Our new (to us) BMW may be my dream car, and it may also be the nicest vehicle I’ll ever own, but that doesn’t mean it won’t have to earn its keep. All of our vehicles end up on transport duty for rides and races at some point. Thanks to folding rear seats, I can fit a bike in the back with the wheels off, but that gets old quick, and isn’t really an option with a muddy mountain bike. It’s time to add some utility to our growly German sedan!
By virtue of it being a diesel, there is only one company in the country making hitch kits for our car. There is a urea tank for the diesel exhaust emissions system that sits behind the rear bumper cover, which results in a slight modification to the available mounting points. That one company is UHaul, about which I was not thrilled. I ordered the hitch in what I thought was plenty of time, but it took SIX FREAKING WEEKS to get here, meaning that I had to install it the day before needing to use it on a trip! I wasn’t pleased.
Thankfully, the design and manufacture of the hitch kit was better than their shipping department, and it went together tightly and smoothly. Then end product is more than acceptable, and most importantly, allows me to use a hitch-mount bike rack, instead of a roof rack. Roof racks look cool, but I’ve found them to be fuel efficiency killers, and less than practical for people of less than average height to use.
The hitch rack I chose, the Yakima Holdup 2, is a brilliant little piece of engineering. It’s easy to install, easy to load bikes on, has integrated locks, and folds up like a pretzel when not in use. Best of all, it holds road bikes and mountain bikes with equal ease, despite large differences in tire width, wheelbase or weight. I also bought an adapter to install on the truck, so that I could easily ferry 6 bikes, should the need ever arise!
What this picture did not capture was how hard the cross bar assembly was to wrestle into place. Equal parts finesse and brawn.
Impressive that this is all that shows below the bumper!
And I did all that, to do this! TA DAAAA!
I think every car looks better with a couple bikes hanging off the back.
Folds up nice and tight, but far enough out that you can still open the trunk.
Possibly my favorite feature. It’s the little things!