The infamous mountain bike rack saga.
I started with a 1Up 7 years ago. Great rack but more than 2 bikes and it's starts getting huge off the back. Plus it really interfered with getting into the back. I bought a Wilco swing hitch which opens up the back area nicely but again more than 2 bikes and it's a huge backend.
Two years ago I purchased the Northshore 6. It's a really rugged and simple rack, it just works. My two main issues were.
1. The downhill bike would get wedged in the carrying prongs and really tough to get out.
2. When loaded with 6 bikes don't even think about lowering the rack, even with 4 it was pretty heavy. I ended up selling that last year.
Now the ultimate rack. The VelociRAX 7. This is an awesome rack!! The wheels are held in wheel baskets and the best part of the the whole rack is it has 2 hydraulic pistons to aid in lowering the rack. One person is only required to release the latch and lower the bikes. When loading the bikes you can either load in the reclined position or in the straight up locked position. There are no issues with the tailgate or liftgate hitting the rack or the bikes. There is plenty of room getting into back or sitting on the tailgate. Also you can pull a pin and lay the rack right on the ground to really open up the back of the Land Cruiser.
The reason I bought the 7 rack is the two horizontal bars can easily be removed and replaced with 3, 4, 5 bike horizontal bars. I purchased the extra 3 bike horizontal bars and use that when it's just me transporting my bikes around. When heading out with a bunch of friends I switch to the 7.
VelociRAX makes an attachment so you can hook the rack in your garage and use it as a bike rack. I don't do this because I'm really tight on space.
What I do when I'm done with the rack is remove the horizontal bars and store those in the garage and then remove the hitch assembly and store that as well. Makes getting it off the back of the Land Cruiser much easier!
Anyway checkout the pics and you'll see how I store the hitch assembly with the 3 and 7 bike horizontal bars.
I started with a 1Up 7 years ago. Great rack but more than 2 bikes and it's starts getting huge off the back. Plus it really interfered with getting into the back. I bought a Wilco swing hitch which opens up the back area nicely but again more than 2 bikes and it's a huge backend.
Two years ago I purchased the Northshore 6. It's a really rugged and simple rack, it just works. My two main issues were.
1. The downhill bike would get wedged in the carrying prongs and really tough to get out.
2. When loaded with 6 bikes don't even think about lowering the rack, even with 4 it was pretty heavy. I ended up selling that last year.
Now the ultimate rack. The VelociRAX 7. This is an awesome rack!! The wheels are held in wheel baskets and the best part of the the whole rack is it has 2 hydraulic pistons to aid in lowering the rack. One person is only required to release the latch and lower the bikes. When loading the bikes you can either load in the reclined position or in the straight up locked position. There are no issues with the tailgate or liftgate hitting the rack or the bikes. There is plenty of room getting into back or sitting on the tailgate. Also you can pull a pin and lay the rack right on the ground to really open up the back of the Land Cruiser.
The reason I bought the 7 rack is the two horizontal bars can easily be removed and replaced with 3, 4, 5 bike horizontal bars. I purchased the extra 3 bike horizontal bars and use that when it's just me transporting my bikes around. When heading out with a bunch of friends I switch to the 7.
VelociRAX makes an attachment so you can hook the rack in your garage and use it as a bike rack. I don't do this because I'm really tight on space.
What I do when I'm done with the rack is remove the horizontal bars and store those in the garage and then remove the hitch assembly and store that as well. Makes getting it off the back of the Land Cruiser much easier!
Anyway checkout the pics and you'll see how I store the hitch assembly with the 3 and 7 bike horizontal bars.
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