6 months ago I was looking for the perfect bike rack; I chose the Heavy/Super Duty 1 UP bike rack. Today I am sharing the good, bad, and ugly on this rack and answering the question:
“Would I buy the 1 Up Heavy/Super Duty bike rack again after having lived with it?”
You can check out the video version of this review here: 1UP HEAVY/SUPER DUTY BIKE LONG TERM REVIEW
Quick and Dirty:
To be honest, the only good thing about this rack is that I can leave the bike on the truck and close the garage door. Besides that, there are a few things that really stand out that make this rack hard to recommend.
Background:
About 6 months ago, I was happily using a truck tailgate pad to haul my bike, and up to four more bikes for a ride. After a trip to southern Utah for some riding that required a bit of dirt roading, the truck was a red dusty mess. So I decided to wash, and in doing so I took off the pad and noticed my tailgate had fallen to a sad state. The tailgate had scratches all over where the bikes had been resting on the tailgate pad. What a bummer!
So instead of putting the tailgate pad back on, I decided to try a bike rack again. I backed into a mountain and bent my old one up a bit. So a new one was in store. I looked at a bunch of options before settling on the 1 UP Heavy/Super Duty rack.
Experience:
So why would I say such horrible things about this bike rack? To be honest there are just a few things that bug me and make using this rack a real pain. And they just happen to be things you have to deal with every time you use it.
So here is the bad.
- First changing positions of the rack can be a huge pain in the butt, you have to pull an impossible bar to disengage the lock; the problem is it sticks, like almost every time. I end up fighting with this thing until it finally gives up and cooperates.
- The next thing that’s a pain is moving the arms. You have to precisely position the lever just so and at the same time lift the arm up or down while keeping the lever in just the right spot.
- Not a one handed operation by any stretch. Which sucks when you have your bike in one hand.
- The other thing that stinks is that there isn’t an integrated lock. I’ve purchased a beast of a chain to try and secure my bike.
Here’s the good.
- It seems to be pretty well built.
- It hasn’t come loose at all and seems to hold the bike pretty secure even when I’m speeding down the highway.
- But the biggest pro is that after I finish a ride, and I know I'm going out again the next day, I can just leave the bike on the rack and close the garage door. The single rack is a perfect fit for my truck and garage.
So would I buy the rack again?
- Yeah I would. But ONLY because I like being able to leave my bike on the truck, and still close the garage door. Enough to deal with the crappy parts, and there are a few. I do hope in future iterations they can make some improvements to make the rack easier to use.
That’s all for this one - thanks!