etrailer | Thule Apex XT 2 Bike Rack Review
Вставка
- Опубліковано 21 кві 2019
- Click for more info and reviews of this Thule Hitch Bike Racks:
www.etrailer.com/Hitch-Bike-R...
Check out some similar Hitch Bike Racks options:
www.etrailer.com/dept-pg-Hitc...
www.etrailer.com
Don’t forget to subscribe!
/ etrailertv
Full transcript: www.etrailer.com/tv-review-th...
Randy: Hey guys, it's Randy here at etrailer.com. Today we're taking a look at the Thule Apex XT two bike hanging style rack. Now this rack is going to be an excellent choice for transporting one or two bikes to your favorite riding destination. It has a lot of nice features that already come with it. The security aspect, it's already got a cable lock built right in for you. It's got a lock on our anti-rattle device down there.
It includes the anti-rattle device. You can see that's nice and secure and an advantage that this one has over . Maybe if you're looking at this compared to a platform style rack, it's that this one's going to be easier to manage. Generally it's lighter to get it into your hitch and it's not going to take up as much space in your garage. So let's take a closer look at a few of those features.You can see if this is going to be the right one for your application.
The integrated cable lock is going to be a really good solution for locking our bikes down to the rack. As you can see, got a nice heavy duty steel cable, plastic coated so if it hits your bike it will be protected and when not in use, that's going to store right into the mast. This isn't a cable lock that we can leave behind or lose. When we're ready to load our bikes up or after we have our bikes loaded up, we're ready to lock it. That's going to ...
just going to go down and in place our key in and turn it. Now this is the same key that we'll show you in just a second when we get down on the knob. They're keyed alike and these can be switched out for lock cores that you already have, if you have some other Thule accessories and you want to use the same key for all of them.So it's nice that we have options. Now we've looked a little closer at how we secure the bikes to the rack. With securing the rack to the vehicle, is kind of a unique thing here.
You can see our knob, it's just in a free spool mode right here. You can't loosen and you can't tighten it. That prevents anybody from removing it once installed. If we just rotate our key there, then all of a sudden you can see our knob's ready for use, so we can loosen or tighten as we need. The cradles on the Apex are also really nice about protecting your bike. In the bottom of each one, got a nice rubberized material here. It's going to have a little bit of suppleness to it, so as we're traveling down the road it's going to absorb a lot of the road shock. They're also a few grooves right down through there to help positioning with cables and things like that.The strap itself's going to have that same material on it so as we bring it down and lay it over our tube, it's going to give us great protection. These cradles will also move. You can see we can adjust it up to that angle and then all the way down to that angle, so depending on the type of frame you have that can help us accommodate a lot of different types. Now if you have a kids bike, where they have a real low drop on it or maybe a woman's bike, even an alternative frame bike, where we don't have a pretty level top tube like that, you can use the Thule adapter bar, position that on there and that'll give you a great spot to make your connection. Now the smaller cradle that comes off the bottom side, it's going to come off on one side or the other.That's for our seat post. Our seat post is going to come down here. This wraps around and that prevents that forward to back movement that's pretty common with this type of rack. You can see the same type material here in that cradle to offer us protection and the same on the strap here. Now sometimes when putting bikes on or taking them off of the hanging style rack like that, the anti-sway cradle can give us some interference, basically it wants to make contact. Now these can be stored in the bottom of the cradle here, but you do have to take out the strip here. Well this can be a little bit challenging, a little bit of a pain to get that out but then that's going to click up into position, but at that point we're left with this and we have to store it somewhere.While I think it is a good option if you have that issue, I think in most cases people are just going to work their bike around it rather than removing this and replacing it each time. So a couple measurements I'd like to give you just so you can make sure that the Apex XT's going to work for your situation. We're going to go with all of these from the hitch pin hole. The first one we've got is here to the closest point and from the hitch pin hole, that's g
Great instructive video. Going to order it now!
Great video! Helped me to decide on this one. Thanks.
You're very welcome, we're glad we could help!
www.etrailer.com/Hitch-Bike-Racks/Thule/TH9024XT.html
Great video, thank you
You've welcome, we're glad you liked it!
www.etrailer.com/Hitch-Bike-Racks/Thule/TH9024XT.html
Great video, thanks!
Thank you for the feedback! Check out the following link for more information on this bike rack.
www.etrailer.com/Hitch-Bike-Racks/Thule/TH9024XT.html
Ordered, will see. Thanks.
Will it tilt to access cargo area of vehicle if there is a bike strapped to the rack?
It won't. You'll need to remove the bikes before tilting the rack, otherwise the bikes will hit the ground.
www.etrailer.com/Hitch-Bike-Racks/Thule/TH9024XT.html
I don't mind if the bikes touch the ground momentarily as long as I don't let them slam down against it, but I'm curious if it's possible or if the mechanism to tilt downward locks up once the bike rack is in use. For example, if I just needed to grab something out of the hatch quickly that I forgot.
How loose is the fit in the hitch?
The Thule # TH9024XT Apex bike rack includes Thule's SnugTite hitch lock. The hitch pin is threaded, which pulls the shank of the bike rack tightly up against the inside of the receiver tube for a very tight fit. The rack won't move around in the receiver very much at all.
If you fast forward to the 9:40 mark in the video linked below, you can see how stable the rack is while the vehicle is moving.
www.etrailer.com/tv-review-thule-apex-xt-2-bike-rack-th9024xt.aspx
www.etrailer.com/Hitch-Bike-Racks/Thule/TH9024XT.html
Anyone know the distance between the two tubes that go under the bike?
You betchya! Outside cradle to outside cradle is 13 inches. The inside cradle to inside cradle is 6-1/2 inches.
www.etrailer.com/Hitch-Bike-Racks/Thule/TH9024XT.html
@@etrailerthanks!
You're very welcome. Glad we could help!