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When you need to carry your bike by car, you want to do it as easily and securely as possible. That’s why we recommend the Küat Sherpa 2.0 as the best option for carrying two bicycles, as long as your vehicle accommodates a hitch receiver. Ladle Trolley
After researching some 220 bike racks and testing more than 75, we’ve found that the Küat Sherpa 2.0 offers the best combination of solid construction, ease of use, light weight, and a reasonable price.
Your car might sit too low to fit a hitch mount, or your bike might be too heavy to lift onto a roof rack. You’ll need options!
Our chart shows the pros and cons of the different kinds of racks: tray hitch, hanging hitch, trunk, roof, and truck bed.
We surveyed the members of more than 20 bike clubs across the country to see what they wanted (and didn’t want) in a bike rack.
We took each of the 75-plus racks we tested on the road—braving twisty lanes, high-speed highways, and rack-rattling potholes.
Although we’ve found this tray-style hitch rack to be the most affordable one that’s easy to load and use overall, we have picks for cyclists with other needs.
These include the less expensive Küat Beta hanging hitch rack, the ebike-friendly Thule EasyFold XT 2, the Saris Bones EX 3-Bike trunk rack, the Saris SuperClamp EX 4-Bike tray rack, the Yakima HighRoad roof rack, and the Inno Velo Gripper pickup-bed carrier.
Of the tray-style hitch racks we tested, this is one of the easiest to install and use. It’s lightweight, holds one or two bikes securely, and lets you access your vehicle even when the rack is loaded.
In performance and price, the Sherpa 2.0 stands out. Less effort is needed to mount this lightweight two-bike model on your car and to stow it away than with many other tray racks. This rack is also simpler than most to secure in the hitch, and its low height makes loading bikes easy. The Sherpa 2.0 holds most types of bikes (up to 40 pounds each). It tilts out of the way, even when fully loaded, letting you access your vehicle, and it folds up compactly.
This hanging-style, two-bike hitch rack costs less than our top pick. It’s light and easy to install, and it folds flat for storage. But it’s not as easy to use overall.
If you have budget or storage constraints, the two-bike, hanging-style Küat Beta is a good alternative to the Küat Sherpa 2.0. Because it’s a hanging rack, it isn’t as easy to load, and you have to unload your bikes to tilt the rack down. But the Beta is solidly constructed and holds bikes securely. At only 18 pounds, it’s also one of the lightest hitch racks we’ve tested, so it’s easy to install. And unlike most hitch racks, the Beta folds completely flat, making it simple to store—hang it on a garage wall hook or stash it in a closet.
This rack is great for carrying bikes weighing up to 65 pounds. It’s easy to install and load bikes onto, but it’s far more expensive than our top pick.
Whether you need to transport heavier ebikes or you just want a rack that’s easy to load, the Thule EasyFold XT 2 is hard to beat. It’s expensive, but this rack can hold two bikes up to 65 pounds each, and its foldable ramp lets you roll bikes onto the rack instead of lifting them. This rack is lighter than competing models, and it folds up to the size of a large airline carry-on bag. The EasyFold is also quick to install and includes integrated cable locks. However, the EasyFold holds bikes by the frame, which some riders don’t prefer, and the clamps can be awkward to use.
This upgraded model offers sturdy construction and light weight at an affordable price, making it a great value if your car can't accommodate a hitch mount. You have to lift your bike up higher to load it than with our top pick.
The Saris Bones EX 3-Bike is solidly built yet lightweight, easy to mount and to store, and can fit almost any car. Made of molded plastic, the Bones EX is easier to lift onto the back of a vehicle and strap on than its competitors. It remained stable even at high speeds and with quick stops. The fully adjustable legs fit over even massive factory spoilers, and the whole contraption folds nearly flat for storage. In our survey of some 20 bike clubs, the Bones garnered one of the highest ratings. As with all trunk racks, loading your bike requires lifting it higher than you’d have to with a trunk rack. (The Bones 2-Bike model, which we tested previously, is still available and even cheaper. But the EX, which also comes in a two-bike version, is a significant upgrade, especially if your car has a large spoiler.)
This tray-style hitch rack is lighter than most similar models, easy to use, and reasonably priced for a four-bike rack. You’ll need a 2-inch hitch receiver, though.
If you need to carry four bikes, we recommend the Saris SuperClamp EX 4-Bike. The SuperClamp EX is one of the lightest four-bike tray-style hitch racks available, and it can accommodate two bikes weighing up to 60 pounds each, plus two others up to 35 pounds each. Using a handle at the rear, you can easily fold up the rack when it’s empty, or tilt it down when it’s loaded, to access the vehicle. This rack isn’t as simple to mount as the Küat Sherpa 2.0, and like all other four-bike racks, it’s available only for 2-inch hitch receivers.
This one-bike roof rack is simple to install, allows easy access to your car, and holds a bike securely, with no frame contact. It’s harder to load bikes onto any roof rack, including this one, than onto our other picks.
Although they’re more expensive than trunk racks and not as easy to use as hitch racks, roof racks allow you unimpeded access to a vehicle’s cargo area, and they’re the only option for some car designs. (They can also dramatically reduce your car’s fuel economy.) Of the roof racks we tested, the Yakima HighRoad was the easiest to work with, both when mounting it and loading a bike. It holds your bike solidly by the front wheel, which we like better than fork-mount designs because the rack doesn’t contact your bike’s frame. Your vehicle does need roof rails to mount the rack onto (this is true of all roof racks).
The best choice for carrying one bike in the bed of a pickup, this well-priced carrier has a simple design and is very portable.
Trunk racks won’t work on a pickup, and you may want to keep the hitch free for towing. The Inno Velo Gripper secures a bike to the side of a pickup truck’s bed. This position keeps a bike out of the driver’s line of sight, something we didn’t find to be true with other pickup carriers we tested. The Velo Gripper’s clamps are also compact enough that you can toss them in a toolbox when you aren’t toting a bike. The Velo Gripper is available in two versions: The RT201 is designed to fit regular pickup-bed sides, and the RT202 is designed for use with C-channel bed-rail systems.
Of the tray-style hitch racks we tested, this is one of the easiest to install and use. It’s lightweight, holds one or two bikes securely, and lets you access your vehicle even when the rack is loaded.
This hanging-style, two-bike hitch rack costs less than our top pick. It’s light and easy to install, and it folds flat for storage. But it’s not as easy to use overall.
This rack is great for carrying bikes weighing up to 65 pounds. It’s easy to install and load bikes onto, but it’s far more expensive than our top pick.
This upgraded model offers sturdy construction and light weight at an affordable price, making it a great value if your car can't accommodate a hitch mount. You have to lift your bike up higher to load it than with our top pick.
This tray-style hitch rack is lighter than most similar models, easy to use, and reasonably priced for a four-bike rack. You’ll need a 2-inch hitch receiver, though.
This one-bike roof rack is simple to install, allows easy access to your car, and holds a bike securely, with no frame contact. It’s harder to load bikes onto any roof rack, including this one, than onto our other picks.
The best choice for carrying one bike in the bed of a pickup, this well-priced carrier has a simple design and is very portable.
Eric Evarts, a fervent cyclist since childhood, is the author of the most recent edition of this guide. He’s also a seasoned auto journalist, with articles and reviews appearing in Cars.com, The Christian Science Monitor, Consumer Reports, U.S. News & World Report, AAA, Fortune magazine, and Green Car Reports, among others.
This guide builds on the work of Wirecutter’s Rik Paul and Jack Smith. It also draws on the expertise of several bike-rack experts we interviewed, on the results of a survey we sent to more than 20 bike clubs across the country, and on input from several other Wirecutter editors who are voracious cyclists and experienced competitors.
Many types of bike racks exist, each with its own pros and cons. Finding one that’s right for you depends on your vehicle, bike(s), and budget. Here are the types we tested:
After testing scores of racks, we’ve determined that a tray-style hitch rack is the easiest to use and the most versatile, but the vehicle (or vehicles) and bike (or bikes) you own may limit your choices:
To understand the pros and cons of different types of racks, we talked with the experts at top bike and bike-rack shops across the country, including Rack Attack stores in Boston, Minneapolis, and Portland, Oregon; East Burke Sports in Vermont; Chile Pepper Bike Shop in Moab, Utah; Backcountry Bike & Ski in Palmer, Alaska; Roscoe Village Bikes in Chicago; and Ridgefield Bicycle Company in Connecticut. We also talked to experts at REI’s headquarters, and we surveyed more than 20 bike clubs across the country.
For each update to this guide, we’ve scanned the latest models available from the major manufacturers and tested the most promising. Though we expect all good bike racks to mount securely to your vehicle and hold your bikes tightly, here are the other things we look for:
For each bike rack we tested for this guide, we went through the whole ownership experience. During assembly, we noted whether the necessary tools were included and how easy the instructions were to follow (often, not). We mounted each rack on one or more vehicles. We loaded bikes, noting how high we had to lift them and how easily they could be secured.
We drove along curvy, two-lane back roads, on highways, and over dirt roads, making frequent quick stops and sharp turns. When possible, we folded, tilted, or swung the rack to see how easily we could access a vehicle’s cargo area. We removed the bikes and rack, and we folded the rack (if possible) for storage.
Our test vehicles included sedans, hatchbacks, SUVs, and pickup trucks. For hitch racks, we used vehicles with 2-inch hitch receivers, and we tried each roof rack on four sets of crossbars, including the factory bars on our Toyota RAV4 test vehicle as well as on a Thule AeroBlade Edge system and Yakima JetStream bars.
Of the tray-style hitch racks we tested, this is one of the easiest to install and use. It’s lightweight, holds one or two bikes securely, and lets you access your vehicle even when the rack is loaded.
Of the 75-plus bike racks we’ve tested, the Küat Sherpa 2.0 tray-style hitch rack is the best overall for transporting one or two bikes. As long as your vehicle has a trailer hitch, this lightweight model is one of the easiest to mount on your vehicle and load bikes onto. And it holds bikes securely by the front wheel, with minimal side-to-side movement and without frame contact. Even with bikes loaded, it easily tilts down so you can open your vehicle’s rear hatch or trunk. When it’s not carrying bikes, the Sherpa 2.0 folds up and out of the way. To fold it back down, you just step on a foot release. The Sherpa 2.0 is available for 1.25-inch and 2-inch tow hitches.
Weighing less than 32 pounds, the Sherpa 2.0 is the lightest two-bike tray rack we tested (most others ranged from 45 pounds to 56 pounds), so it’s especially easy to install in the hitch receiver or to remove for storage. It’s also easy to use: After inserting a smooth, lockable pin through the receiver tube, you turn a knob to tighten the rack in the receiver hitch. This is a much quicker process than with most other hitch-mount racks, which make you crouch down to tighten—and tighten, and tighten—a nut on the receiver bolt under the car. The Sherpa 2.0 also has one of the lowest lift heights—only 26.5 inches, compared with 29 inches or more for most other tray racks. And the Sherpa 2.0 provides ample space between bikes (we measured 12 inches, compared with 8 to 10 inches for most other tray racks); this minimizes the chances of bikes damaging each other.
Assembling the Sherpa 2.0 was relatively easy. This rack has a beautiful finish, with a metallic powder-coated aluminum frame. And, like most of the tray racks we tested, it comes with locking systems for securing rack to vehicle and bikes to rack. When the Sherpa 2.0 is not on the vehicle, it stands on its own, without needing additional support. The Sherpa 2.0’s price is about average among the two-bike tray racks we tested.
The Sherpa 2.0 can’t expand to hold more than two bikes (nearly 70% of our survey respondents told us they carry only up to two bikes). Also, it holds bikes up to just 40 pounds each. This is similar to what most hanging-style hitch racks support, but it’s less than what most other two-bike tray racks we tested support (many can hold two 60-pound bikes). So this rack is not suitable for carrying some specialty and electric bikes. Finally, the hook that holds the front wheel may not work if a bike has fenders.
This hanging-style, two-bike hitch rack costs less than our top pick. It’s light and easy to install, and it folds flat for storage. But it’s not as easy to use overall.
If you live in the city or an apartment and have to street-park your car, but you want the advantages of a hitch rack, look no further than the Küat Beta. The Beta, a hanging hitch-mount aluminum rack, is easy to put on and pull off your car, weighs only 18 pounds, and folds down tiny enough to stash in a closet. It also costs less than most other hitch racks. As with any hanging model, though, it isn’t as easy to load and secure bikes on the Küat Beta as it is on a tray rack like the Sherpa 2.0. And to access the rear of your vehicle, you must unload the bikes.
As you do with the Sherpa 2.0, with the Beta you insert a smooth pin and turn a knob to secure it in the hitch receiver (a hitch lock is optional; $30). The Beta doesn’t hold bikes as solidly as the Sherpa 2.0 does: During our test drives with the Beta, the bikes swung a little more on the rack’s arms but never came loose. And the straps securing the bikes were the easiest to use of the straps on any hanging-style hitch rack we tested: You set the bike in the cradle, pull the straps over the top tube, and cinch them down.
When the Beta is empty, its arms can fold down and out of the way. It can also tilt down so you can access a vehicle’s rear cargo compartment. But this is more of a hassle than with a tray-style rack because you have to remove the bikes first. This process isn’t even as seamless as it is with some pricier hanging hitch racks. You have to unclasp a wire retainer and remove a pin, rather than just using a one-step latch.
The Beta doesn’t include integrated locks for the bikes. And as with any hanging-style rack, you may need an add-on bar, such as the Küat Ubar, to hang a bike with a step-through or other frame that lacks a horizontal top tube. The Beta is available for 1.25-inch and 2-inch hitch receivers.
This rack is great for carrying bikes weighing up to 65 pounds. It’s easy to install and load bikes onto, but it’s far more expensive than our top pick.
If you need to carry electric or other heavy bikes—or you just want a tray-style hitch rack that’s a cinch to install and load a bike onto—the Thule EasyFold XT 2 may be worth checking out. It is, however, the most expensive rack we recommend.
The EasyFold XT 2 can carry two bikes weighing up to 65 pounds each, which would include some of the heaviest ebikes. To help load them, this aluminum rack comes with a ramp that unfolds out of a center storage area and snaps onto the end of the platforms.
At 45 pounds, the EasyFold XT 2 is manageably light for a heavy-duty rack, and it folds up to the size of a large airline carry-on bag. (It even comes with wheels and a handle.) This makes getting the rack on and off the car relatively easy. Thule’s hitch-locking system makes this hitch rack simpler to secure than most: Just slide the rack into a 1.25- or 2-inch receiver, close a pinch arm into the receiver’s hole, turn the tension knob to cinch it down, and use a key to lock the knob. The integrated cable locks also allow you to secure bikes to the rack.
The EasyFold XT 2 comes with a ramp that unfolds out of a center storage area and snaps onto the end of the platforms.
To access a vehicle’s cargo area, you can step on a wide release lever at the rear and tilt the rack down. (This works well on most hatches that lift upward, but it didn’t provide enough clearance to allow the side-opening rear door of our Toyota RAV4 to open.) When the EasyFold XT 2 is empty, the sides fold up. Unlike other racks, it doesn’t fold flat against the back of the vehicle; it still extends rearward by its full length. The EasyFold XT 2 does have built-in reflectors and even a license-plate mount.
Padded clamps stabilize the bikes by gripping their frames; this may make some owners—especially owners of carbon-fiber bikes—flinch a little. The two clamp arms can be challenging to attach, especially if one has to be routed around the other bike, but they offer a lot of flexibility. And if you tend to carry the same bikes all the time, you probably have to sort out the positioning only once.
This upgraded model offers sturdy construction and light weight at an affordable price, making it a great value if your car can't accommodate a hitch mount. You have to lift your bike up higher to load it than with our top pick.
If your car can’t accommodate a trailer hitch, or you want something to move between vehicles, we recommend the Saris Bones EX rack (available in two- and three-bike versions). Like all trunk racks, it can fit almost any vehicle (except for pickups) without needing extra hardware; the EX design is even more versatile, able to reach over most factory rear spoilers. The Bones EX is also one of the lightest, easiest-to-use, and most solidly built racks we’ve tested. Many experts we talked to recommend the Bones, and it was one of the highest-rated racks of any type in our bike-club survey. (The non-EX version—available in two- and three-bike models—remains a great rack, and it’s less expensive. It just won’t fit on as many cars.)
The rack’s arms (which hold the bikes) and legs (which brace against your car) are injection-molded plastic, which makes the rack lighter, at 11 pounds, than competitive aluminum racks we tested. The Bones’s upper leg (or legs, in the three-bike version) rests on the trunk or hatch, and the other two sit on or against the car’s bumper. All the legs end in pivoting rubber feet—larger than those on other racks—that protect the car and provide serious grip.
Thanks to the Bones rack’s innovative design, which relies on a central tube fitted with toothed and smooth sections, we were able to adjust the legs quickly (see the GIF above). We got the rack onto the car in 4.5 minutes—less than half the time it took with some other trunk racks.
The straps that hold the rack to the car feed through the central tube, so you can place the anchors at the top, sides, and bottom of the car and pull on both sides at once for a tight, even fit. Other trunk racks required tightening each strap individually, which often resulted in a lopsided rack. With the Bones rack, we gave the straps a couple of good yanks and voilà—the rack was on straight and tight. The top legs have a significant bend, letting them clear most spoilers. The curve of the arms also spaces your bikes out, so they don’t knock into one another as you drive.
Storing the rack itself is also easy: The arms and legs collapse, making the rack pretty compact. If you want to leave the rack on the car, the arms fold down and out of the way.
All trunk racks, including the Bones EX, have one unavoidable flaw: They make contact with your car’s finish, and over time may cause scratches. Tyler Carlson of Rack Attack recommends placing patches of ClearBra where the rack attaches. We also recommend that you remove any debris between the rubber feet and your bumper to avoid scratches.
This tray-style hitch rack is lighter than most similar models, easy to use, and reasonably priced for a four-bike rack. You’ll need a 2-inch hitch receiver, though.
If you need to carry four bikes, we recommend the Saris SuperClamp EX 4-Bike hitch rack, which provides a nice balance of features, ease of use, and price. With clamps on the front and rear tires, the SuperClamp EX held our bikes securely, without contacting their frames. And it can accommodate bikes up to 60 pounds each, in the two positions nearest to the car, and 35 pounds each, in the two positions farthest from the car.
At 63 pounds, the steel-alloy SuperClamp is one of the lightest four-bike tray racks available, so it’s easier to get on and off of the vehicle than its competitors. By using a pull handle at the rear, you can fold up the rack when it’s empty or tilt it down for access to a vehicle’s cargo area. The SuperClamp has integrated cables for locking bikes to the rack, and it comes with a hitch lock for securing the rack to the vehicle.
As with all four-bike tray-style racks, the SuperClamp EX is available only for 2-inch hitch receivers. (If you need to carry four bikes with a 1.25-inch hitch, you’ll have to use a hanging-hitch rack, such as the Yakima RidgeBack.) Instead of long, linear trays, the SuperClamp EX 4 uses two sliding plastic wheel cups for each bike; they can be adjusted along a center rail, providing a secure fit for a wide variety of bikes. Securing the SuperClamp to the hitch isn’t as easy as with the Küat Sherpa 2.0—you need to go old-school and use a wrench to tighten a (lockable) bolt in the hitch receiver, instead of turning a knob. To stabilize the rack, the SuperClamp comes with a U-shaped tensioner that fits inside the hitch shank. However, the tensioner can be hard to line up with the hitch hole when you mount the rack. The SuperClamp also lacks the Küat 2.0’s convenient foot release.
This one-bike roof rack is simple to install, allows easy access to your car, and holds a bike securely, with no frame contact. It’s harder to load bikes onto any roof rack, including this one, than onto our other picks.
If you want to carry your bike on the roof of your vehicle, you’ll find no better way to do so than with the Yakima HighRoad. We found it to be the simplest to use of all the roof racks we tested, both when installing the steel-alloy rack on the vehicle and when loading a bike. It secures the bike by the front wheel, avoiding any contact with the frame. And in our tests it held a variety of bikes solidly—even more so than some fork-mount roof racks (which bike enthusiasts often consider to be the most secure type).
The HighRoad secures a bike using two hoops that clamp securely onto the front wheel (as shown in the GIF above), as well as a ratcheting strap that wraps around the rear rim. During our test drives, this setup held a variety of bikes rock-steady through bumps and swerves—more tightly than any other roof rack we tested. (Several other models left our bike wobbling left to right over bumps and around curves.) We also found the HighRoad to be one of the quickest racks to mount to and remove from the vehicle. With other roof racks, you have to fiddle with brackets and Allen screws. But the HighRoad uses three rubber straps that slide under any type of crossbar. Flip a tab and adjust the tension, and the rack grips any type of roof rails firmly, so you don’t have to buy dedicated cross-bars from Yakima. That’s a big win.
For security, the HighRoad has locking covers that prevent those tabs from being lifted, so thieves can’t remove the bike rack itself from the vehicle; some other models that use a similar latching system are not lockable.
Keep in mind that all roof racks, when loaded, effectively raise the height of your vehicle by several feet. This means there’s a risk that you’ll forget your bike is on the roof while you’re entering a garage or carport.
Although the HighRoad holds most road and mountain bikes with 26- to 29-inch wheels and up to 3.25-inch-wide tires, the wheels on some kids bikes may be too small for the hoops to grip securely, and some fat-bike tires may be too wide. This rack can hold bikes up to 45 pounds, which is the upper limit for most roof racks—and, quite possibly, more than you want to be lifting that high anyway. And like all roof racks, the Yakima requires crossbars. If your vehicle didn’t come with them, you’ll need to buy an add-on system.
Roof racks, when loaded, effectively raise the height of your vehicle by several feet. This means there’s a risk that you’ll forget your bike is on the roof while you’re entering a garage or carport—as one Wirecutter editor who shall not be named can attest. Oops.
The best choice for carrying one bike in the bed of a pickup, this well-priced carrier has a simple design and is very portable.
If you want to secure a bike in the bed of a pickup truck, we recommend the Inno Velo Gripper. Of the pickup-bed carriers we’ve tested (none of which need to be bolted to the truck), this model provides the best balance of compactness, ease of use, effectiveness, and affordable price. Unlike some other carriers we tried, it doesn’t require you to remove the front wheel of a bike. It held our bike securely in the bed—and off to the side, where it didn’t interfere with our rear vision while we were driving.
The Velo Gripper includes two clamps that attach securely to the side rail of a truck’s bed. The initial installation took a little longer than with other pickup racks we tried, because it took some measuring to get the grippers in the right place on the truck bed. But this is something you have to do only once, and this system is more secure than those of some other models. It takes less than a minute, on the other hand, to remove the bike and grippers. But there’s no way to lock the clamps to the truck. (If the truck bed has secure tie-down loops, however, you can lock the bikes to the truck with a lock and cable.)
There are two versions of the Velo Gripper. The original model, RT201, fits standard truck beds. And the newer model, RT202, is designed for use with the C-channel bed-rail systems that are available for some Chevrolet, GMC, Toyota, and other pickups.
One caveat with the Velo Gripper: Many of today’s pickups have relatively short, 5-foot or 5.5-foot beds, which may not provide enough room to carry an adult-size bike with both wheels on—at least not without lowering the tailgate. Be sure to measure your bed and bike before buying. For those short pickup beds, see our Competition section, which lists a couple of tailgate pads.
If you’re a solo rider and want a light, easy-to-manage tray rack, or if you need a tray rack rated for an RV or trailer: Consider the Küat Transfer v2 1-Bike tray rack, which is lightweight (20 pounds) and can accept an extension for a second or third bike if necessary. Not many racks are sturdy or flexible enough to handle the pounding created by the back of an RV or especially a travel trailer, but the Transfer is. We tested four of these single-bike racks, and the Transfer was the best—and least expensive. It’s easy to mount, although you do have to cinch a bolt down through the hitch to secure it. (Küat includes a 19-millimeter wrench for the job). If you think you’ll ever be regularly carrying a second bike, though, we still think the Küat Sherpa 2.0 is the better choice.
If you want the nicest hitch-mount tray rack on the market for two or more bikes (or ebikes), and you don’t mind paying a lot for it: The Küat Piston Pro X may be for you. The two-bike, 63-pound base rack is easy to use: Just press two levers for each bike, and the wheel hoops open pneumatically. Lift the bikes up (each can weigh up to 67 pounds), pull the hoops over the wheels and ratchet them down one-handed, and you’re done. A single lever tilts the rack down for tailgate access, even with bikes attached, or tilts it up when empty against the back of the vehicle. The rack even comes with jewel-like LED taillights. A super-slick neodymium magnet set mounts a taillight wire to the rack; this wire plugs the rack into a required four-pin taillight connector on your car. The downside is the price: about $1,390.
If you want to transport an ebike and have limited strength or dexterity: Consider the Saris Door County. This tray rack incorporates an electric lift that lowers it to the ground for loading—you just roll the bikes onto it—and it can carry two bikes weighing up to 60 pounds each. The rack folds up from the sides, just as the Thule EasyFold XT 2 does. It’s a little heavier, at 64 pounds, but it has wheels on the bottom and a carry handle positioned at the rack’s center of gravity. And the ratchet straps for the wheels and the frame tubes have lever mechanisms that you can cinch tight one notch at a time, with little effort. This rack retails for about $1,300, though, and it requires a 7-pin trailer electrical connector. So if you don’t need the aid of an electric lift, or your car doesn’t have a 7-pin connector, the EasyFold is a better deal. (You can add a custom 7-pin connector to a car not designed for it, but it’s pricy.)
If you need to carry more than four bikes and have a 2-inch hitch receiver on your vehicle: Consider one of the vertical hanging racks from Velocirax. We tested the 412, which holds just four bikes, but Velocirax makes models that will carry up to seven bikes. The rack is easy to load: You heft the bike by the stem and top tube and lift the front wheel into one of the wheel hoops. Once the bikes are situated, press and heft the rack back to its vertical position, attach the wheel straps, and you’re ready to go. We found the Velocirax to be best for commercial applications, such as leading group rides, or if you have a big bike-riding family. At 77 pounds just for the four-bike version, the rack is heavy; it takes full-body strength to maneuver it into or out of the hitch receiver on your vehicle. With the larger versions, some smaller people report not being able to manage this. This rack is also tall, rising above the roofline of most SUVs, even without bikes. The price is reasonable, especially for the larger versions (the four-bike version is $860, and the seven-bike version is $985), but if the most you’ll need to carry is four bikes, a tray rack is a better choice.
If you need a roof rack that can carry kids bikes or fat bikes: Consider the wheel-mount RockyMounts TomaHawk, which can accommodate smaller bikes (20 inches to 29 inches) and bikes with tires up to 5 inches thick. It didn’t hold our bikes as solidly as the Yakima HighRoad—on choppy roads, the bikes rocked. But if you have a car that can handle only a roof rack and you need to carry these particular bikes, it’s a good choice.
If you need a roof rack and have limited strength and/or concerns about fuel economy: We recommend the RockyMounts SwitchHitter. It offers the advantages of a fork-mount roof rack—less weight to lift up once you’ve removed the bike’s front wheel and a lower profile, for better aerodynamics. The SwitchHitter accepts thru-axle designs, and RockyMounts claims the rack fits all crossbar styles. Overall, however, it wasn’t as convenient to use as the Yakima HighRoad.
The Küat NV 2.0 is a larger sibling of the Sherpa 2.0 and can be expanded to carry four bikes with an add-on accessory. It also has a nifty integrated work stand. But the NV 2.0 is 20 pounds heavier—it weighs 56 pounds and is more expensive.
The Küat NV Base 2.0 is essentially the same as the NV 2.0 but without the integrated work stand. This makes it a little lighter and less expensive, but we still think the Sherpa 2.0 is a better buy.
The Thule T2 Pro XT was one of the heaviest non-motorized tray-style models we tested—and one of the most expensive. (It’s been replaced by the T2 Pro XTR, which has wheels to make moving the rack easier. It’s still heavy and pricey, however.)
In our bike-club survey, the 1UP USA 2″ Heavy Duty Double was one of the highest-rated racks. But this rack wasn’t as easy to use as our picks: Releasing the clamping arm took two hands, leaving no hands to hold up the bike while loading and unloading. The release handle for tilting the rack is less accessible, too. (1UP offers another hitch-mount rack, the Equip-D. It comes in single- and two-bike versions, but we see no real advantages over the Heavy Duty Double.)
The Yakima HoldUp EVO is heavier than the Küat Sherpa 2.0, and it seemed less well-engineered overall. The bikes wobbled more, and it was hard to reach the lever to tilt it down.
Mounting the RockyMounts SplitRail LS to a car is not as easy, requiring a wrench to cinch down a bolt. The rack is also unusually wide, which can make it unwieldy. The locks are also short and could barely reach the rear frame triangle of our bikes.
The Küat Transfer v2 2-Bike is a less expensive cousin of the Sherpa 2.0. The Transfer was heavier, wasn’t as easy to install on the vehicle, required more assembly, and didn’t come with locks.
The Thule T2 Classic is an older version of the Thule T2 Pro XT. It lacked a knob for securing the rack to the hitch receiver and the nifty pull-handle tilting system of the Pro XT and SuperClamp EX. At 50 pounds, the T2 Classic is notably heavier than our equivalent hitch-rack picks, and it doesn’t include bike locks.
While the four-bike SuperClamp EX was the best of the four-bike hitch-mount trays we tested, its two-bike sibling couldn’t rise to the top of its pack. The thin mounting bar allowed the rack to sway more than competitors—par for the course for a loaded four-bike rack, but most two-bike tray racks are more solid.
The bolt that secured the rack in the hitch receiver of the Yakima HoldUp wouldn’t screw in because of stripped threads in the mounting bar. Although the HoldUp tilts down, the rear door of our Toyota 4Runner still hit the handlebars of the inside bike, preventing us from opening the door all the way.
The RockyMounts BackStage swings to the side, and it also tilts down to give you full access to a vehicle’s rear cargo compartment. But at 68 pounds, it was heavier than our pick.
The 1UP USA Quik Rack Single requires no assembly out of the box, but we didn’t find it as easy to use as the Küat Transfer. The wheel hoops take two hands to operate, which makes it difficult to hold the bike while loading or unloading.
The release handle for tilting the RockyMounts MonoRail Solo presented a dealbreaker. At least three of our testers separately had the handle snap back and pinch their fingers against the rack’s frame as they used it—ouch!
The Saris Bones Hitch 2-Bike weighs the same (18 pounds) as the Küat Beta, which we like more. Repositioning the Bones’s arms was more cumbersome than with other hanging-hitch racks we tested, and while we were driving, our bikes wobbled more.
We had trouble getting four bikes onto the Yakima RidgeBack because of how close together they had to sit. The RidgeBack also lacks a built-in lock, which is something we expect to find in this price range.
The four-bike Thule Apex XT 4 doesn’t fold flat for storage.
The Yakima HangTight is a vertical-hanging hitch rack that comes in four- and six-bike versions. Instead of hanging the bikes by their front wheels, the HangTight holds them vertically by their handlebars. We found several problems with this approach: First, to lift the bike into the rack, you have to grab the bike by its underside, near the chain and front chainring(s). Worse, of the four bikes we used for testing, the HangTight couldn’t hold two of them at all—one bike due to its simple handlebar reflector and the other because the brake and shifter cables interfered with the straps needed to secure the bikes. To secure the rack in the hitch, you have to crawl underneath with tools to (endlessly) tighten the hitch bolt. And shortening the height of the vertical post (and raising it again to mount bikes) is a two-wrench process.
The Thule Apex Swing 4 holds four bikes, and it swings to the side to allow full access to a vehicle’s rear cargo compartment without your having to unload the bikes. Of the swing-away hanging-style hitch racks we tested, this was the lightest (45 pounds), but tray-style hitch racks are still simpler and more stable.
The Yakima FullSwing is another swing-away design, but its usefulness is hampered by its weight (it’s 17 pounds heavier than the Thule). We had difficulty lining it up into the hitch receiver while supporting its weight.
Adjusting the Thule Passage 2 requires fiddling with spring-loaded snap buttons, which are unpleasant to use and offer limited flexibility.
The Yakima HangOut was more difficult to install and to adjust than most of its competitors.
The Allen Sports Deluxe 2-Bike rack is a pain to install, and you can’t adjust the arms.
The Ultra Compact 2-Bike, also from Allen Sports, seems cheap and not durable, and while we were driving, the rack shook from side to side quite a bit.
The Saris Solo is a single-bike trunk rack that’s made of cheap plastic and isn’t adjustable. The rack’s set angle allowed the bike to contact our VW Jetta’s rear.
The Küat Trio not as easy to mount as the RockyMounts SwitchHitter. It seems like it’s designed mainly for thru-axle bikes—we found switching to a fork skewer to be tricky.
Even though the clamp assembly of the fork-mount Yakima HighSpeed is easy to tighten with a knob, it’s cumbersome to have to put it together every time you mount and dismount a bike. Also, the HighSpeed didn’t hold our bikes as solidly as some other racks did.
The SeaSucker Talon is a fork-mount rack that attaches directly to a vehicle’s roof with large suction cups. We found that the suction cups didn’t fit well on some vehicles, especially if they had raised ribs on the roof. When they did fit, they held so tightly that if the bike swayed from side to side, the car’s roof flexed underneath (this is a concern we saw echoed in an Amazon review).
Although you can lock bikes to the Swagman Race Ready, there’s no way to lock the rack to the vehicle. The Race Ready also didn’t hold the bikes as securely as our pick did.
Busbar Powered Transfer Cart The Thule Insta-Gater Pro is held in place by a truck’s tailgate, and it holds your bike, with both wheels on, by clamping onto the front wheel. Because you can’t lower the tailgate and keep the rack secure, you need to be sure that the bike fits in the pickup bed with both wheels on. Also, tighten that wheel