Exactly one year ago, I was in Seattle getting to know 14 other people for the first time, and was preparing to lead them in the following 2 months on the road as we biked coast-to-coast, ocean-to-ocean, from sea to shining sea (get the picture?), to the Big Apple!!
Today, a new team is meeting for the first time as they tackle 3400+ miles and raise money to feed Burmese refugees and provide education/discipleship for children in Banpong, Thailand at the Hosea Community Center. It’s surreal the first time around, and sometimes it doesn’t hit you for several days that you’re actually biking across America!
You can follow the team on social media by searching #AcrossAmericaTour on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram! Or check out this cool site that does it for you: tagboard.com/acrossamericatour
If you’re interested in cool adventure trips like this that benefit people in need, let me know! Venture Expeditions (the non-profit behind these tours) is dear to my heart and they have many different opportunities for everyone!
A bike rack system for your car is a must if you enjoy traveling with your bike, take your bike to the local shop often, or do group rides every week that are a little too far to just ride to. Over the years I’ve used several different trunk racks on my Hyundai Sonata. First was the cheapo “Allen Sports” brand of racks. I quickly upgraded to the Saris Bones 2-bike rack, which is probably the best-selling trunk rack out there. Eventually I moved on up to the Saris Bones 3-bike rack, just because I found a great deal on Craigslist and appreciated the versatility of being able to bring one more friend to ride with.
These racks are great for road bikes (especially classic steel frames), as they carry the bike by the top tube of the frame. Once I got my Roubaix (carbon fiber frame) though, I would always wrap that in small pieces of foam insulation around all the contact points so that no paint could get damaged. This added a couple minutes of loading and unloading time, but was nothing unbearable.
But once I got my mountain bike, the game changed. First, the top tube of its frame is sloped, creating a small main triangle of the frame. This made it difficult to fit the arms of the Saris rack through the frame, and even when I did get it through, the bike would be resting at a crazy angle with the rear wheel up in the air. After 2-3 trips across town like this, enough was enough, and I was set on getting a platform-style hitch rack (and a receiver hitch installed).
There are several advantages of platform-style hitch racks:
Ease of use: each bike takes ~15 seconds max to load.
No frame contact: bikes are secured by the wheels. Also means frame shape doesn’t matter!
Access to trunk, even with bikes loaded.
Much harder to steal the rack off the car, especially if it’s properly locked.
Can protect your car (to a limit) if you get rear-ended!
Sturdy.
Some have a 2-bike add-on to increase capacity to 4 bikes.
There are also a few general disadvantages of these racks:
Requires a hitch receiver. Many SUVs and trucks come with them, but small cars typically don’t. Adds $100-200 to total cost if you don’t have one.
A 2-bike rack weighs 45-50 lbs on average. Not easy to take off/on often.
Expensive. Average is about $450 for a 2-bike version.
Add-ons to carry 4 total bikes is another $400+ typically, and another 50 lbs. Only works on 2″ receivers.
Adds 12″-16″ to the length of your car when folded up. Be mindful when parallel parking or reversing.
While I listed almost as many disadvantages as advantages, the pros of the platform style easily outweigh the cons. Price is the most common barrier for people, and that’s totally understandable.
So let’s start talking specifically about the Kuat Sherpa!
The Facts:
The Sherpa is $449 (MSRP). It weighs a scant 29 lbs, and in the world of platform hitch racks (remember, they average 45-50 lbs), that is truly lightweight! It carries up to two bikes, with no option for add-ons. The rack uses a 1.25″ hitch, with a 2″ adapter pre-installed. Assembly is required out of the box (all required tools included except Philips head screwdriver), and that takes roughly 30-45 minutes. It comes with a locking hitch pin and cable lock.
Ok, I could go into great, wordy detail about how the rack functions, but there are already many great reviews and videos out there that do that. I mainly want to give you my personal experiences, both good and bad. I’ll throw in some pictures of it in action as well. I think this is how I want to do my reviews!
I’ve had the Sherpa for roughly 3 months now and leave it on my car all the time. I stashed it in my trunk one time when I went downtown, knowing I’d might have to parallel park. While yes it is light for a hitch rack, it’s still not as easy to store as say the Saris Bones. The ease of storage in your car trunk will depend on the shape of the trunk’s opening and how much junk you have in there. I’ll only take it off if truly necessary now.
My MTB has seen the most usage on the rack, but I’ve carried both the MTB and a road bike together on a road trip between Houston-Austin with no problems. The rack will shake and rock a little, but that’s really expected of any 1.25″ rack. Nothing to worry about.
The included cable lock has two looped ends. Their intention was for you to loop it through the frame(s) and thread itself through one of the loops, then connect the open loop to the hitch pin lock. THIS SUCKS! First, the cable isn’t long enough to handle the frames AND wheels. Second, it’s a pain the butt to reach/crawl underneath the rack to access the hitch pin lock. My solution? Keep my U-lock in the trunk, loop the cable through the bikes and U-lock, and lock the U-lock around the rack itself.
While the durability of the platform is not doubted, I have an issue with the ratchet arms that secure the front wheels, specifically the soft rubber. The ratchet arms are to sit on top of the front wheel, next to the front fork. My issue is that the disc brake hose guide rubs the rubber when the car is moving and the bike is ultimately shaking a bit on bumps/rough roads. In about 1.5 months, the rubber wore all the way through. Here’s a couple pictures of the issue:
This happens even though I’ve tightened down the ratchet as tight as I could. What I did notice today while playing around with it is that if the front tire pressure is too low, the bike can rock back and forth more because the tire is really squishy. Next time I will try two things: Increased air pressure (I run tubeless, so I’m usually low) for travel, and keep the arm a little more forward.
Through this issue, I had a chance to deal with their warranty service. To put it briefly: Service was excellent and fast! I just called them and explained the problem, and they had a new arm shipped to the store within a couple business days. Honestly though, I will just hold on to that for now and wrap an old tube around the worn section on my current arm.
My last issue with the rack is that it doesn’t sit level. It’s most noticeable with stored in the up position. I found someone on YouTube that had the same issue. He was told to loosen/remove several bolts and reinstall–apparently it worked for him. I tried the same thing to no avail, and could see where the problem lies (but too hard for me to explain with here) when I took it apart. When talking to the service rep, he said that’s what they would have recommended me to do as well, since I didn’t want to pay to have it shipped to them for inspection.
It doesn’t affect its function or clearances at all, but details like that tend to bug me. For a $450 bike/car accessory, I would expect perfect alignment!
It leans to the left. You can see it’s not parallel with the horizontal plane of the car.
I considered two other racks, the 1up USA Quik Rack and the Yakima Hold Up, cost beat out 1upUSA (they are an independent dealer, thus I get no employee pricing) and weight beat out the Yakima (50 pounder)! Both are solid racks though and should be considered, as well as Kuat’s premier rack, the NV.
Now here are a bunch of pictures of it in action that I was originally going to include throughout the review before I realized how boringly long this could get:
Anodized orange lever allows you to change positions of the rack. Horizontal black lever behind it tightens the rack in the receiver. Lastly you can see the hitch pin lock, with a cover over the keyhole.Front wheel ratcheting clamp.Pivoting rear wheel strap.Bikes loaded, side view.Bikes loaded, rack tilted for trunk access.My MTB’s brake lever touches the seat, but they’re wide levers and that just happens to be my seatpost height. No signs of wear, but I haven’t driven this combo much.Wider pedals may have bumper clearance issues, especially platform pedals. Most likely varies car-to-car though.
At the front and ready to race, but first…let me take a selfie!
Last month I entered my very first bike race, which is kinda crazy because I just bought my first mountain bike (Trek Stache 8) 2 months prior to the race!
While I’ve ridden road bikes for 4 years now, I’ve never had an honest desire to do any sort of road racing. Don’t get me wrong, I love road racing–but as a spectator. But what keeps me from doing it is that it’s intimidating. Weak, I know, but there are still some seriously strong riders in the lowest category, “Cat 5”. But it’s not just the speed factor I fear, but it’s the personality of the sport–it has an elitist aura about it. That is just my humble opinion, and I know not every road racer is a stuck up elitist jerk (some of our racers are goofy and friendly as hell, yet punishing on the bike). Also, the fear of catching someone’s back wheel doesn’t help either. Cat 5 is full of beginners, and plenty of those beginners aren’t the best at holding their lines. At high speeds, I’ll pass on the road rash!
But anyway, back to mountain biking!
What drew me to want to enter a MTB race was the appealing culture and the fact that I know would have fun riding the trails no matter where I place. The atmosphere is laid back and is like a festival. Everyone wants to have fun riding (and riding fast for some). I’m typically not good at meeting and chatting up strangers, but I befriended the guy who placed after me and his family. They offered me beer, Gatorade, and his momma even whipped me up a potato salad sandwich as we watched other racers ride through the giant sand pit at the end!
The race took place at Double Lake Recreation Area (Coldspring, TX), which is on the edge of Sam Houston National Forest, and next to Lake Livingston. It’s a solid 1.5-hour drive from where I live. I was fortunate to have the chance to pre-ride the race course with my buddy Brian a couple weeks before the race. Double Lake is known to be a fast course, with its lack of technical features. It’s where roadies go to be mountain bikers (hey that’s me!). The trails are flowy and pretty smooth for the most part. The park is heavily shaded by piney trees. It was a warm day, but thankfully it wasn’t true Texas summer yet.
Brian shreddin’ the trails!
I raced in the “Cat 3” group, which is the category beginners start in. Cat 3 racers only had to ride one loop totaling about 11.5 miles, whereas the Pro/1/2 cats raced two loops. There are multiple race starts within each Cat based on age group. The 19-29 group had about 30 riders that raced. Because I was one of the first people to register online, I got to start at the front of the group! Below you can see a sweet shot my friend Nathan (whom I met at the Cypress trails) caught of me leading the opening driveway sprint before entering the woods!
I didn’t stay in first long. I was 3rd entering the woods and held that spot for the first couple miles. Race pace was intense and definitely something my body wasn’t used to. I was sucking air a mile in, and the dust getting kicked up in the air wasn’t helping! Finally after 3 miles, there’s an open jeep road where I had planned to hydrate, but it was bumpier than I thought! I lost time as 2-3 guys passed me up while I held the bottle against the handlebar. Half a mile later was a longer, smoother jeep road. It was a quarter-mile long “climb”, I knew not to gas myself too much on this segment.
Professional photographer friends rejoice…I paid for this photo!I even got a ribbon and a shoutout for Venture Expeditions!
Probably the weakest part of my riding is my handling in corners. At mile 7.5 and 8.5 of my pre-ride, I had slid out on the piles of pine leaves or sand. That sat in the back of my mind the entire time, but I’d rather lose time on the corners than lose time recovering from a crash!
At times there was no one visibly ahead or behind me. I let up in those moments and probably lost 1-2 spots because of it. I now know that mental aspect of racing, that I gotta keep pushing. Eventually one guy passed me up wearing a plain t-shirt and checkered canvas slip on shoes–I was thinking to myself “oh jeez this guy is going to beat me lol”. And he did.
Throughout the course I could’ve legitimately wrecked 2-3 times, but miraculously recovered each time. In the end, I came in 8th place in the Cat 3, 19-29 group! I was really happy with the top 10 placing, which was one of my goals heading in.
I definitely intend to enter more mountain bike races in the future! For the summer, Texas MTB races are on hold because of the heat, and they resume in the fall.
At the end of June I’m hoping to travel somewhere in Texas with my good buddy Eric, who just picked up a sweet Kona Explosif! Look out for another Rad Ride Report then!
// kuotient 