Thule 916 T2 2" 2 Bike hitch rack - Short Review

[triboyrob]

My wife is a little vertically challenged as she likes to say and is unable to easily reach the roof of her SUV. My neighbors soon to be son-in-law is a fellow RL owner and has The T2 on the back of his RL. After talking to him a few weeks ago I decided to pick one up for my wife to use to tote her bike around.

In the world of hitch mounted bike racks it is certainly not the least expensive coming in with a suggested retail price of $369. Before I go any further I should note that before purchasing the Thule I bought a $120 four bike hitch mount rack from performance bike. After using it for about a week I took it back. The performance brand rack did not fit snugly into the receiver which allowed it to rattle about around town and gave a much rougher ride to the bikes sitting on it. In addition the bike mounting system of the performance rack just didn't work well with the shape of the down tube on the time trial bikes I own. It was also awkward and time consuming to fold down out of the way. (disclaimer: I know performance offers many styles of hitch mounted bike racks and they may be very good. I'm not knocking performance bike products in general. It just happens that the rack I bought from them didn't work well for me.)

The first thing I noticed about the Thule rack when it arrived was it felt very sturdy. It is not a light weight rack by any means and someone like my wife has a hard time taking it on and off due to the weight. I've not weighed the rack but the UPS shipping weight had it at 60 lbs. I'm not sure I think it weighs quite 60 lbs but either way it is an awkward item to handle for the weight it is.

The good news is that it is such a good design there is very little need to take it out of the receiver. The rack uses a threaded bolt to mount to the receiver which makes for a very solid mount that doesn't move in the receiver. The rack can be folded up when not in use and can be easily folded down if you need access to the rear. One of my favorite features of the rack is that you can fold it down beyond flat with bikes on it to allow you to open a hatch. On my wife's SUV we can open the hatch by folding down the rack even when it has two bikes on it. On the RL you can not do this with two bikes but as you can see in the photo it works well with one bike.

Mounting the bikes on the rack is a breeze and can be done in about 15-20 seconds once you get used to using the mounting system. It is a simple design but it works very well and holds the bikes rock steady. I have put mountain bikes, road bikes and tri-bikes (700cc and 650cc) in the rack and it accommodates all of them very well. You can purchase optional locks that lock both the rack to the receiver and the bikes to the rack. Thule also sells an extender kit for the rack that will allow you to add two more bikes for a total of four.

Here is the link from the Thule website to the rack: http://www.thuleracks.com/thule/prod...t_id=8&sku=916

All in all I’m very happy with the rack and I’m glad it was recommended to me.

[94 Accord EX F250 owner]

I noticed your roof rack in the picture. Is it permanently mounted? Brand? Noise? How do you like it?

Appears substantially different compared to factory roof.

[triboyrob]

Originally Posted by 94 Accord EX F250 owner

I noticed your roof rack in the picture. Is it permanently mounted? Brand? Noise? How do you like it?

Appears substantially different compared to factory roof.

The roof rack is a Yakima rack. You can check out this thread to read all about it:

Pics of Yakima rack w/o factory rack

I have since put a faring on it and it is very quite (I think). Maybe I'll update the thread with a picture of the faring sometime soon.