The RambleRack Pivot

...it's burly.

After you’ve made the world’s safest and strongest bike rack, you then need to make it able to fold up for storage when running two or more bikes. Existing pivots tend to develop play in the pivoting mechanism. They’re designed to fold up as well as down with the idea that you could clear the hatch or tailgate of the vehicle with bikes on.

In our experience, the ability to fold up a rack when not carrying bikes is an important feature for many applications. However, folding down is something that we’ve rarely ever utilized. First and foremost, we typically are running a swing out like our UltraSwing, which is a much better experience than dropping bikes down. But even without the use of a swing out, there are reasons to consider why we chose to delete this feature. For one, bikes are heavy, and lifting them from the ground back up is awkward, even if you consider yourself competent at deadlifts. Second, the mechanism that allows the bikes to drop is typically where play in the rack develops, especially after prolonged use.

This play at the pivot can drastically increase the overall movement of the rack and bikes, giving you that scary view of your bikes on the end of a diving board when looking in your rearview mirror.The development of play and the awkwardness of lifting bikes from the ground has been our experience for decades, and this was with “normal” bikes. Now let’s insert the new era of e-bikes, and these issues just got worse ten-fold.

The RambleRack Pivot maintains maximum departure angle by terracing the trays and is designed to be expandable up to three bikes. We know you’re going to ask: Why not four bikes? The reason is that the RambleRack’s burliness becomes its own enemy to providing a good experience past three bikes. Creating the world’s strongest and safest bike rack meant it also couldn’t be the lightest. If you need to carry more than three bikes, this may not be the best solution for you. Consider purchasing a lighter duty four-bike rack, driving with more precaution, eliminating the use of a swing out, and maybe even purchasing bikes not quite so heavy.

So who is the RambleRack Pivot ideal for? If you want a ridiculously solid two (or three) bike rack built to withstand a lifetime of abuse no matter the weight of your bikes or how hard you drive on and off-road, then this is the two bike folding rack for you. 

Learn more about the RambleRack Pivot and other RambleRack mounting options here.