Thule EasyFold XT

(My Requirements) I purchased the Thule EasyFold XT 2 Hitch Bike Rack after doing a lot of homework on an easy-to-install, easy-to-use bike rack for our 2 bikes. A Trek FX3 road bike and an Electra Townie 7D Step-Thru bike. Two totally different types of bike frames, weight and design. I also wanted an easy rack to pull out of the box and install on either of our SUV’s hitches, a 2” and a 1.25-inch hitch. Storage was also a prime requirement as our garages already had so many items to store in an organized fashion; I didn’t need something that did not store easily. And the most important requirement was the ease of loading, unloading, and protecting our bikes, without lifting, numerous bungee cords, protective padding, etc. And a rack that would be useful as our bike styles change. I read all of the reviews, watched many videos, and decided to give it a go. Why not? It had a 30-day return policy. (Delivery and Install Day!) The product arrived on time, and the box was in perfect condition. It was time to dive right in, open the box, and pull the product right out of the box. I found it fully assembled as promised by the videos and reviews. Removed some packing materials and the product was ready to use. How easy is that? I rolled it over to my SUV, pulled down the receiver arm (stinger), picked it up (only 45 pounds), and it slid right into my hitch receiver. Turned the nob to tighten the hitch and the receiver arm. I used the key to lock the knob and was on to the next step. Folded down the platforms, and it was ready to mount the bikes. OK, so it's time to mount and adjust the bike secure arms. This took a few minutes since it was new to me, and both bikes differed in frame design. Instructions tell me to install the heaviest bike closest to the vehicle first. So, I used the included ramps to load the Towne first. Wow, was that easy! Just rolled it up! I strapped down the wheels with the built-in straps with a ratchet feature and found the best location for the stabilizer arm to attach to the bike and the rack. Tighten it down, locked the knob, and got ready for the next bike. For the FX3, I just picked up, strapped it down, and found the best mounting place for the stabilizer arm. And I was ready to go. No more straps, bungees, pads, etc. I’m ready to go. All was secure and locked, and we were on our way! (Driving with it attached and loaded) We have had a few very good and well-made hitch-mounted bike racks. However, the strapping down, bungee the wheels, protecting the bikes from hitting each other in transit, the locking with a cable lock, and the noticeable bouncing and swaying became annoying. I even built an antisway bar to keep our bikes from hitting each other. And for the Townie, I required a top tube adapter sometimes called a crossbar substitute. This took way more time and frustration to secure everything than with our new Thule EasyFold XT 2 Hitch Bike Rack. Biking is supposed to be fun, right? Unloading was just a reverse of loading; we folded up the platform. We are ready to ride!! We have taken the bike rack off and stored it in the back of the SUV, but for many of the places we go, we just leave it on, fold it up, and back our vehicle into our parking space so the rack does not hang out into the riding or driving areas. Now for the take-it-off and store. Well, reverse of install, roll it into the garage and let me tell you the footprint of this product is smaller than my snow blower or lawn mower. Don’t even know it’s there. (Overall recommendation) If you’re looking for an easy-to-assemble, easy-to-install, easy-to-use, easy-to-store, which I was, I give this product a thumbs up!!! It was well worth the price paid. Now, as our bikes change our lifestyle, we can add mountain bikes and e-bikes without a problem. We even take our little kids' bikes just to take them someplace. Enjoy and Bike-On!

Very sturdy, easy to put on hitch, easy to load ebike for a 65 year old woman. Plus, the bonus is after you take off the rake, you can roll it into the garage. It is also theft proof, great for travelling.

I just bought a condo that has a super short parking space. A bike rack on the back would cause my RAV4 to stick out too far. So, I needed a rack that could be put on and taken off easily AND not use too much storage. The Thule EasyFold XT 2 is the perfect solution that meets all of my needs. There is nothing to assemble. It goes on easy and comes off easy. I had no problems with the locking pin. The ramp works well for my Trek Lift and I anticipate that it will work with just about any bike. It is heavy, but it folds to the size of a carry on and has wheels too! Love it.

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.

Great product! EZ to install and use. Storage is a snap due to the small size when folded up. Although slightly on the heavy side, the wheels make it EZ to move, with the conveniences of a built-in handle to pick unit up. Pricy, but we'll worth it! Used ours for 2 years now without any problems!

Expensive, but seemingly worth it. This is the best rack my wife and I have seen and it ends up working just as advertised. Here are some comments and suggestions for potential buyers in response to other reviews and from my own observations and experience: 1. Definitely watch the video review of this rack at [...] It is very helpful given the scant documentation and problems others have mentioned with the graying out of the installation diagrams. 2. The rack ships with the 2-inch adaptor installed. As noted by others, the hexhead screws holding this to the end of the stinger are extremely tight. They can, however, be removed with the included hex wrench. Just make sure the short end of the wrench is fully inserted into the screw heads before turning in order to avoid stripping the screws. Perhaps you should tap the wrench with a hammer before applying twisting torque to make sure the wrench is fully inserted. 3. Do not attempt to adjust the remaining screw with the colored thread in the 1.25" stinger. 4. Removing the second cushioned clamp is a good idea if you are carrying only one bike. Leaving it on the rack might create a potential for the second clamp to vibrate during transport and thus damage the finish of the single bike being carried if it is not carefully positioned and held away from the single bike being carried. The video review shows exactly how to remove the second longer clamp if you watch closely. What the video doesn't say or even imply is that there is NO WAY to remove the second clamp before you actually mount this bike rack on your car. I'm not sure why that is so, but it is. Thus, don't worry at all the way I did, thinking the rack was defective, when I struggled with all my might for an hour or more trying to get that second longer clamp to detach from the rack. Once the bike rack was mounted on the car, the second longer clamp released with little effort, as if by magic. 5. As others have mentioned the anti-rattle pin seems kind of useless, at least when used without the 2-inch adaptor. The pin just fits into a recess in the 1.25-inch shaft. It does not go into the hollow middle of that shaft, much less all the way through the shaft and out the hole on the other side. The pin thus doesn't seem to provide much protection against the rack falling out of the receiver shaft and thus falling to the road. The real tightening is done by tightening that anti-rattle knob as tight as you can with your hand. Tightening that knob expands the 1.25-inch shaft, making a very tight wedged fit between the rack's shaft and the receiver shaft. Tightening that knob also tightens the anti-rattle pin in the recess into which it fits, making it impossible to move the anti-rattle pin out of that recess. Thus, perhaps the "useless" anti-rattle pin really does prevent rattles and provide additional structural integrity this way, who knows? 6. The ramp works as adverstised and certainly does not tend to collapse under the weight of a fairly heavy Sun bike (not electric). I seriously doubt whether the extra weight of an electric bike would tend to collapse this ramp. While made of aluminum and not steel, It is quite thick and seems very sturdy. 7. The extra strap which came attached to the second longer clamp can be used to lock together the two sections of the platform when no bikes are being carried and the two platform sections are stored vertically. While pressing the plastic release hinges is necessary to get the two sections to lay horizontal, without strapping the two sections together, they will tend to come apart a few inches and thus not be vertical. Some rattling might occur this way. Strapping them together with the extra nylon locking strap will prevent this. 8. Thule should provide some sort of storage bag for keeping together the second longer clamp, the ramp, the 2-inch adapter, and the hex wrench. This bag of goodies could then be kept with or near the rack or in the car to allow the owner to stay prepared to carry one or two bikes or to use the rack on a different vehicle.

This is supposed to be Thule’s best platform rack, marketed as their flagship model... capable of supporting eBikes and other heavier than normal rides. Well, after watching several YouTube videos on the 2017 and updated 2018 model, I purchased this newer version for our two new Electra Townie Go! eBikes. As soon as the product was dropped off by UPS I proceeded to unbox the $750 bike rack (note, amazon would not allow me to post my shipping issue... however it is fair for consumers to understand this item was in extremely poor factory packaging which utilized substandard cardboard and box materials). First impression of the rack leaves me to estimate the manufacturing cost to be around $120... the product is mostly low quality plastic with an aluminum skeleton and it definitely does not belong in the “high end” category of the bike rack market place. The platform wing style folding design does nothing to reduce the footprint length and is really a novelty. The "wings" are held in the upright position by means of friction at the base; note there is no button or lock mechanism to release the platform while in the up position on this new model (just pull apart or push together to overcome a weak fiction hold). Same issue is prevalent when the platform is down as there is nothing to secure it in a "down and locked" position enabling bouncing to occur even with the bike weight on the rack. The tire groves are shallow (almost non existent), and extend the length of the rack (no real dip or tray). The vertical U bar is a good idea and out of the way during the loading process, however it is too short to reach the top tube on step-over full size bikes. Therefore, you are strapping the bike to a down tube or a lower curved top tube on a step-thru, moving the holding force to a low center of gravity and thus is less stable than desired during travel on bumpy roads. When compared to other manufactures various racks, I would set the value of this unit in the $450 - $500 range vs the current $750 price point. Thanks to Amazon for ensuring product satisfaction and having a fantastic and simple return policy... strongly suggest you never order a product from any vendor that isn’t identified as "fulfilled by Amazon" (otherwise you may be subject to various return policies resulting in restocking and/or additional shipping fees).

I admit I purchased this bike rack with no intention of testing it out and getting another if I didn't like it. I just wanted to invest something that I knew would be rock solid performance-wise, easy to use, and built to last. I do not have other bike racks to compare this to, but in the several months I have had this rack, it has been all of the above. Off the top of my head, it only has 6 major movements to mount this the back back of my truck, and mounting bikes seems self explanatory. I do not even own a e-bike yet, so I cannot comment as to how effective this rack would be, but for a mountain bike and a hybrid, this rack has served me well on bumpy roads, keeping my bicycles secured between Los Angeles to Lake Tahoe. I like that the hitch has a built in lock, as well as 2 fastening arms with locking clamps. I have only left the bikes on my truck while en route to places, but it is easy enough to remove and store indoors when I get to where I'm going. I highly recommend this rack in its simplicity, performance and design. I plan to use this for long many more trips / vehicles to come, and eventually for an e-bike or two. Thank you for reading.