Highland 1375500 SportWing Hitch Mounted 4 Bike Carrier

I have had this rack for about a year. It is the best bike rack I have owned. And that's saying a lot because I am now 46 and like to bike. Why is it so good? There are 4 major reasons.1. Flexibility. I have 2 kids, ages 8 and 11. Because of the wheel mounting, it is very flexible and can be easily adjusted as their bikes get bigger. Similarly, if there is no crossbar -- or if the crossbar is diagonal and not straight across -- no problem! No need to get an expensive and annoying adapter.2. Stability. I load it up and it just feels stable. If I really want it to feel extra stable I use the velcro straps, but they don't seem totally necessary. When I had a frame mount rack, it always felt like something was going to jar loose. The engineering is just plain superior.3. Ease. Compared with my old frame mount rack, it takes me less time to put this one the car and load it up, so we go biking more frequently. Another thing that is easier about it is that, if you only are using 1 or 2 bikes, you only have to load the first bar. So when I go to one of my races or just take one of the kids, it is particularly easy and doesn't require a few empty slots. If all 4 of us go, we just put on the second bar as well.4. Service. I got overzealous in hooking one of the rubber straps on the other day, and it snapped. Totally my fault -- I was yanking way too hard. So I figured I'd call the company and see if I could pay them for a replacement. I looked it up, called the 800 number, and got an actual person after a couple of rings. He asked for my model number and address, and he's sending me out a set of replacement rubber straps for free. Not just one replacement, but a *complete set*. Free. What? This kind of service in 2015?You can also put value on top of those things -- it was the least expensive 4-bike hitch-mount I could find. It is very rare to find something that is not only the least expensive but also the best. I rarely if ever write these reviews, but in this case my experience has been too good to ignore.

I replaced a VERY heavy bike carrier I purchased from Northern Tool. It served us well for many years but the rubber was falling off and, as mentioned before, it was very heavy. As I do with everything, I researched the heck out of bike carriers. The expensive brands are nice and have nice features but the still carry the bikes by the center bar. My family has some crazy designs of varying sizes and I've managed to pile them onto the old carrier in some very odd ball configurations but I never really liked it. The Highland SportWing design is perfect. It carries the bikes high off the ground so I'm no longer concerned about backing my truck down the angled drive and onto the flat street and having the bikes drag on the pavement. The bikes are stable and easy to take off and on. The inside bike, between the carrier and the vehicle, is best put on by two people but I've managed by myself. The rest is easy. Some places for improvement are the padding and the velcro. The sliding pad protects the bikes from metal on metal contact between the bike and the carrier. The problem I had was when I place two bikes facing opposite direction in order to avoid having the handlebars hit each other, the pad cannot be positioned correctly for both bikes. Place it low for one bike and the forks on the other bike make contact. I fixed this by using Malone Roof Rack Pads Malone 25-Inch Roof Rack Pads for Kayaks/SUPs/Surfboards (Set of 2) over the entire post (see attached picture). Worked perfect! I took the pads I removed from the first two sets of posts and added them to the second set of post to provide complete protection (and save money from having to purchase another set of Malone pads). I understand the reasoning the manufacture didn't pad the entire post since putting on a child's bike would require the positioning of holders much lower than an adult bike. Because my family rides full size bikes, I can't find fault in that. I'm using the included velcro for now but I'm considering bungee cord or some other elastic strap. The velcro was kind of a pain to get on.

After using this for a year I cannot recommend it. The glaring issue is that any bike rack that carries the bikes by the tires must have some system to stabilize the movement of the bikes that naturally occurs when the front wheels rotate around the handle bar shaft as you travel down the road. The method used by this bike carrier is to use Velcro strips to secure the bikes. The problem with that is that the only way to prevent the bikes from hitting each other is to velcro strip the bikes to the carrier arms. However, the carrier's protective foam only covers a short part of the carrier's metal frame making it nearly impossible to secure two bikes to the frame without metal coming into contact with the carrier frame. I had to use pool noodles to stop the frame from continuing to damaging my bikes. The only way to prevent movement is to get creative with the velcro strips each time you put the bikes on the carrier. Too difficult at this price point when competing carriers have fixed mounting points to control movement. As a final note, it's also much heavier than competing models at this price point making it more difficult to mount.

This works great for multiple types of bikes...no need for adapters. It needs more padding, we are going to put all the black ones that came with on one set of poles and use a pool noodle over the other set. I also like that it comes apart, it makes it easier to load, and we can easily store it in the van or garage. Do wish it had a secure option for the back portion, other than locking all the bikes together. One other con, it sits low, so you can necessarily see it though the back window when there are not bikes on the rack.