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A Bike Rack Gets Your Bicycle To The Fun Riding Places
A good bike rack lets you take your bike to the trails, or roads that you like, which may not be close to home.
It would be great if we could ride right from home to the our favorite riding place. But, this is hardly ever the case.
You may be lucky enough to live in an area that is bicycle friendly and can ride every day without the need to transport your bike.
But, wouldn't it be nice to ride in new places? Or be able to meet your riding buddies at a central location for a fun group ride?
There are many types of bike racks to choose from depending on, how often, how far you plan to transport your bike, as well as pricing considerations.
They range from a trunk mounted rack, a hitch mounted rack, a spare tire mounted rack,or a roof rack. One of these is sure to fit your needs.
The least expensive is the trunk mounted rack. They can be a pain to mount but are a, relatively, secure way to transport your bike.
There are several types of hitch mounted racks that are simple to mount and can carry up to four bikes. Of course, this requires a hitch on your vehicle.
They have some very clever designs that allow you to load and unload your bikes easily and the rack can be removed easily and stored in your trunk.
If you have a SUV, or any vehicle with a spare tire mounted on the back, you have another option available to you in a spare tire mounted rack.
The roof racks are more expensive but have several advantages. The more common racks, from Yakima and Thule, have available locking adapters that are custom made for the specific vehicle.
The bikes are aligned with the vehicle front to back as opposed to being mounted at right angles. The mounting is almost rock solid with no wobble. Putting your bikes on and off is simple as long as you can lift your bikes that high.
The bikes are typically mounted with the front wheel removed and the front fork positioned in a quick release, but lockable, bracket.
If you are a pickup kind of guy or gal you have a real easy way to transport your bike (actually, up to 4 bikes)with a Heininger pickup rack.
And, you can transport them fully assembled and ready to ride. It assembles easily and you don't need to do any drilling on your truck bed.
Heininger pickup bike rack
A good camper bike rack is a wise choice. We all have seen bicycles hanging off of campers that looked like they were mounted with a bungee cord and a prayer. One sure way to ruin a vacation is to leave your bike along the highway in a mangled mess.
It's a whole lot cheaper to get a good rack than to lose your favorite bike, or bikes, to a random pothole. And, there are enough choices to help you find the right one for your camper.
Camper rack click here for selection
Historically, racks for trikes and recumbents have been kind of hard to find. They tend to be a bit heavy for a roof rack but there are some nice hitch racks available see Figures 5 and 6 Figure 5. - Adult trike hitch rack
The recumbent hitch rack shown in figure 6 has the same features as those shown for figure 5.