Don't Waste Time!Think About These Best Racks to transport Your Bikes

Don't Waste Time!Think About These Best Racks to transport Your Bikes

Although you can transport a bicycle inside your car, either it is very inconvenient or get your car dirty. So you must want to transport your bikes safely and securely outside your car due to mud, manure or snot on the frame or tires and limited inside space. However, you need to consider many factors, including your vehicle, bike numbers you are intend to carry, budget, and personal priorities, when buying a bike carrying system for your car. An affordable priced bicycle rack is worth for its working out better for both your bike and vehicle in the future. Here are plenty of options for carrying your bicycle, each has its own advantages and disadvantages. 

1.Hitch Racks

Hitch racks, whether tray-style or hanging- style, are installed to a vehicle’s trailer hitch to support bikes by the wheels or by the frame. As a result, it holds more types of bikes. When you load or unload your bikes, this rack will not accidentally scratch the paint because it keeps your bikes away from the car. In consequence, if you care about your vehicle's paint, this might be a good choice. Also, it’s the simplest installation than any other racks, just tightening these racks into a receiver. When you’re not carrying bikes or when you aren’t using it, most of hitch racks can be folded down and tilted out of the way. However, the factor whether your car has a hitch or not should be taken into account. If no, it will be an extra budget in that you need to get one installed. Moreover, some hitch racks allow you to tilt the rack down or swing it to the side for vehicle access while the other don’t. At this time you have to unload the bikes to get easily accessible to the rear hatch or trunk of your vehicle. At last, one of the worst downsides to hitch racks is its added caveat of weight. If you transport multiple bikes, it would be one disaster after another. Although some bike locks are available, yet greater attention should be paid to theft of bikes, even the rack.

PROS

    CONS

Hold more types of bikes

    Difficult to access to the trunk or hatch

Avoid scratching the paint

    The subject to theft

The simplest installation

    Not fit vehicles with spare-tire

Load easily, good for frequent use

    Low capacity

Easy to fold down

    Require hitch receivers

2.Multi-Sport Trailer

If you need to take three or four bikes, multi-sport trailer is just the thing, which often has the most greatest capacity. These trailers can be used to carry other outdoor equipment, like kayaks, surfboards and luggage boxes. Moreover, they can often be accommodated to different vehicles. Super easy to disassemble the bike from your car and zero scratch is one of their advantages as well. Nevertheless, bike trailer does more harm than good. It is the most expensive rack. And you need to make sure that there is enough space to store it in garage or house. What’s worse, whether your truck has a hitch receiver or not affects your choice. If yes, the size of the hitch is another consideration; if no, you have to pay extra expenditure for installation of a hitch receiver. Lastly, the driver can not notice what happens behind, which will lead to many harmful results. Rear car accident may damage the rack and what it carries. Theft is also a hassle. Of course you can lock your bike securely, whereas that means additional charges will be paid for bike lock.

PROS

    CONS

The greatest capacity

    The most expensive

Accommodated to different vehicles

    Space-wasting to store it

Easiest to disassemble the bike

    Affected by hitch receiver

Zero scratch 

    Possibility of theft

    Extra spending on hitch receiver or lock

3.Boot/Hatch Rack

If your budget won’t allow you to get multi-sport trailer, hatch rack is a good budget-friendly alternative. As the most inexpensive bike rack, installation and storage of these racks are under a minute, so does remove the bike. Additionally, if your vehicle doesn’t have a trailer hitch, trunk rack is an easier solution to mount to the back of almost any kinds of vehicles than any other racks. Thanks to its light weight, it exerts less effect on fuel consumption than other tray-style racks. And this option is not permanently mounted to your vehicle, so it’s suitable for the occasional ride. The weaknesses of trunk rack can be concluded as following: in the first place, it’s a must for you to remove your bikes to access to the back of car; in the second place, with the straps and hooks mounting on your car, and with your bikes hanging by the frame, both of them are taking some risk of scratching paintwork; in the third place, boot rack is not as stable as a hitch rack. For example, if you want to carry more than one bike, they would sway a bit during transport, thus bumping into one another, which is promised to damage not only your car but also your bikes. And they show limitation in carrying multiple bicycles. Last but not least, some bike locks are available, but care must be taken of bike and rack itself’s theft.

PROS

CONS

Budget-friendly alternative

Difficult access to the back of car

Easy to install and store and remove bike      

Scratch paintwork

Suit for car without trailer hitch

Low capacity

Less fuel consumption

Possibility of theft

Not permanently mounted

Not stable

4.Roof Rack

If you carry your bike on the top of your car, it will provide plenty of places to friends, kids or other gears. Roof racks are attached to a base crossbar system (we will get some details later) and places the bikes sturdily on the top of the vehicle, which takes an advantage in two aspects: first, driver's view is guaranteed to be clear by keeping your bike up the vehicle; second, no impeded access to your vehicle’s trunk and interior compartment is ensured because roof rack isn’t installed on a vehicle’s rear hatch around. Besides of mounting a bike, a roof rack can be used for any outdoor sports equipment in your inventory, from kayaks, skis, snowboards to paddle boards. However, in order to get your bike up and down from the roof, not only does it require you to be strong and tall enough, but it also will account for the paint getting scratched. An entra endeavor needs to be spent in looking for car parks or garages that fit into overhead areas. Kindly keep in mind that don't drive your vehicle into the garage while your bike is still on the roof.



PROS

CONS

Save plenty of places

Require strength to load & unload

Clear driver's view 

Get the paint scratched

No impeded access to vehicle

Look for car parks or garages

Used for any outdoor sports        

Affected by bad weather

Waste fuel due to wind resistance



Roof Cross Bars

Next, let’s mention the roof cross bars. As the cheapest and easiest to work with some roof carriers, cross bar goes for roof racks, cargo boxes, roof luggage storage bags. Some come with your car while others require you to install. This add-on solidly constructed on the roof of the vehicle, it can be mounted on all the accessories as you can see from below picture.

                               
                                 
     



5.Mount Carrier Basket

                    
                     


Mount carrier basket is a new invention in bicycle racks market, making it much easier to transport your bike. It can be mounted on the rear or the roof of your truck. And it fits all kinds of bikes (such as full suspension and ladies frames) for the reason that it doesn’t hold your bike by its frames or wheels. Furthermore, they give you lots of extra storage space for large amounts of gears, such as skis, snowboards, paddles and even bulky cargo. How great load capacity it is. Finally, most of these basket can be easily folded up when you are not using it. On the down side, even if it is solidly constructed, it is unable to stable your bikes or any other accessories, resulting in bigger possibility of loose gears falling off. And you can’t lock your bikes sturdily, so they are often in typical danger of theft. Plus, the size of basket limits the number and size of the gear you want to transport. They are also unable to be tilted down for getting into a vehicle’s area.

PROS

CONS

Fit all kinds of bikes

Not stable

Great load capacity

Without lock

Be easily folded up                             

Bigger possibility of theft

Easy to unload and load bikes

Limited to the size of basket

Moderate expensive

Impeded access to a vehicle’s area

6.Spare-Tire Bicycle Carrier



Let’s mention the last bike storage option for car in our list. Spare-tire racks, mounted on rear-mounted exterior spare tires, is moderate costly. Due to its comparatively light weight, it’s usually simply installed and easily removed. On the negative side, they don’t offer great capacity as other racks, just carrying only 2 bikes. In addition, bikes may obstruct driver's view, which may account for car accident. The rack must match with rear-mounted exterior spare tires.

PROS

CONS

Moderate costly

Low capacity

Simple installation                            

Obstruction to driver's view

Easy to unload and load bikes

Limited to spare tires

Impeded access to a vehicle’s area

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