• Swedish Innovations
• Around £43
• www.swedish-innovations.com

Think of Swedish innovations and you probably think of saunas and elk-resistant cars. Now you can add bike racks to the list… This one is designed and marketed by Swedish Innovations (they do a number of other things, not all bike related) and has two key selling points. One is the quick and easy fitting, the other is the low price – they sell direct from Sweden and price everything in dollars, but at the time of writing the asking price (including delivery) works out at £43.50…

The manufacturers claim a sub-10 second fitting time for the rack. That’s predicated on you already having a towbar on your car – you can add a couple of days waiting for someone to fit a towbar if you haven’t – but they’re not kidding. The cunning scissor-action design clamps the towball, a sprung lever locks it in place and a hook pin acts as additional security. Once in place it’s impressively solid.

Your bikes (it’ll take two) rest on the horizontal prongs in familiar boot rack fashion. Our test rack had plastic coated prongs, but the rack now comes with high-density foam padding for a bit of extra paintwork protection. You’ll probably want to use some extra padding between the two bikes, though.

There are a couple of caveats. Actually loading the bikes is no quicker than with any other boot rack, but putting the rack on is a lot quicker than most. And you’ll almost certainly need a lighting board and numberplate, as the bikes will obscure them on most cars. So add another twenty quid for one of those.

Even allowing for the price of a lighting board, this is still a bargain. Our favourite rack is still Pendle’s wheel support models, but they’re twice the price and while equally quick to fit they’re bulky to store – this rack folds up to an easily boot-stowable package.

Verdict: Pendle still take the prize for ease of loading, but the Swedish Innovations rack scores on compactness and price. If you’ve got a towbar this is an excellent rack.