Cheap Thule 943 Spare Me 2 Bike Carrier Spare Tire Mounted Bicycle Rack (Sports) Price

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Customer Reviews of Thule 943 Spare Me 2 Bike Carrier Spare Tire Mounted Bicycle Rack

Not bad for medium duty
I've been researching racks for weeks, for my '03 Honda CRV EX, but didn't find anything solid on spare tire racks. Most people said that they couldn't trust it, but gave no real solid findings. I think these things are just too new in the market. I know the roof rack is the most secure, and the hitch rack prob holds the most bikes, but the spare tire model has it's obvious advantages, too. I had to make some sort of a compromise, and just bit the bullet, gambling on the solid brand reputations (Honda & Thule).

Anyway, so I got the rack the other day. Very simple to install - 15 min. Very compact- adds no rear length when folded, and you can quickly remove the bars to store it inside your trunk as well. It appears to hold the bikes well enough. One bad point - the outer bars are held to the inner plate by a single bolt. The bolt seems fairly strong, but this means that the bolt is a center of rotation- meaning, the bars can rotate a bit, esp since this bolt is hand tightened. I realize that this is actually a feature- to make the bars quickly removable (as aforementioned), and it's not as bad as I make it sound. It takes quite a bit of effort to rotate the bars when the bolt is tightened. And the amount of rotation that it can do is minimal. But I would not do prolonged rough driving with a bike attached. Asides from this, all seems well, and the quality is the usual Thule. The back plate seems very securely attached to the spare tire rack, the off centering appears to work well. Obviously, I haven't had much of a chance to use it much, but so far, I'm reasonablely satisfied.