Grip Sport "Quick Grip" Bike Rack
Traditionally my method of transporting my bikes has been to throw them into the back of the wagon. Reasonably quick and it generally doesn’t require too much thought getting things in. The only downside to this method was the inevitable amount of mud getting deposited in the car.
Road trips also became an issue when trying to fit multiple bikes and gear into the car.
A new car though required me to have a new train of thought on the whole bike transportation issue. A bit of research led me to Grip Sport and their Quick Grip Bike Rack.
The model I purchased comes in a double bike size, although I believe they can be custom built for more bikes. The bikes are held in place by a crank holder system with the wheels sitting within one of two large channels.
Loading the bike is a breeze, simply lift them up and drop the crank into the holder. Getting into my local riding spots can be quiet bumpy though, so for extra security I also tie the bikes wheels down to prevent any bouncing and unwanted loss of machinery.
The racks aren’t light, coming in at 8-9kg’s per bike spot but they appear to be extremely well built and I would say would be more than capable of doing some serious damage to anyone looking to rear end you with this thing installed. I wasn’t going to test this though, I’ll leave it to someone else to try that. If you do, I’d love to see pics of the resulting carnage.
Given the destructive nature of some crank holders I’ve used before, I chose to soften mine up a bit through the use of cloth tape, but I’m sure there are better methods of doing this. The cloth tape method seems to be working fine, but obviously will need to be replaced with time.
Some larger cranks may have issues with fitting into the crank holder, however, if your cranks git the bill, grip do make an oversized crank holder. Might be worth checking out for some of you.
This particular model of rack, the quick release, comes with a bracket that bolts onto the cart hitch and can be left there to save unnecessary playing with the tow ball. The rest of the rack simply slides into place and is locked into place with a pin and a bolt. The vertical pin has a nice feature, being a hole allowing a padlock to securely hold the rack to the car preventing any dishonest bastards from easily walking away with the rack. Sure if someone really wants it all they have to do is undo the tow ball, but at least they will have to work for it.
I couldn’t fault the finish of the racks either, they look good, strong and even more importantly they fit two bikes perfectly. As an added bonus, I haven’t had top clean the boot of the car since I got my hands on it.
I don’t think this review would be complete without giving the guys at Grip Sport the two thumbs up for customer support. Before I purchased I had a few questions, and the response’s were all very quick and informative.
All up the rack retails for $328, however there is the option for the same rack, minus the quick release hitch feature that retails for $288.
For this happy punter it’s been money well spent.
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