Thule EasyFold XT 2 Hitch Bike Rack

Based on online reviews, I did not think that this rack would be sturdy enough, so I bought a Kuat NV 2.0 — a gorgeous, tough rack, but a total beast to manage. If I wanted to leave a rack on the car or truck however, this is the one I would get. But after I wrestled it on and off the car a couple of times, I sent it back. Too damned heavy.

Start with what sort of eBike rider you are. If you are young, strong, and race up hills, heavy racks are fine. But if you are old, strong, and race up hills — or old and like flat roads — having a lighter rack that is easy to manage counts for a lot.

My local eBike shop assured me that they had seen great results with the EasyFold, so after I sent the Kuat back, I bought one. And it immediately made me nervous. Lots of plastic on this thing. Long wheelbase bikes don’t fit well. The clamping system seems kinda hinky. I thought the ramp was a joke — although some people really like it.

But getting it on and off the car is a breeze. It folds up, wheels away, and stows easily. I even found the cover for it. We have tested it with two expensive eBikes a few times now — and it’s been rock solid.

Check YouTube to see how these racks work. I learned a few things:

1. I pay a LOT of attention to clamping the hitch tightly into the receiver. I move the rack every which way and get the hitch very, very tight before locking it down.

2. I don’t use the ramp. I just toss the bikes up. You can do one wheel at a time if you need to. YMMV — some people like the ramp. Looks fussy to me.

3. The clamps work fine on our bikes because we have round, normal seat tubes. But the clamps take some practice. You want to get them on straight, no weird angles. Tighten them until the torque clutch slips. I am not sure that these clamps will work with every pair of bikes, but they do a decent job with ours. And the clamps lock, which is nice (I would trust these locks for few minutes in a store. Much longer, add a proper lock or a serious cable). Update: my bike was stolen (not off the rack) and my replacement bike is MUCH harder to secure. If your bike doesn’t have normal, vertical seat tubes or a seat post within reach of the clamps, this rack doesn’t work well. Dropped to four stars.

4. Strapping and clamping the wheels is easy and important. Again, I am not sure that a real long wheelbase will be happy on this rack, but up to 1200cm or so works fine.

5. Most of the miles we have with this rack are on-road or good dirt roads. I would hesitate to take it on really rutted roads — but then I hesitated to buy it in the first place and it has been fine.

6. Some cars, including ours, freak out when there is a hitch rack on the vehicle. All of the backup collision sensors go nuts and sometimes you cannot turn them off very easily. Nice thing about this rack is that you can fold it up, pop it off, and store it in the car in about a minute.

7. E-bike batteries are heavy, but removable. Taking them out and carrying them in the cuts the weight on the rack a lot.

So far (six months in) I am happy with the rack. Maybe a bit more city than country — it’s made for smooth roads and small garages. But if that is what you need and the price does not scare you off, it’s a very clever, decent rack worthy of the Thule badge.

No me gusto q venia con una rueda rota

I researched for a bike rack that is easily removable, but lockable, durable, can carry two large, fat-tire e-bikes, and one that wouldn’t break the bank. I found everything but that last feature.

The wife and I have e-bikes with 4″ tires and weigh around 59-60 lbs. There are lighter weight bikes out there but we’ve already spent the money – and these bikes “fold” or they used to. Hang out in Florida too much and that ability to fold easily goes away… something, something, salt-water.

Anyway, this rack is great. Using the “not-included” larger straps, it holds the bikes really well. The locking mechanism should be frustrating for any would-be thief (which is bad because if my bikes were stolen, it’d give me an excuse to buy new ones, but alas…)

Is it worth the money? Yeah, really it is because look – it takes 2 minutes to pull this off the hitch and tuck it away somewhere. It weighs all of 45 lbs. by itself, so carrying it around is super easy (although, the wife says she still can’t lift it – odd, she was a SCUBA instructor and lugged around air tanks, now she’s with me and they’re too heavy to lift, go figure). Anyway, “most” people can lift and move around 45 lbs. pretty easy, so… for the money, I think it’s great.

Solid bike rack. Easy to install and take off. I really like that you can lock everything including bikes so easily. There were some reviews that stated the arm was too short. I think they did not realized you can move it around. It will fit. Trust me.

The Thule Easy Fold bike rack can be installed by one person easily and quickly. Also, I like the fact that I can install without having to kneel down; definitely a feature I now consider a necessity, for the sake of my aging knees.

When loading heavier E-bikes (pictured), the ramp is a definite asset, and I will continue to use. Unloading, I found it equally easy without the ramp.

The only thing that will take some practice is the placement of the bikes with the clamp arms and with the other bike; everything else is intuitive. For the first attempt at securing the bikes, I do recommend having two people, one to hold the bike and the second to install the clamp arm. Also recommend taking a picture after the first loading, so you can see how you have each clamp arm is positioned. I did use the photo (pictured) to perform the second loading, and it was useful, and helped me avoid any trial-and-error.
The clamp arms that holds onto the bicycle frame are widely adjustable to accommodate other bikes, but the placement will vary for different bikes or bike combinations, so take a new picture of each new bike or combination of bikes to help recall clamp arm placement.
After securing the clamp arms, use the the wheel straps (one per wheel) to finish securing the bikes. Loading is easy, and faster than rack I had been using.

Instructions show the rack can be tilted away from the vehicle, with the bicycles in place, to access the rear tailgate. That said, I have tried this with lighter conventional bikes, but not with with heavier E-bikes loaded. Nice to know that rack can handle it, but I do not like with idea of tilting over 100 pounds combined E-bikes weight, so I will likely not use this feature when the E-bikes are loaded on the carrier. I regularly use the tilt feature, but only once I have unloaded the E-bikes, to access my other gear in the cargo compartment of the car.

The rack does fold, but it will always be in view of the cars backup sensors when reversing the vehicle. You will need to learn to turn off the vehicles backup alarms when rack is attached. For my wifes newer vehicle, we needed to know how to turn off backup alarm, as well as disabling automatic safety braking (separate functions). This was also true bike rack I had used up to now.

When removed from the vehicle and folded, the rack is easy to move. Completely folded, it is about the size of a medium size suitcase, it has wheels and it can be rolled. Like luggage, rolls nice on hard surfaces, but not on grass or gravel. I like the fact that when folded, there are no protruding pieces to smack me or catch or doorways when putting into storage. I don not have a garage, so it is being moved down a tight basement staircase without issue.

Prior to purchasing this rack, I had used a hanging-style bike rack, with bike cross-bar adapters for the E-bikes. It worked, but it was unwieldy with the additional weight of the E-bikes, it definitely needed 2 people minimum to load the E-bikes. Even with 2 people, it was difficult and unpleasant to load the E-bikes.
With the ease of use with this new rack, I now consider this a must-have bike accessory for anyone considering the move to an E-bike. Of course, you would not need this if you only use your E-bike to commute around your own town or city. Bit you will miss the opportunity to tour other cities or towns on your E-bike.