What bike rack do you use for your bikes? We have a Thule which was nice but which scratched the paint off my Mustang's rear, where it had the hooks that connected in over the hatchback part. It was time for something new.
So we just got a Saris CycleOn Pro. It is GREAT!! You connect this to the trailer hitch on your car. The bikes sit straight upright, and are super easy to get in and out. Literally you just lift your bike and set it into the rails. Then you rotate the grabby arms to grab onto the wheels. It holds the bike in very securely.
It can hold 2 bikes out of the box, or you can get an add-on to hold up to 4. We only need to carry 2 bikes so we are set with this.
It was a *little* loose for the road bike tires, but we got a foam round (like you would use for putting around a pipe) at the bike shop and that did the trick.
There's a lock so someone can't remove the unit from the hitch, or the bikes from the unit. Of course someone who is determined enough with a welder's torch can always cut through anything metal but they'd also look rather suspicious
Highly recommended! Here are some photos.
Let me know if you have any questions about this.
What do you use?
I do want to comment that when we first got it we were worried about how far "back" the bikes were from the rear of the car, and also how they stuck out to either side. However, really they don't stick out much past the edges, and not as far as the mirrors are. Once you get used to the bikes being back there, it's no issue at all.
