swaz
Likes Bikes and Dirt
Item: ISI 2 bike carrier
Purchased From: ISI direct
Purchase Price (approx): RRP nearly $800 for the package I had
Usage: Mostly highway, suburbs. Some off road fire trails
Pros –
Well built. You wont break it
Australian made steel, design and build.
Powder coated
Can replace certain parts with off the shelf items. I couldn’t find short screws at the big green shed though. Luckily the specialist fasterns place near me had some for about $0.25 each
Bikes don’t touch each other when loaded and you can off set them to a certain extent to avoid this.
It tilts out of the way (also a con)
I left the hitch mount in place almost all the time and took the rack part off and put it away.
the bikes DO NOT move when on the rack.
The off-set system ISI have designed only becomes apparent if you have used other racks where you have to dick around with bars touching each other or taking a seat post out to have bikes fit. Once you get the wheel hoops in the right spot, it's just a matter of dropping the bikes in and away you go.
Cons -
Heavy
Doesn’t fold down or pack away.- yes I realise it’s intended use. I found this a bit of a PITA.
The wheel hoops did not slide easily along the rails which made for quick adjustments a massive hassle. You also need an alen key on hand all the time to cinch up the screws. Not a deal breaker but if you’re keen to get your mates bike on there and too the trails f-ken about like this gets old very quickly.
My wheel hoops would not slide together and oppose each other until I distorted them. I hit ISI up about this and George sent new wheel hoops but they still did the same thing.
Fitting a 16” kids bike on there didn’t work well
Putting a light bar/license plate with lights on it with the added attachment ($50) wasn’t very successful. This was because it tilted to the ground and the light bar scraped on the ground. This was the best I could do because with it out of the way of the ground, it got in the way of the bikes. No win here.
Pulling the pin out every time I needed to tilt it. Picture this:
Have everything next to car ready to go in. Put carrier onto hitch attachment (maybe 30 seconds). Load boot of car with bike gear and pull up into place so the lever holds it there (no pin in yet). Put pin in Put bike/bikes on. Discover that I didn’t put shoes/helmet/bag/water/dogs in yet. Take pin out which is a bastard because there is load against the pin now (tried diff types of lube with no improvement, only mess). Stand at rear of rack, perform contortion act to flip retention lever, lower bikes all the way to the ground and lay super gently onto the ground. Load forgotten items. Reverse and hope you don’t get grease on you.
It lowers bikes ALL the way to the ground. Fantastic if you have a barn door boot or a van where the clearance is needed, but ultimately why I sold both my racks. A personal thing, yes. However It actually never occurred to me how much of an issue this would be until I started taking other peoples bikes around with me. When lowered the end of the handlebar takes the full load of the bikes + the rack. The final straw for me was putting new grips on my bike, having it laid down whilst in the rack and our two dogs + kids hopping into the car. Scratched the bejesus out of the grip ends. Thankfully it was my bike and not someone elses.
The other thing that became a bit of a bear is the upright supports for the frame fingers don’t fold down out of the way so you can access the boot quickly and easily without bikes loaded. I didn’t trust this to stay on the rack whilst at the trail head either so that would have to go into the back of my car.
Comments:
As you can see, the cons out weighed the pros and my criteria for spending money on an expensive rack is that it had to be easy to use and not make using it a chore. There appears to be a very simple solution to the issue of it folding all the way to the ground, however I didn’t feel like machining something up to fix an issue on an $800 rack.
Pictures/Videos:
I made a license plate backing plate from a piece of scrap stainless and bought an LED light bar for a motorbike from eBay for about $12
I had the two larger wheel hoops on one side because I found that held the 29er heaps better.
Purchased From: ISI direct
Purchase Price (approx): RRP nearly $800 for the package I had
Usage: Mostly highway, suburbs. Some off road fire trails
Pros –
Well built. You wont break it
Australian made steel, design and build.
Powder coated
Can replace certain parts with off the shelf items. I couldn’t find short screws at the big green shed though. Luckily the specialist fasterns place near me had some for about $0.25 each
Bikes don’t touch each other when loaded and you can off set them to a certain extent to avoid this.
It tilts out of the way (also a con)
I left the hitch mount in place almost all the time and took the rack part off and put it away.
the bikes DO NOT move when on the rack.
The off-set system ISI have designed only becomes apparent if you have used other racks where you have to dick around with bars touching each other or taking a seat post out to have bikes fit. Once you get the wheel hoops in the right spot, it's just a matter of dropping the bikes in and away you go.
Cons -
Heavy
Doesn’t fold down or pack away.- yes I realise it’s intended use. I found this a bit of a PITA.
The wheel hoops did not slide easily along the rails which made for quick adjustments a massive hassle. You also need an alen key on hand all the time to cinch up the screws. Not a deal breaker but if you’re keen to get your mates bike on there and too the trails f-ken about like this gets old very quickly.
My wheel hoops would not slide together and oppose each other until I distorted them. I hit ISI up about this and George sent new wheel hoops but they still did the same thing.
Fitting a 16” kids bike on there didn’t work well
Putting a light bar/license plate with lights on it with the added attachment ($50) wasn’t very successful. This was because it tilted to the ground and the light bar scraped on the ground. This was the best I could do because with it out of the way of the ground, it got in the way of the bikes. No win here.
Pulling the pin out every time I needed to tilt it. Picture this:
Have everything next to car ready to go in. Put carrier onto hitch attachment (maybe 30 seconds). Load boot of car with bike gear and pull up into place so the lever holds it there (no pin in yet). Put pin in Put bike/bikes on. Discover that I didn’t put shoes/helmet/bag/water/dogs in yet. Take pin out which is a bastard because there is load against the pin now (tried diff types of lube with no improvement, only mess). Stand at rear of rack, perform contortion act to flip retention lever, lower bikes all the way to the ground and lay super gently onto the ground. Load forgotten items. Reverse and hope you don’t get grease on you.
It lowers bikes ALL the way to the ground. Fantastic if you have a barn door boot or a van where the clearance is needed, but ultimately why I sold both my racks. A personal thing, yes. However It actually never occurred to me how much of an issue this would be until I started taking other peoples bikes around with me. When lowered the end of the handlebar takes the full load of the bikes + the rack. The final straw for me was putting new grips on my bike, having it laid down whilst in the rack and our two dogs + kids hopping into the car. Scratched the bejesus out of the grip ends. Thankfully it was my bike and not someone elses.
The other thing that became a bit of a bear is the upright supports for the frame fingers don’t fold down out of the way so you can access the boot quickly and easily without bikes loaded. I didn’t trust this to stay on the rack whilst at the trail head either so that would have to go into the back of my car.
Comments:
As you can see, the cons out weighed the pros and my criteria for spending money on an expensive rack is that it had to be easy to use and not make using it a chore. There appears to be a very simple solution to the issue of it folding all the way to the ground, however I didn’t feel like machining something up to fix an issue on an $800 rack.
Pictures/Videos:
I made a license plate backing plate from a piece of scrap stainless and bought an LED light bar for a motorbike from eBay for about $12
I had the two larger wheel hoops on one side because I found that held the 29er heaps better.
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