Your Truck, your Bike and you

A pickup truck is a vehicle that is commonly used for off-road adventures and usually once destination is reached the rest of the outdoor fun is continued by means of biking. Pickup trucks have a lot of space at the back that can accommodate lots of cargoes including a bike.

Maintaining order in the cargoes at the back of the pickup is very important especially when you have a bike that often when not tied down securely can damaged the other cargoes plus may smashed into the back window of your pickup. And of course too much tossing and smashing and banging will damaged your bike. One bike is bad enough just think if you have a couple of unsecured bikes at the back of your pickup. The mess and damaged will be multiplied.

Then there is the noise caused by the bike rattling around in the back of the truck which can be quite disturbing while you’re driving. And that’s not all grease and dirt can transfer easily from your bike to your other cargoes and just imagine the mess that you will have to clean up afterwards.

What can you do about it?

To prevent such unsightly incident from happening as a pickup truck owner you would have to invest on a bike rack to keep your bike on hold. Bike racks or bicycle racks are devices in which bicycles may be securely attached to an automobile such pickups or bus for transporting bicycles. A truck bed bike rack is a bicycle rack that is especially designed for pickup trucks.

In case you have a trailer hitch at the back of your truck or SUV then all you would need is to get a receiver bike rack also known as a hitch bike rack. And by the way the receiver is the term for the ball on which a trailer hitch is placed.

Things to consider when buying a bike rack?

There are so many models and styles of bike racks to choose from however you simply can’t buy any of them unless you fully take some important things into consideration.

Your first consideration when purchasing a bike rack should be the number of bikes you will be carrying. Bike racks comes in different sizes and shapes. The most common sizes are designed to carry as few as one bike and as many as four bikes. Try to consider the number of bikes you will need your bike rack to hold and also keep in mind the possibility of adding more bikes in the future. Likewise keep in mind that if one bike rack is not enough to hold all of your bikes, you may be able to equip your vehicle with two.

Your next consideration should be is where you want to attached your bike rack to your vehicle. As much as there are many ways of killing a cat so are there ways of attaching bike racks on your vehicle. Bikes racks may be mounted on the roof, mounted on a trailer hitch, or attached to the trunk or read door. Remember that where you decide to put your bike rack is very important to the result that you want to achieve.

Bike racks placed on the roof is great since it’s out of the way. You won’t have to worry with your bikes getting in line with your driving view or blocking the access to the trunk. The downside of a roof rack, however is that it makes retrieving and stowing a little harder.

Trunk or rear mounted bike racks are much easier to use, and are not very costly. They are easy to attach with straps and hooks to your car and can be easily removed when not in use. And of course it’s not without flaws also; the disadvantages of using a trunk mounted bike rack are as follows: makes retrieving to the trunk difficult as well as accessing the rear of the vehicle. Trunk or rear mounted bike racks have less durable construction since they rely on fabric straps and less sturdy metal and plastic pieces and therefore more probe to damage and theft.

The bike rack that is attached to the trailer hitch is made of sturdy metal construction and can hold up to four bicycles. Obviously your vehicle needs to have a trailer hitch in order to use this type of back rack.