TMS Aluminum Upright Car Roof Top Mounted Bike Bicycle Rack Carrier

If you are looking for a solid and reliable rack that you can pull out of the box and go.... Look elsewhere. If you are okay doing a little modifying and tweaking this is the rack for you.PROS CONSLight weight Poorly MadeCheap price point Cheap quality hardwaresimilar design as better made products. Design lacks function of better made products.Locks to bike frame Designed for large tube framesEasily modifiable. U bolts included are 2 inches ID...Out of the box with the instructions assembly took less than 5 minutes, set the rack on my vehicle only to find the factory crossbars are 2 1/2". I checked out a bunch of cars at work most were greater than 2 inches...A quick stop at a hardware store and new U Bolts acquired. Game onNext issue I own a couple vintage bikes (read as old if you wanna be a jerk about it) with thinner down tubes, at its tightest setting the closed clamp is about 1/2" away on all sides from my frame. With my modern wide tube road bike the clamp securely touched the frame.Solution: Pool noodle or foam pipe insulation to put around the down tube will reduce rattling.Before I go into the next part remember that you are paying less than $20 a rack. The cost of aluminum C channel to make your own rack would be more than that.The hardware and bracket for the crossbar is cheap. Real cheap, the plate/bracket that holds the locking hardware is thin and flexes with my Fuji10 speed on it (about 25 pounds)I would suggest making thicker plate, I have a friend doing this for me at work.The plastic knobs are skechy, the nuts just fall in and therefore fall right out. I little superglue on the edge where knob and nut join will prevent a loss of sanity installing this on your vehicle.The tie down straps will leave you longing they are short and they don't secure very well in the grand scheme of things. A hardware store has better strapping options for cheap.Lastly, if you have thin down tubes on your bike pickup some shorter carriage bolts, since the included ones are really long. This is also the design lacks on this product. In order to secure/ install your bike you have to take remove locking bolt out completely. With higher rooflines and or heavy bikes this may make you wish for a third hand to hold the bike or call 911.All said, to get with modifying and upgrades you are still spending less than half of what it would cost for one sportrack/thule/yakima.It is a decent value that would buy again..

I took a chance on these bike carriers when I couldn't see spending $250 or more to buy the high-end carriers to go with my Thule rack just to lug my kid's bikes around on those rare occasions when the family would be taking all four bikes out at once.Out of the box, the fit and finish of the parts is what you would expect at this price-point. The plastic parts are sturdy enough, but cheap, and the u-bolts need a little coaxing to fit into their holes. Overall, assembly is relatively easy, though I didn't experience any of the parts problems other reviewers have noted.The carriers fit perfectly--and securely!--on my square Thule crossbars. Installation takes longer than with the Thule carriers, as everything is secured using nuts and there are six nuts to tighten to put each carrier into place.Similarly, the upright arms are secured to the bike by two carriage bolts--one which can be left in place, and one which must be completely removed to allow entry of the bike's down tube. While this is a hassle, the presence of the two bolts above and below the down tube mean the bike isn't going to come free!The wheel straps are cheap, but functional. I'd recommend finding an alternative or a backup, just in case. (Note, though, that the channel under the aluminum track is very thin and will not accommodate a Thule strap's 'nub'.)The track itself is the highlight of the rack. They are lightweight but strong, and well-manufactured. They make solid contact with the tires and easily accommodated my children's bikes and--on a test run--my own full-size mountain bike.Attached to the crossbars and with bike in place, everything feels sturdy. At highway speeds, there was no noticeable difference in the performance of this rack and my much more expensive name brand rack.I don't think I would consider this rack if I was going to use it on a daily basis or put it on and take it off more than a handful of times per summer. I'm not sure that everything will last through repeated or frequent hard use.So, if you are looking for a bike rack that won't cost you hundreds of dollars and will do the trick, this rack is a good choice.If getting the rack or bikes on and off the vehicle quickly is your main concern, then this rack will probably won't meet your needs.

This is a cheap solution to the problem of transporting bikes. While the big names make carriers with more convenience and presumably higher quality parts, for a third of the price of the cheapest big-namer out there, you can get something that works. The main tracks are sturdy and work well. The fasteners are not ideal. While the knobs & captive nuts used to attach the U-bolts to the rack will probably work, I found it much easier to replace them with large wingnuts (metric). The captive nuts fall out of the knobs easily and one of them did not even have threads cut. One of the tire straps failed immediately when I tightened it, pulling free from the clasp mechanism. A reusable heavy duty zip tie makes a good replacement. The locking mechanism on the clamping knob feels extremely cheap, but so far works fine. I also would recommend pre-assembling the track and arms on the ground with the bike you'll be loading available for reference. Then it's easier to mount on your vehicle's crossbars knowing that when you lift the bike up there the geometry of tire position and arm fastener will be right. In actual use the carriers hold the bike firmly and I felt confident driving with them. I'm using these on standard Yakima round crossbars mounted on a 2013 VW Jetta Sportwagen.