Originally Posted by Frankinbiker

I know that there are commercially made hitch racks that mimic the functionality of the racks mounted on the front of city buses, but all of the consumer racks fail in two important ways.

1. It is necessary to tie a strap around the rear wheel. There is no need for this with the bus racks.

2. The mounting points for the wheels need to be adjusted for different wheel bases. Again, this is not the case for the bus racks.

I assume that rack companies are trying to save weight and money, but I wan the quickest and easiest to use rack possible. Therefore I concluded that I need to fabricate one myself. Constructing the frame, wheel trays and hitch and frame mount is no problem. The problem I see is making the ratcheting arms and quick release lever to raise and lower the rack.

I do not use buses that often and am not familiar with the precise construction of the lever that is pulled up to lower the rack or the spring loaded arms.

My plan is to have the rack mount to my 2" hitch as well as two additional points where it will bolt to the frame of the car. I want the rack to fold up and down with the ease the ease of the bus racks. I also do not want to have to strap down the rear wheel.

I have a metal shop to fabricate the rack, but before I begin I wanted to ask other forum members about the construction of bus racks. How does the locking lever work? Is the arm just spring loaded or does it have a ratcheting mechanism? Is there anything that you would change about the bus design if you were going to own it?

I plan to take my bike on the bus a few times in the coming weeks to investigate.

Do you think it would be better to order replacement arms from Thule, Sarris or Yakima to use on the rack or to fabricate my own. I would love to buy a bus rack from Sportsworks and then fabricate a mounting bracket for the frame of my car, but they do not sell to non transportation companies.