This Hitch-Mounted Bike Rack Holds 5 E-Bikes — And Loads Itself
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This ingenious hitch-mounted e-bike rack is a novel solution to hauling multiple electric bikes on your car, truck, RV, or SUV, and even more clever is the fact that all of the eRack models feature an electric “self-loading” function so that virtually no heavy lifting is involved.
One of the disadvantages of electric bikes is that they tend to weigh a lot more than your average acoustic bike, which isn’t an issue while riding them, but it can a limiting factor when you need to transport them with your vehicle. Many of the vehicle bike racks on the market, especially the cheap ones, aren’t built to handle electric bikes, which can sometimes weigh 70 pounds or more. There certainly are hitch-mounted bike racks available that can handle an e-bike or two, but most of them pretty much top out at carrying two e-bikes, and because of the way they are cantilevered out from the rear the vehicle, it’s not really practical to build hitch racks that can hold 3 or more e-bikes. Plus, some bike racks can make it virtually impossible to open your rear hatch when loaded if they don’t fold down, or they can just make it a straight-up pain in the tuchus to access the rear of the vehicle.
The Canadian company BIKE eRACK offers a range of hitch-mounted bike racks that can handle from one to five e-bikes, or a pair of electric trikes, or even a couple of electric motorcycles. The eRACK models can fold down anywhere from halfway to the ground to level with the ground in order to be able to place the front wheel of each bike into the top “basket,” which secures the front wheel. Once the front wheel of e-bike(s) are loaded, a remote control unit activates an electric hoist system to lift the eRACK up to vertical, after which the rear wheel is secured to the bottom rail of the unit.
On its own, an eRACK made for just a single or a double e-bike isn’t that impressive, in my opinion (though it might make sense for those with limitations on lifting), but when it comes to loading three, four, or five electric bikes weighing up to 90 pounds each, this rack really stands out. An eRACK could make a big difference for those folks who would like to take the whole fam damily out e-biking, but don’t because of how difficult it can be to load up and haul more than two electric bikes away from home.
Most of the eRACK models also have an integrated lighted license plate holder (because the rack may cover the license plate when loaded), as well as signal lights, which helps with both visibility and legality while on the road. The eRACKs hold each e-bike securely, with the only contact between the bikes and the rack being the tires, each bike can be locked to the rack, and there is enough space between each one to keep them from knocking into each other and getting scratched or damaged. And if you need to get into the rear hatch of the vehicle, the eRACK can be lowered just as easily as it is lifted, allowing for easy access to the rear of the vehicle.
The prices on these e-bike racks range from $1799 for the eRACK 1 (single bike) up to $2599 for the eRACK 5 (five bikes), and there are options for carrying electric trikes and recumbents and adaptive e-bikes, as well as models specifically made to carry electric motorcycles. All the details are available on the BIKE eRACK website.
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