If you’ve been lucky enough to make it over to Whistler for a biking holiday, you’ll have no doubt noticed during the drive from the airport that virtually every vehicle carrying bikes uses this style of rack where the bikes essentially hang vertically side-by-side.
Also, if you’ve been to Whistler, you’ve probably experienced some of the worst hangovers of your entire life, so it’s rather fitting that Yakima’s new ‘Whistler style’ bike rack carries that namesake, eh!
Photos // Matt Staggs
It’s big and badass, eh?
Oh yes, the Hangover 6 rack is by far the burliest bike rack we have ever had here at the mag. It’s big, real big, and made from heavy steel, and so guess what? It’s bloody heavy. However, the extra weight actually makes the rack feel really sturdy and secure once it’s fitted to your vehicle. Imagine if the rack was light and flimsy – by the time you loaded 6 bikes onto it it would be downright scary, where as with the design and construction of the Hangover rack even fully loaded with bikes it feels rock solid which gives a lot of confidence. Oh, and don’t be deterred by the fact that the rack can carry 6 bikes (not all of us have that many bikes or that many buddies, eh!) because a 4 bike version of the Hangover rack is also available.
What’s it like to load bikes on and off of?
As you can no doubt tell by the photos that accompany this article, each bike sits on the rack vertically and is primarily held in place via a padded triangle mounting bracket which holds each bike from underneath the fork crown. The bracket is shaped in such a way that it is really easy to slot each bike onto the rack and once in place the front wheel of each bike is tilted to one side meaning you can load plenty of bikes and none of them will touch/bang into each other. We discovered that this is actually a really efficient way of loading and carrying bikes. A rubber strap fastens over the top of the fork crown and holds each bike snuggly in place. The rear wheel is held in place by a plastic cup and adjustable strap. These wheel cups can also be flipped to accommodate various wheel sizes (from 24” – 29”) and all lengths of bikes. The rack features three mast height positions which means you can easily adjust the rack to suit how high/far off the road you want for clearance, etc.
Loading each bike takes about 30 seconds, if even that long. Because the rack loads bikes with such minimal effort, and it can carry so many bikes, this makes the Hangover absolutely perfect for shuttle days where you want that fast turn-around between runs. Beauty!
Does it tilt?
Heck yes it does! The Hangover rack features a foot activated tilt mechanism which makes it even easier to load the bikes on and off (as the rack can be lower to the ground meaning you don’t have to lift the bikes as far) and of course it means that you’ll still be able to access the boot or tailgate of your vehicle even when the rack is fully stacked with steads.
Where does the number plate go?
Yakima have brought out a cool little number plate mounting devise called ‘PlateMate’ which holds your number plate safe and sound to the back of your bike rack or mounted bike with easy-on velcro strap fittings. So there’s no need to need to be worrying about attracting any unwanted attention from the ‘nations finest’ in case your primary number plate gets covered up with bikes during commutes to the trails. Best of all a ‘PlateMate’ costs less than 30 bucks and you can fit ‘em to any type of bike or bike rack.
Options // A 4 bike version of the Hangover rack is also available, costing $849.
Weight // 33kgs!
Browse // www.yakima.com.au
Price // $999