best auto bike rack?
 

Would some one beable to give me information on a good quality auto bike rack for my CRV 2012 car?
The type of bikes I would mount on the rack are touring bikes?

thank you
Eragon

I had a Honda trailer hitch installed when I purchased the CRV in April, and picked up a Thule 990XT Doubletrack.
It only takes 2 bikes, but this is not a problem for me, and it holds the bikes very securely.

I am unable to access the rear door with the bike rack in the "up" position on the car.

Lots of good racks on the market. I like Thule, but Yakima and others are nice too. Personally I like roof mounted racks. If you have low rider front racks on the bike and carriers with a quick release skewer to grab the fork, this type of rack may require removing the low rider rack from the bike. Taking the low rider off is a pain, but I seldom carry my touring bike on the car so I have found that manageable. If you will carry the bike a lot and want to have low riser racks on the bike skip this type of rack.

The ones where both wheels stay on are better for low rider equipped bikes. I have been recently using the 599XTR Big Mouth and have been satisfied with it.

I've had many racks over the years, Thule roof racks in both fork and upright mounts, hitch mounts by Performance Bike (Xport), and then last year I purchased a Kuat Sherpa. The Kuat is far away a much better built rack then anything I found on the market for hitch mounts. I can mount any of of bikes without having to adjust anything. Its built of aluminum, so no rust and its almost half the weight of the comparable Thule/Yakima. Not cheap, but since I transport my bike multiple times each week, in addition to many long drives to the start of trips it was worth it for me.

For one on the fastest and lightest racks (I have the rear rack on my Honda Civic) look at http://www.1upusa.com/
They are all aluminum and do not require straps on the wheels. Holds the bikes very secure. 5 seconds to put the bike on, 5 seconds to take off.
The smaller rack folds in half for storage.

I have a hitch mount Soft Ride for my Toyota Sienna. I really like the parallelogram construction that keeps the bikes in a vertical position when raising and lowering the rack.

Not sure what you are looking to spend, but one really nice rack that is not cheap is the Kuat 2 NV rack. It is a hitch mount type that holds two bikes and has a built in work stand. One of the forum members picked one up recently and it can be seen here.

Eragon, I have one of these: http://www.etrailer.com/Hitch-Bike-R...e/SR26247.html . It's a little over 20 years old, hella strong and stable in the reciever.

Brad

most of the name brand (Yakima, Thule. etc) racks are pretty good. I prefer roof mount, but they can get your bike buggy and give you lots of drag. if you get a hitch mount rack, be sure to get the type that has wheel trays for the bike to sit on, the ones that have the bike hang are not as secure. its very easy to load the bikes onto the low wheel trays too.

Best?
Well you see what racks they use in the Major Tours, for racer support..
they are made for the purpose... light steel like the bikes used to be made of,
before the sponsors went CF on the bikes, supplied..

a custom purpose built rack is best,
but you probably are aiming a little lower than that .. :innocent:

I have a SportRack hitch mounted rack. It works great for me, on my Civic. It's easy to load and unload, easy to lock up, and no worry about hitting over hangs.

I live where I have to parallel park a lot of the time. I have avoided hitch mounted racks to avoid folks banging into my rack or worse yet banging into my bikes. Do you guys who like hitch mounted racks just not worry about that or do you live where you never need to parallel park?

I grew to hate lifting bikes onto the roof, especially when the entire family went for a ride (4 bikes). I found I had to carry a step stool to gain enough height to easily place the bikes. Then there's the issue of holding the bike up there while trying to clamp in down. Even now when there's just the 2 of us, I wouldn't want to lift bikes up there.

My rack is always on the car for the spring/summer/fall, but I seldom parallel park around here (Vermont). When I do, I don't find it a problem to account for the added length. Never had an issue with someone hitting it either. If I had to parallel park every day, then I can see it getting old and the chances of something happening are more likely.

pick your poison: either you need to remember that you have extra length on the back of your car, or that you have extra height on top. parking, forgeting and driving into your garage, fast food drive through canopies ....

on road trips, I stuff my bike in the car, and use a Thule box for my stuff . keeps it dry, bug free, and more theft resistant.

I've got this one:

http://www.etrailer.com/Hitch-Bike-R...an/S63360.html

It gets the job done. We use it on a toyota yaris.