Here are some photos of a new design which was shown to me today for a hitch mounted bike rack. I told the designer that I would try and get him some comments. Pretty neat idea - going vertical as opposed to horizontal. The weight is distributed between the front and rear wheel supports which are adjustable so it fits any size bike; there is room for 4 vertical mounts on the base assembly, which is hinged so you can swing it out of the way to allow for access to a trunk/tail gate. The rack slides into a standard frame hitch, does not cover tail lights, and the bikes also do not bang/scrape against each other the way they would on a horizontal mounts.
side winds would be a bit nasty on the wheels?
and depending on the car i don’t think the airflow of the top would be all that great… more fuel needed?
That is an interesting idea. I’m gonna say that I like it.
It does seem to put some hardware up in the wind but no more than a roof rack.
On the good side the bike is in the same plane as the vehicle. This would be important to me for transporting a bike w/ a disk. I’m not comfortable with that on traditional, perpendicular racks.
Can the mounts be staggered to allow for handlebar clearance?
Yes. Totally adjustable so you can stagger for bar size and also for different length bikes. I thought it was kind of neat when I saw it and don’t see that it can be any worse for wind resistance than anything else.
especially if the bike is on a roof rack. Will it clear a garage opening? I think it could also use a more positive mount to the rack. Like someone already said, it looks like one good bump and the bike will pop off its mountings.
Two years ago, I would have said that is a great marketing idea. People like gadgets and that is a new cool-looking gadget. Only concern is that with economy down, people are saving and buying less gadgets. Folks with SUVs and pickup trucks and other vehicles with hitches, might decide to simply put the bike in the back of the SUV or truck bed (though, IMO, inside is only proper place for any bike that one cares for).