Need advice on bike racks

[caricole]

Advocating penalties for bike racks

Nobody is advocating penalties for bike racks

They can be installed in several ways and not obstruct the view of the complete licenceplate as required by the higwaycode

1) You could install the licenceplate behind the rack instead in front of it (visible complete)

2) You could install the licenceplate behind the bicycles when fixed to the rack (visible complete)

3) Install on top of the car

4) Or you could install it partially invisible and risk an infraction of the higwaycode and try to play the innocent

anybodys choice

[Sampson]

I personally have never heard any friends getting tickets despite many using either hitch or hatch racks - but it is clearly obstruction of viewing the plate - and here in Alberta, only a rear plate is required so obstructing that would mean inability to identify a vehicle by license.

It obviously depends on the car and where the plate is, most external spare tire-mounted vehicles already have license plates that are offset. If I went with the nice Yakima hatch-mount rack I was looking at before, the plate would probably be 100% covered. I just don't want to get tickets, but maybe they would not add up to the loss of fuel economy by going with roof-mounted options.

Is there an extra ticket for knowingly breaking a law?

[caricole]

When the PHOTO-RADAR will become more popular, the unreadable licenceplates will become an issue

In Montreal we now have a TOLL-BRIDGE without tollboots....PHOTO READING...so..

[humble_pie]

summertime
an the livin is easy
summer is time
to change a straw hat

[rookie]

FP, looks like we are in the same boat on several things.

1) I just got back from Lake Placid. i wanted to throw in my 2cents in the other thread you started. however, i saw better suggestions from other posters. i just went there without doing any research, in an old fashioned way as I was very busy going into the long weekend. And boy, theres ton of stuff to do there. Definitely going back not once, but several times over. Cannot believe I hadn't gone there until now.

2) We were in the same dilemma on the bike rack thing. I did checkout rackattack as well. their prices are very competitive. I have a Caravan and i do not want to invest in a hitch for that. so when i was there, i ended up buying a thule archway 3 bike carrier at EMS (they have a 20% sale going on, cost me 180USD tax in). i preferred the trunk mount as i can switch it between my cars. I would have preferred the raceway but they did not have it in stock. We were also on a dilemma on whether to buy a bike trailer or just child carriers, also which one to go with. There was so much to do there that we ended up not having time to bike at all. as soon as i got back, i went to craigslist and bought the first chariot bike trailer i could get. I hope to use it this and the next summer as well.

anyways, if you do not have time, do not bother buying anything hastily. there are two stores at lake placid - high peaks cyclery and placid planet bicycles where you can rent bikes and also trailer for very reasonable prices. also, if you want to do downhill biking, you may end up renting even if you carried yours.

[GoldStone]

I bought a rack and a hitch on etrailer.com. Got them shipped for free to the UPS store near the border. Picked them up from there... the savings were well worth an hour drive. Hitch installation was about $50 at a local garage.

This is the rack I bought... I'm very happy with it:

http://www.etrailer.com/Hitch-Bike-R...an/S64650.html

You can buy a 4-bike model of the same kind ("a platform rack"):

http://www.etrailer.com/dept-pg-Hitc...t-4_Bikes.aspx

An anti-rattle locking pin is a must for a hitch-mount rack:

http://www.etrailer.com/p-S64029.html

[Four Pillars]

Update

We ended up buying the Yakima SpareTime which is a spare tire mounted rack from Rack Attack for $229.

I'm pretty happy with it. My only complaint was that we didn't know we needed an adapter for my wife's bike and it would have been nice if the salesperson had mentioned it.

Regarding Charlie's comment - the loaded rack definitely puts a stress on the back door. What we have been doing is just not opening the door while the bikes are on the rack.

The back of the Jeep has a sideways door (like the back of a pickup truck) and a window which opens upward. We can still get easy trunk access with just the window.

http://www.rackattack.com/product-pa...-sparetime.asp