Bike Racks…

Bike Racks

I drive a Suburban.  I drove a Jeep Cherokee when I bought my bike and then bought a Suburban (not this one).  Getting a bike in the back of the Cherokee was a struggle – it fit, but created luggage challenges. Thus, I bought a bike rack.  I have a four bike, hitch receiver bike rack.  It is ugly, well worn, but has been on my RV and vehicles.  It works great.  It weighs a ton though and is not sexy.

My first bike rack was an old-school 1980s version on the back of my Volkswagen Bug.  That rack taught me an important lesson – make sure there is plenty of wheel clearance.  With my Schwinn on the back of the VW at my parents’ house in Minnesota in August 1985 I backed out of their driveway to head to college. This was the maiden journey of the bike rack and sure enough when my car came out of the driveway into the street gutter the bike extended far enough, the wheels were low enough, and the contact made bent my rims.  Always, make sure there is plenty of clearance between wheels and road!

I recently purchased a new rack system.  I have a 1992 Corvette and wanted to take it to my cabin in Georgia.  However, I always wanted to take my bike so I do not lose a week of training.  I started searching the web for Corvette bike racks and could not find a strong recommendation of any kind.  Along the way I came across the Saris Bones rack.  However, I had two concerns: (1) scratching my paint as the car is black, and (2) my wheels bottoming out as learned from prior experience.

In a car forum somewhere on the web someone made a reference to a product called “Seasucker.”  Curious, I checked it out.  I found this was a marine oriented product that had adapted to new markets for kayaks, boards, skis, and bikes.  There is not a huge amount on the web, but everything I found was favorable regarding performance.  A lot of older postings talked about product failures but these were based on speculation, not use.  At $270 though the pricing seemed high to me, but yet the product was perfect. I managed to search eBay and Craigslist and found a “Talon” in need of one new pump and I found a mini bomber that was nearly new.  I gambled and went the Talon route.

So far the rack looks perfect and should perform.  Yesterday I ordered the replacement pump and will take the maiden journey, a short trip locally before making an eight hour trek to North Georgia.  I will report back on how it does.  My worst fear is my bike blowing off the roof at 80 mph on I-75.

C4 Corvette with Bike Rack

C4 Corvette with Bike Rack