1up USA Bike Rack Review

There exists a bike rack out there with a cult-like following. We took a look at the user reviews on Mtbr and it exhibited a staggering 4.8/5 stars with 96 reviews.

We looked at their site and were not that impressed as the photos don’t do it any justice. But we’ve used a couple of these racks now in the last month and we’re ready to join the army of fans.

The rack is a design and construction marvel as it will impress you with its layout and versatility. When you get beyond that, the materials and construction will wow you like a CNC’d bike component. It’s like those Zero Gravity brakes back in the day.

Furthermore, it plays on both ends of the spectrum. It can be the smallest, incognito rack available. Or it can be a massive four bike carrier ready for biggest road trip you can outline on Google Maps. In both configurations, it uses all the same trays. It’s a modular system so you just add trays on to the base carrier.

For our road trip from San Jose, CA to Bend, Oregon, we recruited one of these four-bike behemoths and were surprised to see our friend deliver the rack to us inside his Toyota Prius. “What,” I asked?? Did he forget to bring all the trays? It turns out the rack collapses into a very compact unit in a transformation that would make any Transformers fan happy. Bend your knees when you lift it though as this configuration weighs close to 100 lbs. It is all aluminum but with beefy trays to handle such a load.

For a bike rack, a hitch mount unit is the best solution. It is out of harm’s way from low garage roofs and overhangs. It is much more quiet than a roof rack since it doesn’t whistle or roar with the wind. And most important, it doesn’t degrade your fuel mileage. A roof rack will degrade your gas mileage by about 1-2 mpg when empty and a staggering 4-5 mph when bikes are mounted. These numbers get worse too if you drive over 70 mph. Over the life of the car, that is just a lot of money wasted on gas.

We wish all autos came with hitch mounts as it is the perfect bike carrying solution. But alas, it is always assumed that you want to tow something big when you want a vehicle with a hitch so very few cars offer it as an option from the factory. But it is not difficult to get a hitch installed in your car from outfits like U-Haul or Etrailer.com

What you want from a hitch rack is that it’s out of the way when you don’t need it but versatile when you do. You want to be able to load the bike easily and remove the bikes without much drama. And when you’re driving, you don’t want to be bothered by the rack. It should be quiet, secure and wobble free with the bikes not damaging each other.

So this is where the 1upUsa shines. Mounting the bike cannot be easier as you open the tray arms, load the bike and close the tray arms. It really is that simple. Small bike, big bike, road bike, fat bike, 29er, etc. When unloading the bike, you have to lift up a lever then you can open up the arms. This is done one at the time and the pro move is just to open one arm and roll the bike out. To open the second arm requires three hands as the bike will be unsupported and will want to fall sideways unless you support it.

The bike can be mounted on the center of the rack or it can be moved almost a foot back or forward as the arms will lock it in its final position. This movement is key as it allows you mount two bikes on adjacent racks with minimal contact. There’s always interference between handlebars, seats or pedals so flexibility in positioning the bikes is key. With this flexibility, 1upusa was able to place the trays very close to each other. This means the bikes take less room and there is less weight away from the car that can produce leverage stress on the rack.