Bike Racks: How To Choose the Best One For Your Car
This is still one of the more useful pieces on the site, and the framing is right: bike racks are genuinely confusing and the confusion is mostly about the car.
Start with what the car can take. A tow ball, a roof with rails, a bare roof, or nothing but the boot lid. That single fact eliminates most of the catalogue. Thule and Yakima both publish fit guides keyed to your exact model and year; use them before reading any review.
The three types, honestly compared:
- Tow-ball mounted is the best if you have a tow ball. Easy loading at waist height, no lifting overhead, minimal effect on fuel use, and the most stable. It is also the most expensive and it usually blocks the boot unless it tilts.
- Roof mounted keeps the boot and the number plate clear and carries anything. It also means lifting a bike above your head, costs real fuel, and introduces the height problem: car park barriers are how roof racks die.
- Boot mounted is cheapest and worst. Straps against paintwork, bikes touching each other, and it usually obscures the plate and lights, which is an offence in most places.
What has changed since this was written, and it is significant: e-bikes. They weigh 20 to 30kg, which rules out roof and boot racks for most people and pushes the answer firmly toward a tow-ball platform rack with a ramp. Check the rack's per-bike weight limit, not just the total.
Two things to do before the first trip: fit a plate and light board if the rack obscures either, and measure the loaded height and write it on something you will see.
Part of the guide to boots, shoes and sandals.