time. It's a family, they wanna get the kids out to the local park, or the beach, or whatever that is. Thus, the Destination 2 and 4 are great for that. And then, we have our family of e-bike racks, the Destination E, and the Sport Rider, and RV, and they're designed for e-bikes and, obviously, they'll carry any other bike. If it can carry an 80-pound e-bike, it can carry your 20-pound mountain bike, piece of cake. However, that's up here and it's more on the e-bike focused. That whole middle of, you know, what I affectionately call, bike nerds, which I am a bike nerd, road bikes, gravel bikes, mountain bikes, stuff like that, like the bike on the CrossTrack 1, that customer, they want a little bit more than what the Destination 2 and Destination 4 offer, but they don't need the e-bike rack. So there's that whole middle that we kind of like didn't have the right thing for them, and that's why we came up with the CrossTrack, that it fits that bike nerd kind of customer that wants to just leave the bike rack on their car all the time as a badge of, "I ride bikes," and also friends after work, "Hey, you wanna go ride after work" They don't have to worry about running home, getting the rack on the car and get the bike. They just go home, throw the bike on, and go, so it's kind of aimed at that crowd, which is me, I'm guilty, I'm that guy. That's awesome. Yeah, here at etrailer, we call people that get our products, our neighbors, 'cause it's like a neighbor just across the street asking questions like, "Hey, I'm riding some bikes, I see you have something on your car. What's that Tell me more about that." So it's definitely for your bike nerd neighbor that's super into it, and wants something that's very specialized for them. Yes. Or actually, honestly, maybe more versatile. Versatile, it is a versatile thing. That might be a better word, 'cause, like, your electric bike rack specialized especially for electric bikes. Like, they got the ramp, they got the weight capacity. Yeah. And then, your Destination is definitely a family rack. Yes, there's weight limits on the Destination, so it's why it's not aimed at the, the regular Destination 2 and 4, not aimed at the e-bike crowd. But one nice thing about these is the weight limit on this is 66 pounds per tray. So this is gonna be able to carry a lot of e-bikes. And a cool actual something on this, I'm gonna show you a cool, little trick. Okay. It doesn't come with a ramp. Yes. But these little red parts out here, you can get a ramp as an aftermarket so you can wheel up your heavier performance e-bike, mountain bike, or e-road bike. The only thing is it doesn't work great with bikes with fenders. Okay. Think of it this way, 'cause, obviously, rear fenders are gonna get in the way here. Yeah. They go way back there. So, you know, if you've got an e-bike with fenders, unfortunately, weight-wise you're fine, but it's not gonna work the way it grabs. That's where the Destination E is gonna be a great product there. True, because of that dual-wheel mount style. Yeah. You would prefer the Destination E with that frame mount instead. Yeah, because it grabs the frame. But if you've got a, you know, e-mountain bike, you know, those tend to be about 50 pounds, sometimes 60 pounds, this rack's gonna be perfectly fine. It's not gonna have the big rear fenders, so it's gonna work great. So this is a pretty versatile rack still, still gonna hold up for a lot of people. Yeah. It's just, obviously, you got that e-bike with fenders, you got the Destination E for that. So I think my first question here, seeing this whole setup, is can I attach to the ramp while the bike is on Yes, you can, you just have to make certain to fold this part down first. That makes sense. You fold it down, and then you can hook it up. And then, this goes on there. Sean Yep. And then, we have it all set up. And the ramp is telescoping, so obviously a larger higher tailgate truck. Yes. You want it a little bit longer to keep the ramp more gentle- A bit more shallow. Yes. When it's lower, you can keep it shorter if need be, stuff like that. Yeah, because it doesn't have to go as far. All right, that's really good to see. And I also see that wheel chock up front. Yep. So does that mean I can use this with different types of bikes So like this is an extra-large frame, obviously, not my bike, I've got a small frame. Yes. And I find that sometimes trays are a little too long for me. Does this have the adjustment for a different type of mountain bike Yes, you can adjust, there's two positions. You can see a little hole right here. You can undo the screws on the other side and move it there. We ship it out of the box set up- In this position. In this position. Okay. 'Cause this is the position that's gonna be good for most 29ers and 700c. Which is what we have here. So yeah, most road bikes and mountain bikes are 29er or 700, so that's generally where it's gonna be. Obviously, every bike's a little bit different. If you've got a really, really big tire, you might wanna move it back a little bit. Evangeline And get a little bit more space. Yeah, so it's got two positions. It's one of those find what works best for you, your bikes, and what you carry the most, and leave it there or move it a lot. Another aspect we've got is here, we've got all of the different hole positions, and that also is for the different size wheels. We ship it out of the box for most road bikes, mountain bikes. But it'll go down all the way, this will work for like a 20-inch kids' bikes. Another actual benefit of here, we will have aftermarket locks that'll go through there, so you can keep the bike on. Not something I would leave outside your hotel if you're at an event all night. But if you're running into a Starbucks or a Chipotle to get some food after the ride- A quick and easy solution. You're fine. Yeah, keep the bike from getting snatched and grabbed real quick. But, you know, if you're gonna leave it outside overnight, it comes with a cable to lock through or, you know, put it in the shower in the hotel room just to, you don't wanna leave it outside anyway. Your bike, it's your baby. That's true, it is. You invested a lot into your bike, you wanna make sure that not only it transports it safely, but when you're parked somewhere, you're transporting it safely. It stays. You want it there when you come back out. Now I noticed that you have different shanks on the bike racks. Yes. So it sounds like you have the single, you have the double tray, but then you also have 1 1/4 with an adapter and two-inch shanks for both of those options. Yes. So why would someone pick, like, why would they get a different type of shank So we are offering, so there's four different models. There's one-bike and two-bike with 1 1/4 each, and two-inch each. Yeah. And the reason we're offering both is because there's a whole lot of different sized cars. As I mentioned earlier, I drive a Fiat. You cannot get a two-inch adapter or a two-inch hitch for a Fiat at all. So if I do wanna carry friends or anything like that, I have to have an 1 1/4. I usually use the one-bike, 'cause Fiat's small, I don't wanna give people a lift. But if I wanted to, I could get the 1 1/4 two-bike and carry a friend to an event, or something like that. Okay. So we wanted to keep it pretty versatile. Another aspect, the mechanisms are all the same. So say you buy a two-inch, you've got your big truck and all that, and then you buy a new car that doesn't have a two-inch, you can actually buy a new receiver to put the 1 1/4 so you don't have to buy a whole new rack. You can just buy the new hitch and it all bolts together the same, and then you still have the rack that can work on your 1 1/4. So, for example, for a family, let's say, the wife has a car with an 1 1/4 hitch, the husband has a larger vehicle with a two-inch hitch. Instead of having to worry about two different bike racks, you just can switch back and forth. In that one, you get the 1 1/4, 'cause it comes with the two-inch adapter, and then you just take the adapter on and off as you need it to move back and forth from each vehicle. Okay. So we wanted to offer as much flexibility for the end user as humanly possible. Instead of going, "Nope, this is all you get." Yeah, give them options. And because the weight rating is pretty good, it's pretty high, but it's not crazy high kind of thing- It still works. We can do it with both, both sizes. That's good to know. Yeah, 'cause I know for the 1 1/4 hitch receiver crowd, sometimes when that's your only option, you don't have that many options for bike racks that work well and still can carry those heavier bikes, so that makes so much sense. Now I, personally, have had good experience with the 1 1/4, even with the two-inch adapter, because I, personally, enjoy that anti-rattle bolt tightening that down. Now I do have to keep around a 3/4 inch wrench in my car for that to make sure it's secure. But I'm also not taking a bike rack off of my car that often, at least my personal car. Yeah, yeah, that's true. Yeah. Here, at each trailer, we do a lot of swapping around of different bike racks, and I did find that the other type of shank is a little easier 'cause I don't have to use tools. Yes, let me show you on this one, we use it on our two-inch. So it's our patented No Wobble system. So, obviously, on our 1 1/4, we just use a regular threaded hitch pin. So our No Wobble is basically a spin and a screw, and a threadless hitch pin. In here, there's a little U-loop. So you put this through, and as you tighten this, it pulls it up against here, and that's what takes all the wobble out. So, obviously, you can see, with nothing in, there's a fair amount of wobble. And this is one thing, we're a little bit backwards from other brands. A lot of other brands say put your hitch in, tighten it, then put the hitch pin. Because the hitch pin's integral to the No Wobble, ours is backwards, so we get a lot of phone calls, "Hey, it's not working." "Oh, you did it backwards," you know. So you put this in, and then it's pretty simple. You don't need a tool, and you can get it about like that, and the wobble's all gone. Great. All by hand. Didn't have to get sweaty, didn't have to get a tool, nothing. Thank you for letting us come by and share our new product with you. Super excited. Well, my name's Evangeline, here at etrailer. I'm Sean with Hollywood Racks. I hope you enjoyed this video. And if you have any questions, well, give us a call or send us a message here at etrailer.com.