All Things Bikes and Tacos! (...and every vehicle imaginable)

Lots of blown down on a local loop I haven’t ridden since the tornado. Good trail crew in the area.

These guys were a bit more than my hand saw could handle.

 

Love the looks of that bike! What's the biggest bottle you can fit?

 

Thanks!

I honestly don’t know. My frame is a size medium and I use a side entry bottle cage. Could be tight with a top load cage.

Both these bottles fit, and both hold similar volumes of water (20/21oz). The bigger one is the insulated style. Pretty obvious a larger volume non-insulted bottle will fit, but I haven’t tested anything larger.

 

Damn funny. Live in the PNW. Top of my driveway is a 22% grade...

 

I've been looking at tray style racks but occasionally sleep in the canopy. How accessible is the glass and tail gate with two bikes on one of these?

 

Hasn’t been a problem for me but I do run the Kuat hitch extender so that it’s not in the way when I open the tailgate -

$87 Kuat Hi-Lo 2" Hitch Extension, 7" or 10" Extension, 2 1/8" Rise/Drop Product Name

https://www.amazon.com/Kuat-Racks-Hi-Lo-Hitch-Extension/dp/B003ASYPPU

Most of these carrier tilt down/out for opening tailgates on SUV/crossovers.




Thank you so much for the grips! @RockiesTaco

 

Depends on the rack, and if you have the stock receiver location or something higher in an aftermarket bumper. I have a 1Up 2 bike rack and it tilts down in seconds with the bikes on it, which allows me to lower the tailgate fully without hitting anything. And when I had my shell, I could open the liftgate easily too. 3rd Gen DCSB. You still had to go in from the sides of the tailgate to crawl in, but perfectly manageable.

 

No shell in this pic, but you can see the 1Up clearance.

 

Just gotta be mindful of the inboard bike pedal position

 

Just wanted to share that my oldest (9yo) took me out for a 13-mile ride with pretty significant climbs tonight. She’s really getting into riding, and I’m hoping we have many more years of biking and camping and rock climbing and exploring.

 

I'm also trying to solve the opening the tailgate with a hitch rack puzzle but with the twist of having a much higher receiver than factory. I'd be open to buying a new rack that folds down lower. It seems like 1up is about the lowest but it still sticks up almost 5" higher than the hitch pin, room I obviously don't have.

The Kuat I have sticks up twice that much, I could try a drop hitch adapter but it would need to be at least 8" of drop if I measured everything right...super awkward. A 14" straight hitch extender should get the rack just beyond the tailgate, which I'm going to try. Seems like that would be slightly less awkward but ultimately disappointing on at least one level.

I've got a Decked system under the Softopper so a tailgate pad won't work. I tried an upright roof tray on my cab rack but that's less than ideal. Anybody got any bright ideas?

 

If you're set on trays, a swingaway extender might be an option IF you can mount it upside down. Below is a pic with one.
Anyone know if they can be flipped? It would need to be flipped at the hitch mount and the tray mount. Otherwise he's in the same predicament.

Or, take a look at this article I wrote a while back. You can use roof trays mounted on the bed rack.

 

That's a good point, but don't think mounting it upside down would be a good idea. The lower arm that sits underneath the swing out is probably designed to absorb some of the weight of the actual bike rack. I would definitely check and see if it voids any warranties by mounting it in a way it was probably not designed to be mounted. I would also think you would be liable for any failures due to using it in a manner it probably wasn't intended to be used. Just my $.02

 

Slithery friends are back out


Clipless doesn’t always mean painless

 

Looks to me that the moment of the rack at the point the swing arm is connected is transferred through the vertical pin connection. The moment on the pin will essentially transfer the load the same in either orientation. The small amount of vertical shear the lower arm is taking should be pretty easily handled as a tensile load in the pin. That's my thought at least at first glance. I'd want to look at the assembly closer to be sure.

 

Got up to New Hampshire today to enjoy the prime weather.

 

Grom and Mom. Our nine year old crushed 8 miles of Ozark single-track today.

 

Dented my rear rim... unable to get it to hold air. I used a butane torch and hammer/pliers to try and get it back. Any other ideas? Or bombproof wheel recommendations? edit; maybe i should look into vittoria air-liners....



Also cinched the tire. Not sure if patch will work since I don't have a rim to test on lol

 

All joking aside, I have some S1’s for sale.

 

hmm... well TBH I was really only looking for a rim... I only have ~120 miles on hub/cassette trying to avoid replacing everything if possible.