Best fork mount bike rack?

[EPOwning]

As the title states…. looking for advice on the best fork mount bike rack for a road bike. I have aero cross bars on top of the car. What do you guys use? What's stable? What's reliable? Thanks!

 

[Jspear]

I don't use a fork-mount, but I will recommend the bike rack brand Thule. I have the Thule Parkway bike rack(it goes on a trailer hitch), and it's great. I've had it for a couple years, it's lasted for many long road trips. Everything stays strapped and tight. I love it. Their products are very well made...very strong and sturdy.

They also make a fork mount bike rack. Just google Thule fork mount bike rack, and you'll see their different models. Whatever you get don't go cheap....you get what you pay for. You want something tough and durable....it's your bike! It need's all your love.

 

[winkybiker]

If you are putting your bikes on the roof, make sure you have a system to stop yourself forgetting and wiping out your bikes on the way back into your garage. Having a sign that you swing down inside the garage door is one idea. Store the QR skewers with the sign so you don't forget to swing it down once you have backed out of the garage to load your bikes.

 

[EPOwning]

Good thinking... no one wants to rip bikes off the roof of the car. And i will check out Thule... I have been looking at the thule sprint fork mount. Although the videos i have watched on it make it look unstable. The bike they put on it sways what looks like several inches while the car is in motion. If this normal/safe?

 

[avanti]

Watch out for traffic tickets when using rear bike racks. With the advent of auto license plate readers (my local expressway uses them) the bikes and bike rack renders them unreadable. I plan to make up a license plate to mount on my bike rack.

 

[Bustedknuckle]

As the title states…. looking for advice on the best fork mount bike rack for a road bike. I have aero cross bars on top of the car. What do you guys use? What's stable? What's reliable? Thanks!

Where in Colorado are you..this place is the best in terms of racks on cars for bikes and other stuff. Bobby is good people.

http://www.rockymounts.com/

 

[EPOwning]

Yeah, closest dealer to me is in Aspen which I am about 45 minutes from. I will have to check rocky mounts out. thanks!

 

[Night Rider]

As the title states…. looking for advice on the best fork mount bike rack for a road bike. I have aero cross bars on top of the car. What do you guys use? What's stable? What's reliable? Thanks!

I've had Thule for five years, never any issues.

 

[Benotti69]

Put it inside the vehicle, if you can.

 

[dsut4392]

As the title states…. looking for advice on the best fork mount bike rack for a road bike. I have aero cross bars on top of the car. What do you guys use? What's stable? What's reliable? Thanks!

I have had a thule 561 on the roof for the past few years, and it's better than most I have used. Haven't lost a bike yet.

It's not perfect, there does seem to be a bit of unnecessary play. This occurs where the QR mount passes through the body of the rack, which is made of high-strength plastic. The heavier your bike is, the more noticeable this will be - It's hardly noticeable with my 7kg road bike, but makes me a little nervous on a rough road with my big heavy commuter/tourer.

One of the selling points for me was that the rack comes with a kit to use with a through-axle (albeit 20mm - I cut this down and made some shims to fit a 15QR axle instead). This was pretty solid with a 15kg-ish long travel trail bike. But in reality it's probably a 10 minute job to convert the rack between through-axle and QR, enough of a pain that it's not worthwhile if you're never carrying the same bike twice in a row.

For this reason I'm looking for a replacement rack that holds the bike by the wheels only instead - probably going to get a 3-bike hitch mount rack as most of the time I ride with friends, and car-pooling just makes sense.