Review: Andy Lloyd

Bike Magic editor James McKnight passed this luxurious looking Thule EasyFold bike rack on to me as he deemed it too swanky for his 1997 Peugeot 306. Well lucky me as this is one amazing piece of bike carrying equipment.

I’m used to rather rickety looking bits of metal that attach to your boot lid using a variety of fabric straps and luck, or the fuel sapping roof rack that you may forget about when you’re about to drive into a height restricted multi-storey.

The EasyFold fits very easily onto the tow bar of your car and is held firmly in place by a handbrake type mechanism which is tension adjustable, and then does what it says on the box and easily folds down ready for the two bikes it can take. The beauty of its folding capability is that once you’re done with it you can fold it in two and hide it in the boot of the car or at home without taking up a whole room.

The two lockable arms hold the bikes in position firmly and are easily repositioned if you have a random shaped bike (as most mountain bikers do). I’ve tested it with all sorts of bikes of varying shapes and sizes (Orange, Trek and Lapierre bikes) with no issues to report so far. The two sets of plastic ratchet straps over the wheels help to further secure the bikes.

The built in light units plug straight into the socket on the tow bar and worked without a hitch. You’ll need to get a new number plate made up, which slots nicely on to the guides on the rack and doesn’t require any screwing-on unless you’re worried about someone nabbing it.

I have been road testing this rack for the last two weeks and have just driven to Morzine via Les Trois Vallées with an enduro bike and a downhill bike attached, which pushed the 30kg recommended limit on the instructions, without them budging an inch.

The bikes are easily taken on and off and you can also tilt the whole rack (with the bikes on if necessary) using a foot pedal underneath the number plate to allow access to the boot.

One thing I will mention is the price – at nearly 500 smackers this is no cheap bit of kit, however if you can push your bike rack budget and want to take care of your nice bikes and car whilst transporting them then it is most probably worth the investment.

Verdict

All in all I have never used such a user-friendly bike rack as the EasyFold and it’s well worth the price tag for the reduction of endless bike transportation faff. It isn’t cheap though, that’s for sure.

More information: Thule EasyFold
Price: £494.99