Great rear-mount bike rack for the money
Written: Nov 19 '03
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Pros: easy to install, strong construction, trusted Yakima brand name.
Cons: none.
The Bottom Line: Great rack. Anything I've bought from Yakima has been great.
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| mike_sutton's Full Review: Yakima BigHorn 4 |
As as very happy previous customer of Yakima, when I was looking for a rear mount bike rack for our SUV, we again purchased a Yakima.
We bought our Yakima Bighorn 4 bike rack from a local Yakima dealer for about $160. We liked the fact that it was well made and it's features and have been extremely happy with it. We looked at some of the other brands
that were a little cheaper, but decided to go ahead and get the Yakima because we have their roof racks and believe they are just better made. Last thing you want to do is have a rack break and spill all your bikes on the highway at 70mph.
By having the bikes on the back of the vehicle, it also freed up the top Yakima rack or factory rack for kayaks, canoes, or other top mounted rack items.
One other nice feature about having this on the rear of the vehicle is gas mileage. By putting the bikes on the back instead of the top you don't have all that extra wind drag which affected gas consumption. It's also much easier than having to put a bike up on top of a full size SUV w/o a ladder.
Use
The Bighorn 4 holds 4 bikes easily. Loading bikes onto the rack is quick and easy. You simply set them on and then secure them with these heavy duty rubber 'straps' that come with the rack. That's all there is to it.
Installing the rack on the vehicle is quick also. Simply slide the rack into the 2" receiver and secure with the mounting pin and bolt that comes with the rack. A few turns with an adjustable wrench tightens it down so that it won't bounce or wiggle any.
Some assembly is required out of the box. You have to mount the upright bar with the crossbar that hold the bikes. All the hardware required is included and even the correct size allen-wrench was included to secure this. Instructions included illustrations and were easy to follow. Assembly only took a few minutes and we were ready to load the bikes and go. (Note: you can download the instructions from Yakimas website if you want to preview them).
Features:
The rack has a removeable pin that at the bottom that will allow you to swing down the rack to the ground to allow you access to rear doors on your vehicle/SUV. This is a nice feature but requires setting the rack with the bikes down on the ground and lifting them back up. If you have 4 bikes on the rack, you might need someone to help assist you in lifting the entire load back up. Yakima does make a "swing away" model that doesn't require any lifting to get into the rear doors of your vehicle, but it's more costly at about $450. I would say you would have to use that almost daily to warrant the extra expense.
The rack also has a small steel security loop on it. This allows you to take a bike chain-lock and pass through your bikes and lock them to the rack. Nice feature if you are going to leave them unattended and have the possibility of theft.
It you want to lock the rack to your 2" receiver hitch like you can with a trailer hitch tow bar, Yakima sells an optional accessory lock for $12 that accepts the Yakimas SKS Lock Cores (the same kind of locks your roof rack uses). If you don't have this, you can however lock it to the hitch with a cable thru the security loop if needed, so there is a way to secure it "out of the box".
Extra info:
If you have a bike that doesn't have a "top tube" on it, like some of the new "full suspension bikes, you can get an Yakima Tube Top that will stretch between the handle-bar mounts and the seat which will allow you to mount it on any rear mount bike rack.
Summary:
Overall this is a great rack and is very well made. The price is reasonable also considering it's from Yakima, which tends not to be the "cheapest". I wouldn't have any problems buying this again or reccomending it to others.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 160
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Epinions.com ID:
mike_sutton
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Reviews written: 49
Trusted by: 0 members
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