Bike Racks - eBikes & Clearance

[Mote365]

Hi All,

I've been looking around for just the right rack, lots of misinformation about on clearance and so forth, plus I've got 2 downhill style eMTBs so they're heavy, wide, 2.8" tyres and a handful to mount on most racks. My van has the removable Westfalia hitch.

The first big hurdle is a rack where the tailgate clears the clamping mech that goes on the tow hitch. here are ones I tried directly...

Thule Velopsace XT2 will not do that. The clamping mech is hit by the tailgate. This model has a clamp set across the rack rather than in line as you look at the rack. That causes the issue.

The Thule Easyfold XT2 also does not work. Tailgate will not clear. Same issue with the clamping mech even before we talk about tailgate clearing the rest of the rack, which it won't.

Thule Velospace XT3. This does fit the van. The tailgate clears the clamp mech and the rack on its max tilt setting. But I didn't buy that as it has a 19cm spacing between rails, this made the bikes tight, just touching when moving along, wasn't super pleased with that, and didn't want a three bike carrier really.

Enter the Atera Genio Pro folding carrier for 2 bikes (and a third optional rail, which also gives you more weight carrying ability by 5kgs).

This tailgate clears the clamping mech by about 2cm. Then you can change the tilt position to almost horizontal and this means the tailgate clear the rest of the rack and my typically massively wide MTB handlebars—but I'd turn the inner bike's handles as they're scary close to rear window when upright, a good tap and who knows how the glass would hold up .

This rack also has 21cm between rails which means no fighting with the bikes, perfect clearance for 2 downhill eMTBs with big forks.

You can add an additional rail to carry a standard bike up to 17kg and it also means it ups the whole racks weight to 65kg.

Did I mention it's cheaper than the Thule too? Bonus.

It looks well built, folds so we can put the rack in the van when parked up if parking is tight, so I'm looking forward to using it...

Just thought I'd get this out there as there were recommends on clearances that didn't work out for me at least.

Cheers

Jeff

 

[The Bear78]

Nicely researched but be aware that the nose weight limit of the tow bar (100kg on the removable Westfalia if I recall) is based on a vertical weight at the ball. This is typically how the weight of a trailer would act with the vast majority balanced on the axle(s). As soon as you start hanging heavy bikes , DH eMTB's for example, away from that point the effective nose weight increases substantially to the point where 100kg is exceeded with a load weighing much less.

 

[Mote365]

And the rack itself is 19.6kg, so yes take all that into account. I probably wouldn’t go tilting it as far as it can go with three bike on there… I feel the whole mechanism’s pain at that point but the handbook does show maximum weights when tilted also for different hitch maximums.

The tilted load is though a static load (unless you fling it down for some reason) and applied differently to the hitch once it’s tilted, so still the same weight but applied, to some degree, as a turning force I imagine (I'm no engineer but my father talked at me about such things for long enough to hopefully have picked something up). It would be interesting to know the stresses and how they’re applied to the ball and neck in those situations… but the ball and neck would/should be capable of far more weight than anything the rack could apply. In motion with a heavy trailer they'd surely far exceed 100kg at times. That's what safety margins are all about.

I do think the nose weight has a lot more about the effect on the handling of the vehicle than damage to the hitch. But again, I'm no engineer... so I can't really be dogmatic about anything.

Here’s hoping the manufacturers have thoroughly tested it all in those situations

The two bike are about 21kg without batteries. So not too bad...

 

[The Bear78]

Absolutely and I doubt the bar would snap! A sharpish pull away with a heavy trailer would act the same as a heavy bike rack but it's those limits that insurance companies and the Police love to use. Not to mention the rack manufacturer if it falls off and causes an accident...
As always, it's about covering your arse.

 

[Cymro]

The A

Hi All,

I've been looking around for just the right rack, lots of misinformation about on clearance and so forth, plus I've got 2 downhill style eMTBs so they're heavy, wide, 2.8" tyres and a handful to mount on most racks. My van has the removable Westfalia hitch.

The first big hurdle is a rack where the tailgate clears the clamping mech that goes on the tow hitch. here are ones I tried directly...

Thule Velopsace XT2 will not do that. The clamping mech is hit by the tailgate. This model has a clamp set across the rack rather than in line as you look at the rack. That causes the issue.

The Thule Easyfold XT2 also does not work. Tailgate will not clear. Same issue with the clamping mech even before we talk about tailgate clearing the rest of the rack, which it won't.

Thule Velospace XT3. This does fit the van. The tailgate clears the clamp mech and the rack on its max tilt setting. But I didn't buy that as it has a 19cm spacing between rails, this made the bikes tight, just touching when moving along, wasn't super pleased with that, and didn't want a three bike carrier really.

Enter the Atera Genio Pro folding carrier for 2 bikes (and a third optional rail, which also gives you more weight carrying ability by 5kgs).

This tailgate clears the clamping mech by about 2cm. Then you can change the tilt position to almost horizontal and this means the tailgate clear the rest of the rack and my typically massively wide MTB handlebars—but I'd turn the inner bike's handles as they're scary close to rear window when upright, a good tap and who knows how the glass would hold up .

This rack also has 21cm between rails which means no fighting with the bikes, perfect clearance for 2 downhill eMTBs with big forks.

You can add an additional rail to carry a standard bike up to 17kg and it also means it ups the whole racks weight to 65kg.

Did I mention it's cheaper than the Thule too? Bonus.

It looks well built, folds so we can put the rack in the van when parked up if parking is tight, so I'm looking forward to using it...

Just thought I'd get this out there as there were recommends on clearances that didn't work out for me at least.

Cheers

Jeff

The Altera Genio may have had a recall earlier this year. May be worth checking here: recall | ATERA

 

[Mote365]

It did, thanks for the link. New models are all good apparently. You definitely need to know what to look for if buying second hand.