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.

What about these?
https://www.1upusa.com/1upusarackhome.htm

1 bike back red car 500..jpg

Thank you for that rack suggestion. It looks like a possible contender, but looks a little flimsy. Do the arms that hold the wheels on have springs that keep them in place?

I still want to investigate replicating the racks on the buses but if that does not work out then this rack might be a possibility.

I like this one because it will work with fenders and front racks. It holds the bike by the top tube and the wheel base is easily adjusted.
https://www.performancebike.com/bikes...1_20000_400019
If I was making one from scratch I'd make the vertical stay fold down so you could open the tailgate. I drive a 4Runner with drop and a Previa with a hatch gate and that would let me leave it on and still get into the back.

https://www.bicycleracks.com/

why not just buy a bus bicycle rack?

OP, why does the matter of adjusting the rack to fit different bikes matter? Unless you're carting around a smorgasbord of bikes, adjust it once and you're done.

The Performance rack cited is a good choice -- I'd have it, if I had a car to attach it to, but I'm car-free.

feature of the ones i'm familiar with is the spring loaded hook that comes down on the front tire.

some of the premium fender designs come past the vertical in front, Aluminum ones , other than those

most bike with 20'' and larger wheels work..

The rack pivots up/down on pins with stops in the up/down positions AND a spring loaded detent for the up/down positions.The hold down is a spring loaded J-hook over the front tire.

It is probably too soon, but you could check with some major transit agencies (bigger metro areas are probably better, and the longer they've had racks on their buses better still) and see if they have any they're trying to unload as surplus. Given that you're going to have to 'build it up' anyway, you'd have a great starting point for the repair/build.