Do it yourself single-bike bicycle rack

I have found over the last few months, that I don't need a full bike rack all of the time. While it is nice to be able to haul four bikes down the road, I rarely actually do it. This is a picture of me and Daylia in front of my 4-bike Reese bike rack.

I like the Reese rack, because it has an easy locking system, bolts into place to reduce vibrating and shaking, has a sturdy structure, clamps the bikes down tightly, and allows me to tow a trailer even with 4 bikes in place. However, it does not allow my rear hatch to swing open even if there is not a bike in place, without pulling out a pin and swinging it down and out of the way. My wife is now pregnant with our 3rd child, so the task of moving it out of the way has become a cumbersome.

Also, I have found that my rack has clotheslines a number of people as they walk around the rear of my vehicle. It is just not what you are prepared for when rounding the back of a car. (Although it is good for a few laughs)

I worked for a while on my new rack, which holds 1 bike and does not interfere with the rear hatch. I took the idea from my friend Mark Pittman who made a similar looking rack for his Suzuki.

As you can see if you look at the pics, the design is very simple. I did need to angle the fork mounts slightly to allow room for the handlebars at the rear window. Aligning them exactly perpendicular to the crosspiece left my handlebars bumping into the glass as I went along.

I was able to build the entire rack with parts off of an old roof rack I had laying around, and about 4 bucks in nuts and bolts to hold it together. But if you were to start from scratch I think you could build a similar rack for around $35. And I still am able to pull a trailer at the same time!

Check out the pics and ask any questions you might have. I would love to answer them!