Yakima EXO SwingBase with DoubleUp 2 Bike Rack Review

Products Featured in this Video

Yakima EXO Swing Away 2-Bike Rack - Wheel Mount - 2" Hitches

261 reviews

Code: Y92VR

Price:  $1,087.90

• Hitch Bike Racks
• Platform Rack
• Swing-Away Rack
• Wheel Mount
• Hitch Lock

• 2 Bikes
• Class 3
• Fits 2 Inch Hitch
• Fat Bikes
• Yakima

Modular platform bike rack swings away with bikes loaded for cargo area access. Swap the bike rack for a ski carrier or cargo carrier without removing the base from your vehicle, or add a 2nd tier to carry 2 accessories (all sold separately).

Do you have a question about part Y92VR?more information >     

Review of the Yakima EXO SwingBase with DoubleUp 2 Bike Rack

Hi everyone, it's Evangeline here. And today we are looking at our Yakima EXO System that comes with a SwingBase and a DoubleUp Bike Rack Kit here at etrailer.com. Now, this is a really good way to get into the EXO System. If you are an avid biker because you'll get the SwingBase. That's the base of the whole system, as well as our bike rack. And from there, you can build up and onwards.

As for the bike rack itself, it has different weight capacities. We have it here on our SwingBase and that has a capacity of 50 pounds per bike. If you happen to have the TopShelf and you want to mount it up there, it will have the capacity of 40 pounds per bike. This uses a wheel mount which secures the front wheel of your bike to the bike rack. This is awesome because then if we have like a carbon frame bike like what we have here, it works with that without warping the frame.

But it'll also work with like your alternate frame bikes, like your children's bikes, women's bikes, or even your step-thru bikes. This clamps down to your front wheel. So make sure that your wheel size is compatible with this. It fits 20 to 29 inch wheels. As for your tire width, you can also fit your fat tire bikes with a wheel width of up to 4.8 inches.

The bike rack comes with its own cable locks integrated into the system. So what I recommend doing is trying to get your Same Key System Lock Cores, so that you can use one key to access everything. And this comes out of the arms of your bike rack which you can then use to let's say, wrap around the frame and lock back into place. On the rear wheel cradle, we have a strap that comes down and first let's take a look at the inside. It's a smooth inside to just, to help hold on to your bike's wheel.

And when you've wrapped it around, you bring it through this lever and it ratchets down to secure your wheel. Notice how it's an extra long strap, so that even if you have a fat tire bike, this can wrap around that. Awesome part about this being on the SwingBase is that you can well, swing it out. So to do so you have this knob here that you're going to loosen. And once that knob is loosen, you pull this lever. This allows you to push this out, pull it by your support end and just bring it all the way out and it clicks into place. With it swung out like this, this gives you this whole space to access your hatch, open your doors, lower your tailgate, really anything you need to do. Without having to take your bikes or your bike rack off. Also a cool thing is that, since it is in this position. It's in a perfect place to dismount your bike without having to go all the way to the other side. For when you want to put it back into position and drive away, you're going to have to lift up this lever and pull it back into the folded position. It will immediately slide onto the ramp that puts that bolt back into place. Well, other bike racks, you can adjust the cradles back and forth. Right here, you cannot do that. So what they did is that they offset each bike cradle just to minimize collision between your handlebars and your seats. Now we have it here on a truck. So let's take a look at how that SwingBase works and that swing away feature. So here I'm just loosening that knob for the swing portion. So that's loosen now. Pull that lever, push that SwingBase out, all the way until it clicks here at the end. And you can see you have plenty of space here. More than enough to lower our tailgate completely, here at the bottom. There's also space between the bottom of our tailgate and the top of our SwingBase. You can see that is aligned with the step, here by our license plate. So that's how it works on a truck. The EXO System tries to be a quick and easy solution for your overlanding needs and it shows in the way our bikes mount and dismount. So let's take a look at how to dismount our bikes. I start with our rear wheel cradle, that strap right there, goes up and out. And here at the front, you're going to hold onto your bike. As you press that button, lift this clamp up and out of the way. And from here, it's a slight lift and you're ready to go on a bike ride. Here in the back, we have this cradle that rotates up and down. Just to accommodate bikes of different wheelbases. So if you have a shorter bike, it goes like this. And for your longer bikes, it accommodates it that way. How far it sits out, depends on your hitch on your vehicle. So I will measure from the center of the hitch pin hole on our hitch here, all the way to the end. And it sticks out 33 and a half inches. Now let's talk about ground clearance. Again, it depends on the hitch on your vehicle but here the bottom lip of our hitch, sits 11 and a half inches. From the ground to the hitch here at the end, this sits at 14 and 3 quarter inches. Above the ground to the bottom of the end, so that's going to be about 3 and a quarter inches of height that you're getting. As for ground clearance here at the shank. We have a slight ramp here at this end and this sits about half an inch below the top of your bottom hitch pin lip. With your bikes off, you can also compact this down. I put the front wheel clamps in and you can also slide these rear cradles in and they lock at a tab right there at the base. The bike rack is a quick add on to the SwingBase or if you have it, the TopShelf. So let's take a look at how it fits into our SwingBase. Before you install your bike rack, first, make sure that your base is properly installed and everything is tightened down. Your anti-rattle lock looks really good. And from here, we can set up the arms for the rails. Starting with the driver's side, pull out this knob and that will allow you to slide out this arm. And that locks back into place. Come over here to the passenger's side, pull out that knob as well, bring this arm out and you'll see how that pin locks it. Each arm has this rail which you install your accessories into. So you're going to make sure that your front tab is all the way out using your speed knob. And at this very end, you're going to slide your accessories underneath this red tab. The bike rack itself is actually relatively light. As you can see, I can hold it all by myself. And one nice thing is that I don't have to worry about putting in the wrong way. Either way you put it in, will be correct. So just put them on the arms and make sure they get in the tabs on the rails. Once you have your bike rack in your trays, you can then lock it into place, using our locking speed knobs. So like its name suggests, this is a speedy process. Just tighten that down and that tab will secure your bike rack. And once you have it all the way in, just press this bolt and that locks it into place. Not only does the tab lock your knob in place but you can also lock the knob itself with the key included with your system. One cool thing about getting the kit with the bike rack and the SwingBase is that all your lock cores are keyed alike. If you're getting a separate accessory, make sure to get matching lock cores, so that you can use one key for everything. All in all, everything in this system is really strong, really durable. It's made of this nice strong steel with a black powder coat finish to prevent rust and corrosion. One thing to note is if you are taking this out there and having a blast, lots of extreme activities. If you do manage to scratch it, try to touch it up as much as you can. Just to keep that rust prevention in place. So my final thoughts about this bike rack with the whole system is that the bike rack itself checks off all the boxes. It has the features where it has different weight capacities for fat bikes or for heavier bikes. It also has your locking cables to keep things in place. Now, the EXO System itself is designed to be built up and out with different accessories. So the bike rack, as you can see, was easy to swap in and out, but as for how it works as its own platform rack, it also works really well. Don't forget that the EXO System comes in a bunch of different configurations. From a cargo carrier, your gear locker or your bike racks. Make sure you check all those out here at etrailer.com. But this was a look at our Yakima EXO SwingBase System with our DoubleUp 2-Bike Rack here at etrailer.com..