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Best bike racks for cars: a buyer's guide and recommended products



One of the many joys of owning a bicycle is its ability to help you explore new places. However if you want to travel any great distance by car with your bike, and don't have space in the boot (or trunk), you'll be looking to invest in a suitable bike rack. To get more news about ebike car rack, you can visit magicyclebike.com official website.

We've also produced a comprehensive guide to the best caravan and motorhome bike racks, which you can find here.

Rear racks are popular as they don't require additional equipment. Essentially you just clip them on the boot or trunk of your car and off you go. However, as you'll see from our reviews it's not always quite as straightforward as that.To get more news about e bike, you can visit magicyclebike.com official website.
Roof racks attach to roof bars (unless you opt for the Seasucker(opens in new tab) brand). This means some added cost if your car doesn't currently have them fitted. Likewise towpoint mounted racks connect to a towbar or towball. Unlike roof bars these will need to be fitted by a garage, which again means additional expenditure.We'll get into some of the benefits and potential pitfalls of all three types of racks at the end of this guide. Bur first here are our picks of the bunch. Let’s rack ’em up.

The Advanced 4 bike tow bar rack is a heavy duty item. Weighing in at almost 20kgs it's certainly robust but it does mean that it's not the easiest to fit. We tried it on our own and concluded that it's a two-person job! Halfords do offer an installation service for an additional £35. However it's likely that you'll have to remove and refit the rack again at some point.

We also found the fitting to be a tad fiddly. The mechanism that secures the rack to the tow bar requires several stages and it's hard going if you're attempting this alone. The lightboard also needs fitting as it's not integrated into the rack. This is done using cable ties but the fact they'll need to be cut and replaced each time you use the rack is a mark against the Advanced.

When set-up the rack will hold four bikes, with a maximum weight of 15kg per bike. This is somewhat limiting if you're hoping to carry an e-bike. Equally the maximum wheelbase length of 109cm rules out many contemporary mountain bikes - however the majority of road and gravel bikes will be fine as should all children's bikes.

The rack does come with a cable lock although we were left unconvinced that it would be sufficiently strong enough to do the job if you were planning on leaving the bikes unattended.

Removal is pretty straightforward, although you still have the weight factor involved here. However, once removed it folds up nicely and can be stored away in the garage or hallway without taking up too much space.The Thule Easyfold XT2 is easy by name and easy by nature. It comes ready to fit out of the box. That means no pre-assembly, which means not having to faff about with bolt, straps and allen keys!

The rack weighs 17.9kgs but the built-in carrying handle is well-place resulting in a perfectly balanced product that's easy to carry to the car and lift onto the tow hitch. It means that fitting the Thule Easyfold is a genuine one-person job.

The XT2 only carries two bikes. However the combined maximum carrying weight is 60kg, which means that it's a rack that can comfortably handle the extra weight of an e-bike. There's an optional bike ramp available to make the loading and unloading of heavy bikes easier as well as carry bag that's useful when storing the rack. However, both come at an additional cost.

Even without the added extras, the Thule Easyfold XT2 is an expensive option, especially when you consider its two-bike capacity. But you get what you pay for, and the XT2 is a well-made with a considered design. The result is a robust rack that's easy to fit and once removed one that packs away neatly.