Post Your Custom Bike Racks!

PB Forum :: Mechanics' Lounge
Post Your Custom Bike Racks!
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flag Dragonfly-
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Posted: Jun 1, 2021 at 23:07 Quote
You all are making me wish I hadn't stopped welding! Beautiful work all round!
flag arvdawg
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Posted: Jul 24, 2021 at 12:37 Quote
level4designs wrote:
Same rack, but I now have outside 2 racks can be removed or bolted on. This way it can ride behind 4runner easily with 4 bikes, tundra can do 6 bikes because of extra width... and you can see how it articulates on my go fast buggy Smile

painted up black now, got some big wing nuts for the articulation, and not in picture, but some rubber caps on end of tubes, made it look profesh Smile
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Do the bikes move side to side at all?? If so how’d you stop it?
flag shami
Posted: Aug 4, 2021 at 11:31 Quote
[Quote="arvdawg"

Do the bikes move side to side at all?? If so how’d you stop it?[/Quote]

With a wheel mount design like this the bikes don't move around much at all. Shouldn't be a problem.
flag Endurahbrah
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Posted: Sep 1, 2021 at 8:29 Quote
This forum post has been a huge inspiration for helping me build my own rack. Here are the photos and a description.

I started with a donated 4 bike cheapo rack that hangs the bikes by the frame. (Thanks Cholo!) I did this to save time and money because I didn't have to build the receiver part or hinge mechanism. It still folds down to access the rear hatch of my van. And it came with some other parts I would end up using as well.

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I cut the top part off below the upper pivot, then I cut the horizontal arm to remove the pivot point, and welded those two together, giving me the vertical mast made of 2"x2" square tubing. I added some angle to beef up my amateur welds.

I built the top crossbar out of 2 pieces of 1 1/4" square tubing. I used 2 pieces because my buddy had a 4 foot long piece, and I bought a 6 foot long piece, we figured it would be stronger. Sandwiched those together and welded them to the top plate (the top plate is actually the reflector mount in the first pic).

I made the handlebar hooks from off-the-shelf heavy duty bike hooks from Wal-Mart. I cut some of the rubber coating off each hook so I could weld them to a piece of flat steel that is about 3"x4". After welding 4 assemblies I cut off the lag screw end.

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The next part took some time figuring out the angle, which happens to be 45 degrees, as well as the bike to bike spacing. Lot's of clamping and testing, etc. Then eventually welding all four hook assemblies to the top bar.

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The lower wheel support bar is some angle iron that I found in my basement. It was 2 identical pieces so we welded them together to form a "T". The angle iron already had all these holes and slots in it, which was nice for the wheel straps.

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After that, we hung some bikes and discovered that they swayed no matter how tight the stem strap was. That's where the middle horizontal bar comes in. It is a 1"x1" square tube welded right to the upright. The height was found by hanging a couple bikes and seeing where the handlebar grip fell. You'll also see the straps for the grips. Those came from the original rack. The ends of the 1x1 were taped with road bike handlebar tape to prevent gouging your shoulder when walking by the rack.

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Some last details. The top 6 foot square tubing was cut down in length by about 16 inches. Those cutoffs were used as braces between the upright and the top crossbar, all welded in. The eye bolts are for straps that can tie down to my rear tow hooks. These probably aren't necessary for short trips or smooth roads, but the bottom hinge of the original rack wasn't very thick steel. So we thought it would be nice to firm up the minimal rocking back and forth while driving.

The loading process is - hang the bike by the handlebars and strap it around the stem with some velcro straps (Thanks Bryan!). Bungee ball's are used for strapping the rear wheel. Then the handlebar get's wrapped with the thick velcro straps. The pic shows some paper towels wrapped around the grips. That was because the paint was still tacky and we were heading to KT for a big road trip! Lastly, to prevent the front wheels from spinning, I used elastic bands around the front brake levers.

Thanks to Chris and Rich who were a tremendous help with this build! Couldn't have done it without you guys and the equipment/supplies/music/beers at "The G"
Let me know if you have questions or comments!

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flag Stitebunny
Posted: Mar 13, 2022 at 10:14 Quote
What are you all using for benders? I don’t have one and would like to integrate some bends into the wheel holders as others here have done.
Will the cheap harbor freight floor mount pipe bender be suitable for this? Maybe 3/8 or 1/2 material.
flag Stitebunny
Posted: Apr 26, 2022 at 18:45 Quote
Stitebunny wrote:
What are you all using for benders? I don’t have one and would like to integrate some bends into the wheel holders as others here have done.
Will the cheap harbor freight floor mount pipe bender be suitable for this? Maybe 3/8 or 1/2 material.

The answer is yes.
My rack still under construction.
bigquotes
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Round bar is 1/2” and flat stock is 2” x 1/4”.
flag JVance
Posted: Apr 27, 2022 at 8:57 Quote
Stitebunny wrote:
My rack still under construction.

Good, 'cuz my forehead and shins are phantom-throbbing at the sight of that sharp-edged square plate Big Grin


The wheel hoops look good! Any pics of a wheel (or bike) mounted up?
flag Stitebunny
Posted: May 24, 2022 at 17:45 Quote
Ha! Yeah those items are on the list for further work.
Here is another picture with a bike.

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flag DIYsandvich
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Posted: Feb 27, 2023 at 9:42 Quote
Posting some photos of my current rack. I originally designed it to use hooks like the Lolo racks, but the bikes moved too much in the hooks and the bars got scratched up, so I changed the design to use baskets. Baskets are built from 1/8"x2"x2" angle since I had a bunch lying around. Works a lot better than the hooks, but needs a few modifications:
- The upper crossbar needs to be offset from the lower crossbar so that I can add a 4th basket
- The lower crossbar needs to be higher to account for the bikes sitting higher in the baskets than they sat on the hooks.
- Needs a more permanent strap solution than the bungee cords
- Might want to lower the overall height? I like the current height for off road clearance, but I have to take ferries a lot where I live and the bike rack makes my cars over height on the ferry.
- Need to completely redesign the upright. I made it round originally to work with an old receiver that I had lying around, but it has too much play and I can't swing the rack enough for me to open the back of the 4runner. Gonna build a custom receiver similar to what arvdawg has done, and will switch the upright to use square tube.
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flag mnguyen1224
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Posted: Oct 2, 2023 at 6:02 Quote
Planning my shuttle rack build right now. To keep things simple at the metal supplier I was thinking of building my whole rack out of 2x2 11 gauge thickness (3mm/0.12”). I could probably find a short off cut of 2x2 3/16” square tube for the hitch bar portion. Do you guys things 11ga is strong enough for the upright and cross bars with 4-5 bikes? Might just limit myself to 4 bikes for safety. But 5 bikes would be ideal.
flag shami
Posted: Oct 2, 2023 at 6:19 Quote
Yes, I think the 1/8" wall stuff is plenty strong enough. The pipe I used for mine had similar wall thickness and I've been beating on it for about 5 years now. I had one crack develop near a weld but that was more of an issue with my welding/ fabrication skills than the material. I think you would be fine with five bikes, you could always throw some gussets in key spots for extra insurance.

mnguyen1224 wrote:
Planning my shuttle rack build right now. To keep things simple at the metal supplier I was thinking of building my whole rack out of 2x2 11 gauge thickness (3mm/0.12”). I could probably find a short off cut of 2x2 3/16” square tube for the hitch bar portion. Do you guys things 11ga is strong enough for the upright and cross bars with 4-5 bikes? Might just limit myself to 4 bikes for safety. But 5 bikes would be ideal.

 


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