Thule Insta-Gater
Many of us drive trucks for biking, after all they are about the best vehicle for someone that lives an active lifestyle. Even with the convenience of being able to toss the bike in the back of the truck, sometimes you want an organized way of carrying bikes. I always found myself wanting some type of track to put down in the bed of my truck to carry bikes for trips with my riding buddies. With a rack to hold the bikes upright, I could then store more cargo in the bed of the truck. For several years I did the motocross thing with tie downs and it has always worked well. I toyed with building racks that hold the front wheel and those work good but take up more bed space than I really wanted to give up. Here is where Sportworks came to the rescue.
Not a new product, actually introduced at the 2003 Interbike show, the sportworks Insta-Gater was an adaptation of their every popular tire hook racks to truck beds. This year I finally got me a pair of these racks to try out. The rack is ingenious, simple, and easy to install... True KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) engineering!
How does it work? Each rack has two ratcheting plastic straps that a larger cylindrical piece molded into the end of each strap. With the tailgate of your truck open, the straps go down between the tailgate and the bed of the truck. Close the tailgate then use the ratchets to tighten the rack down. That's it, the rack is installed! Take you bike put it between the metal uprights, lift the hook up over the tire, pull down the hook, and off you go to ride. It only takes a few second to install the racks. On a full size truck such as my Dodge 2500, three racks can be installed on the rear tailgate. Compact trucks can fit two racks. The racks are very lightweight and super easy to transport. Since they are so quick to install and move around, you can quickly remove them from your truck and install in someone else's truck if it's their time to fly.
What can I say about these racks? I have fallen in love with them - I can't believe how great they are for carrying all my bikes and my friend's bikes.
They say that photos are worth a 1000 words, then a video would be worth millions. Watch the short video below on how easy it is to install the rack and
load/unload a bike from the rack.
Click here to download the video Video is MP4 format which can be played with Quicktime
For product info on Thule website Click Here
Posted by Brady on September 24, 2006 05:55 PM
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