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Entering the Mojave with the mountain bikes tangled on the SpareRide.
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The chrome tension head must be positioned exactly as shown.
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Tilted down, the gate swings open, but it won’t if you have your spare mounted.
Words and photos Perry Mack
A couple of years back I made the drive from BC to Nevada and California to do some wheeling, both the 2-wheel and 4x4 variety. At the time I choose the Yakima SpareRide. It mounts to the spare allowing you to the open rear door of the Jeep. Seemed like a good idea, and it probably works well with road bikes. As I discovered however, the mountain bikes were loath to fit on properly. The full suspension frames won’t hang properly on the horizontal bars, you can’t get decent separation between the bikes (so the bikes are tangled up pedals in spokes), and the bikes are much heavier than a road bike, which strains the factory hinges.
The Yakima HoldUp 2 hitch rack is designed for 1 ¼” or 2” hitch receivers and carries up to two bikes securely. Instead of struggling to get the bikes on the rack with the old system, about a five-minute process, the bikes now go on effortlessly in seconds.
The hitch locks to your receiver and a padded compressing pivot arm quickly separates, secures and locks your bikes in place.
The rack comes almost assembled. The only real failure in the instructions is describing the position of the tension head in the receiver mount. If it isn’t lined up just right with a little tension, it is pulled into the racks receiver mount and flops around uselessly. However, when it is lined up properly you get a rock solid mount. Assembly is less than 20 minutes, after which, you can mount or unmount the rack in under 60 seconds.
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The locking pivot arm closes quickly, locks, and separates the bikes.
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A ratchet strap holds the rear tire in an ABS cup.
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There is lots of room for a second bike and good ground clearance.
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It was easy load and lock.
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Speed bumps couldn’t shake the bike loose.
I mounted the rack on a Ford Ranger, and my Wrangler JK Unlimited. The Ranger was easy as the rack slips into the receiver, folds down at the press of a lever and is ready to receive bikes. Another pull and the bikes will tilt away from the tailgate allowing you some access into truck bed without removing the bikes - very handy.
My JK however has a heavy-duty tailgate hinge and an oversized spare, which prevented the rack from mounting. A 6” extension would have easily solved this issue. We had to remove the spare. Once that was done, the rack mounted easily and without the bikes tilted down enough to allow the rear door to open completely - nice!
In addition to the Spare Mount, I’ve also owned the Yakima Forklift Fork mount, which I detested. Removing the front tire, then heaving the mud encrusted mountain bike on to the roof of the suburban at the end of an exhausting (but awesome) ride was a poor finish to a great day. And while I never forgot it was up there pulling into the carport, I did back-up once into an overhang and managed to damage my bike. I’ve also had a tailgate pad similar to the Yakima CrashPad with my Ram 1500, which is a decent solution for a pickup at an affordable price for two bikes, but not as easy to mount, secure and lock as the Holdup.
Although our application is mountain bikes, this rack will hold virtually all styles and sizes of bicycles. We like the solid steel construction and the raised position of the bikes, which maintains a good departure angle. There is also an optional accessory called the Holdup+2, which will hold up to four bikes.
Needless to say, the new Holdup is my favourite bike rack to date. Check it out when you shop for a rack and you may find it is yours as well.
Final specs for the Holdup;
Weight: 22.7 kg (50 lb)
Dimensions: L 87.6 x W 162.6 x H 30.5 cm (L 34.50" x W 64.00" x H 12.00")
Max load: 27.2 kg per bike or 54.4 total (60 lb or 120 lb total)
MSRP: HoldUp $600 CAD
Current pricing: https://amzn.to/2HN18BJ
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