Recommend a bike rack for the car

[jrenaut]

I have a hatchback with no roof rack or trailer hitch. I sometimes need to carry a bike or two further than I can ride it in the time I have. The rack we have is cheap and falling apart – I had to stop on the way home from the beach this weekend to make sure it wasn’t falling off.

Anyone have suggestions on a good rack? Locking would be greatly preferred.

Topic

[Greenbelt]

Saris also has a handy vehicle fit guide:
http://www.saris.com/catalog/racks

Beware of any plastic spoilers on hatchbacks. For example, our Saris Bones trunk rack works great on the Corolla, but not on the VW.

[mcfarton]

I have had both and prefer the hitch rack. I put hitches on both of our cars and use one rack for both

[ShawnoftheDread]

@jrenaut 92850 wrote:

Also, now that I think about it, one advantage of the roof rack is parking – I had to have my wife get out the other day and help me parallel park with the rack on the back.

Good god man, did you stop and ask for directions too?

[rcannon100]

We have a Thule hitch rack. Love it. Works excellently.

But its attached to the rear of a mini van. Rear of the minivan now has a lower clearance off of the ground. This mean the van bottoms out…. and cant make it up some hills…. like our own driveway. Yes, yes, The Wife has tried backing the van into brick walls, attempting to smash the hitch off of the car. She likes that thing none too much. 😮

[ShawnoftheDread]

@hozn 92867 wrote:

I’ve had great experience buying hitches from http://www.etrailer.com . You can put your car year/make/model and it’ll show you compatible options; they have great instructional videos too. Looks like most of the ones for the mazda3 — 2012, anyway (https://www.etrailer.com/hitch-2012_Mazda_3.htm) — don’t require drilling. So should be easy. You’ll just probably want some ramps to give yourself more clearance. I installed the Volvo and Mazda5 hitches without ramps — out of laziness (and not having anyone around at the time to help guide me onto them) — but that was kinda ridiculous.

That site looks great. I wish I had known about it a couple of weeks ago.

[MFC]

@jrenaut 92850 wrote:

My next car will have a tow hitch. Installing one on our Mazda 3 seems a little silly, though.

Also, now that I think about it, one advantage of the roof rack is parking – I had to have my wife get out the other day and help me parallel park with the rack on the back.

I ordered a hitchmount from uhaul for a mazda3 – placing the order online, the total installed cost was under $150. I didn’t bother with an the electric connections because I wasn’t planning to tow anything. You can can a used Thule hitch mount rack thru craigslist for not a lot of money.

Speaking of parking, if you get a roof rack, be careful about going into parking garages.

[jrenaut]

Does anyone have a rack that would fit on a Mazda 3 hatchback that I could borrow for the weekend of September 18-21?

[DaveK]

@jrenaut 93712 wrote:

Does anyone have a rack that would fit on a Mazda 3 hatchback that I could borrow for the weekend of September 18-21?

Yes, check your PMs…

[Author]

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