Racks for Dummy Bicycle Owners

Trunk-mounted bike rack

All the research staffers tell us that you really have to wonder some times, "Just what was this person thinking?" Not only do they come across non-answers and wrong answers in their research of the how-to content farms, they also find general answers to specific questions and specific answers to general questions. Why anyone would think that the topic, "How to Tie Down Bikes on a Bike Carrier" means to go to the directions for a specific model of bike rack from a specific brand is a mystery to everyone here... but the alleged answer Keith Dooley provided for SportsRec.com is precisely that.

Yes, in his football-coach wisdom, Dooley pulled up the owner's manual for the Thule 910XT Passage rack, the kind of rack that mounts on a trunk or rear hatch. Fair enough, we guess... except that the instructions he then copied-reworded-pasted turned out to be quite specific. We wonder whether steps like,

"Position the bike top bar in the molded bike cradle that is closest to the back of the load arms."

not to mention

"Pull the strap firmly downward across the top bar of the bike to the small knob on the front of the bike cradle. Secure the bike by pushing the strap over the knob. Choose a hole in the strap that will result in the bike being held securely in place."

are going to prove useful to someone trying to deal with another brand (Kuat, Yakima, Saris) or another style; e.g., hitch-mounted. We mean, you gotta wonder: what if there's no "molded bike cradle" or if there is a cradle but there's no "small knob on the front"? And for pity's sake, why not share with the readers Thule's statement that, "Cradles can be either rotated or shifted on bars to accommodate different bike geometries"? or the even more useful suggestion to alternate the direction of the bikes (that's good advice regardless of the rack brand or style)?

We have to admit, we were a bit taken aback by the thought that there was only one brand and style of rack out there. The impression arises from the format of the post, which launches straight into instructions. In reality, the original article from 2011 has an introduction mentioning a "popular rack design," omitted when the post was ported to SportsRec. We suspect, for whatever that's worth, that Keith had no idea how to use a bicycle rack, much less how to mount bikes on them. For the record, the general idea is the same regardless of brand and style: the bikes need to be kept separate, and there should be some kind of non-marring closure to hold the bikes by the tubing and/or wheels. If that's missing, you can probably substitute a nylon compression strap or three. Pity the poor OQ, though, who didn't ask about using a Thule 901XT Passage: our Dumbass of the Day pretty much wasted that poor person's time.

copyright © 2018-2023 scmrak

DD - BICYCLES