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

Thinking about pulling the trigger on a YT capra after new years... just wish i lived closer to good trials! This thread makes me so jealous

 

Capra is a great bike! I love mine and have never had a problem with it. Recently bought a Jeffsy 27.5 and Wow!! I am in love. Such a rad bike

 

For the price point - the YT bikes are outstanding, I have the CF Tues and would readily consider another YT once my Trek is replaced

 

I think the various Land agencies have a limit on the number of people in a work party. But MBoSC just finished trail crew leader training with about 50 trained "graduates", and the last Dig Day at Demo a few weeks ago had about a one to one ratio of crew leaders to crew members.

 

I installed the truck bead header rail and RockyMount. Works great. My Santa Cruz 5010 is a bit too long to close the gate. Oh well.

 

i have the same set up it works great. i can't shut the tail gate either, but i like having the bike in the bed and not hanging on the back.

 

Anytime you want to come play in Utah, you are more than welcome.

 

Couldn't you simply life the back wheel and angle the bike slightly to allow (ala moto style) to close the tailgate?

 

For whatever reason, that is exclusively a moto thing; didn't really seem to stick in the MTB circles. Tailgate pads on the other hand...

 

This is why I put my fork mounts on the floor of the bed, rather than on the front cargo rail. Not only can the fork mount be attached a little put forward of the cargo rail location, but it also can be oriented vertically, so the whole bike ends up being a couple of inches closer to the front of the truck. This provides just enough extra room, at least to fit our short travel 29-ers, and close the tailgate.

 

All right everybody, as I posted earlier, I had the opportunity to demo an Alta Rack "Alta Six" shuttle style hitch rack this weekend in exchange for marketing-use pictures and thought I would share my thoughts.

**As a disclaimer, I wasn't paid for this or anything, just thought I would offer my comments on a decent product and support the little guy**

So Alta Racks really took off this last year with their 6 bike shuttle rack. Currently it is their only offering, but unlike Recon or North Shore, it is adjustable / scalable. The rack has 6 baskets and rear wheel tie-ins. The default offering includes 4 regular size tire baskets that will fit 24-29ers, and then your choice of 2 baskets that fit either regular, plus, or fat bike tires. We had my friends Marin with 27.5 x 2.3 tires in the plus basket and was still plenty secure, so you aren't as limited as the basket selection might appear at first. As a secondary retention measure as well as to secure the rear wheel, Alta branded voile type straps are used. The baskets were quite tight against the rubber, but no rim contact was made. This reduces the possibility of damage to the bike, but did well even on the bumpiest of shuttle roads. We took it down the Grafton Mesa road and up Guacamole Mesa. If you know anything about these roads, you know they are NOT gentle. We were sure to strap the bikes down, and everything held strong (even through a few enthusiastic rally drifts around dusty corners).

In the below picture, you can see the wing bolts that are used as set screws on the rack. These allow you to move the baskets and tire holders left/right to avoid rubbing between the bikes, and also allows you to remove baskets. This trip we only took 4 baskets (3 regular, 1 plus). For those of you that aren't partial to the Alta Racks branded plates on the outside baskets, they are bolt-on so you can take them off.

You can also adjust the height of the top and bottom bars by undoing and adjusting a couple of lag bolts for different length bikes and depending on off-road clearance needs. You can see the holes in the below pics.




Loaded up and ready to rock! Utah sunsets, American flags, and Christmas lights on the RTT rack, what more could you want?



One of the reasons we wanted to try it out was to test practicality on mid-size trucks (maker owns a Dodge diesel), but also experiment with an RTT setup.
My Tepui Ayer on top of a C4 rack clears the front tires in the upright and locked position by a few inches when the tent is deployed. The rack also has the ability to swing down 45 degrees to clear tailgates, make it easier to load, etc by use of a redundant combination slam latch / pin adjustment. You might also note that I have my tailgate down. My 2nd gen / 2015 could drop the tailgate and clear the slam latch by about 3/4 of an inch. 3rd gens with the deeper bed will likely not be able to enjoy this feature, and will have to tilt it down.

Tagging @Box Rocket and @C4 Fabrication FYI in case someone asks you about this in the future.



Alternate view of vestibule clearance from the kitchen:


Tailgate access and view of the slam latch / pin adjustment plus the wheel straps. "Like a glove...":


A bonus feature on this rack is that there is a slide in bracket that retains a bike stand attachment. It holds it quite securely, and at a reasonable height for most chores without too much stooping:



Finally, here is the description from the Alta Racks website for a full lid.

 

Wow, awesome and thanks for the review + pics! That rack is really interesting and I like how they covered many of the different "issues" that other racks have had in the past (tail gate opening, different bike sizes, and even RTT clearance)!


PS - I would like an order of your "special of the day"

 

The tailgate opening was more of a "got lucky" kind of thing, but I'll take what I can get.

As for the main dish, here is a helping of Gooseberry Mesa with a side of Guacamole:

A view from the rim. You can see Red Cliffs NCA on the left of the photo as well as the mesas leading to Zion NP. The mesa under the tree is the back side of where the Red Bull Rampage course is.



Gooseberry Mesa is basically just a bunch of rock rolls and then punchy rock climbs, but in a great way! Not ideally suited for a 160mm enduro bike. A friend had a 100mm Turner XC machine, and was probably a little happier.




You learn a lot about gear choice on this trail. That's the mouth of Zion NP in the background BTW.



Slickrock for DAYZZZZZZZZZZZ



Just a little exposure on some parts... send it, Bro!

 

Interesting product. Not something I need but I see a lot of thought went into it with some visible improvements over NS or Recon Racks. Especially the modularity. Just curious ... there's mention of "generic hardware". I hope that means generic metric hardware. I hate having to carry inch tools for my 1Up or some other US made accessories I have, when my truck and my bike tools are all metric. And I suspect that's true with GM, Ford, Ram/Jeep as well as Toyota.

 

i was going to do that, but my tonneau cover is in the way

 

Well the anti-rotation plate at the hitch used a 3/4 box wrench to tighten, so I am going to go with imperial size hardware.

I share your annoyance at metric vs imperial, but when I take my toolbox with me on trips, I bring both type sockets, etc so it isn't a problem. At least this means I can get my bike rack off when I lose my 10mm socket!

 

Yo!!! Thats a sick setup!!! Bike envy!

 

Can someone point me in the direction of the Utah based company that makes the rear swing outs for hitch racks?

I have seen them on here before, but can't find it on google to save my life.

it is similar to this Kuat - http://kuatracks.com/products/accessories/pivot/

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

I think you are looking for these guys http://rakattach.com/