1UP-USA Racks - I'm a fan

[Doggyman1202]

Being able to attach and remove the stand-alone base rack and add-on as separate components were what enticed me to pull the trigger on the single SD.

I suspect 1Up received plenty of feedback with regards to the awkward manner in which owners must go through when holding and balancing bikes while offloading hence the improved one-handed design feature which likely answered that call. RockyMount uses a similar system as well as Kuat with its Piston Pro and I think that this is an area that QuikrStuff could also improve upon. When it comes to removing a bike, I usually disengage the front wheel ratchet first and extend the arm out as far as possible. The back arm will continue to hold the bike in place while I disengage the rear ratchet. Once it’s released, I simply roll the bike slightly forward and lift it off the tray.

As to your first point, I regret not following that line of thinking, but it just didn't register in my head. How big a hassle is it to add or remove the 2nd tray? I wonder if it's feasible with the double.

I installed the EZ Pull handle over the weekend. I thought the added leverage would make the stubborn black bar more manageable. Wrong. In fact, it totally jammed up. I finally added some dry lube and that seemed to do the trick, at least for now. The other negative aspect of the EZ Pull is that it's not compatible with the license plate holder, at least as far as I can tell. So...I'll have to decide which accessory is the keeper.

To mitigate my negativity, I was thrilled how effortlessly and quickly I was able to load each of my bikes. I didn't time it, but maybe 15-20 seconds per bike. They also felt pretty secure (hopefully those aren't famous last words for my bikes).

 

[mfgrep]

As to your first point, I regret not following that line of thinking, but it just didn't register in my head. How big a hassle is it to add or remove the 2nd tray? I wonder if it's feasible with the double.

I installed the EZ Pull handle over the weekend. I thought the added leverage would make the stubborn black bar more manageable. Wrong. In fact, it totally jammed up. I finally added some dry lube and that seemed to do the trick, at least for now. The other negative aspect of the EZ Pull is that it's not compatible with the license plate holder, at least as far as I can tell. So...I'll have to decide which accessory is the keeper.

To mitigate my negativity, I was thrilled how effortlessly and quickly I was able to load each of my bikes. I didn't time it, but maybe 15-20 seconds per bike. They also felt pretty secure (hopefully those aren't famous last words for my bikes).

The stubborn black bar might be my only gripe about my Super Duty Single. Luckily I have no need to 'tilt' my bike when mounted on the rack, however, the stubborn black bar is still necessary for routine tasks such as installing and uninstalling. Obviously you have found that one must pull that black bar from the center....as attempting to pull from either side merely torques the bar rendering it immovable. I have been thinking about placing a drop of Teflon at the contact points in hopes that it will reduce the amount of effort required but have yet to give it a try.

As a single tray rack user....the "Easy Pull" is not something helpful to me....and frankly I don't like the idea that I need to purchase an 'add-on' to ensure that I can reasonably retract the stubborn black bar.

As I said though...this is my only gripe...and a surmountable one at that. My SD single is otherwise a beast and I've never before had more confidence when on the road with a bike.

 

[Taylor57]

The stubborn black bar might be my only gripe about my Super Duty Single. Luckily I have no need to 'tilt' my bike when mounted on the rack, however, the stubborn black bar is still necessary for routine tasks such as installing and uninstalling. Obviously you have found that one must pull that black bar from the center....as attempting to pull from either side merely torques the bar rendering it immovable. I have been thinking about placing a drop of Teflon at the contact points in hopes that it will reduce the amount of effort required but have yet to give it a try.

As a single tray rack user....the "Easy Pull" is not something helpful to me....and frankly I don't like the idea that I need to purchase an 'add-on' to ensure that I can reasonably retract the stubborn black bar.

As I said though...this is my only gripe...and a surmountable one at that. My SD single is otherwise a beast and I've never before had more confidence when on the road with a bike.

I think I understand your gripe regarding the "black bar". I have tried to tilt my bikes a few times when mounted by depressing the black bar and have found it near impossible to make them tilt. I then open the back doors to my car to add or remove items. There must me a trick to it?

 

[mfgrep]

I think I understand your gripe regarding the "black bar". I have tried to tilt my bikes a few times when mounted by depressing the black bar and have found it near impossible to make them tilt. I then open the back doors to my car to add or remove items. There must me a trick to it?

The design of the rack does allow a "tilt function" which is great for 1UP marketing materials. In reality, the difficulty of depressing the 'stubborn black bar' combined with the potential weight of the bikes when loaded really doesn't provide much of a true tilt functionality at all. I don't think that there is a trick to it. The tilt function design is less than ideal....and if you require a tilting rack this would not be your best choice. If you have two people at the ready I believe that it could be done.....but the tilt functionality is cumbersome at best. Like I said...I don't require any tilt functionality so I really don't care too much. I do wish that I could more easily depress the black bar to put the rack in 'stow away' position when unloaded and to pull the tray(s) down when ready to load.
I still wouldn't trade my Super Duty rack for any Thule, Yakima, or Kuat. I love love love the ability to store my Super Duty in a relatively small box in my garage when not in use.

 

[Doggyman1202]

The design of the rack does allow a "tilt function" which is great for 1UP marketing materials. In reality, the difficulty of depressing the 'stubborn black bar' combined with the potential weight of the bikes when loaded really doesn't provide much of a true tilt functionality at all. I don't think that there is a trick to it. If you have two people at the ready I believe that it could be done.....but the tilt functionality is cumbersome at best. Like I said...I don't require any tilt functionality so I really don't care too much. I do wish that I could more easily depress the black bar to put the rack in 'stow away' position when unloaded and to pull the tray(s) down when ready to load.
I still wouldn't trade my Super Duty rack for any Thule, Yakima, or Kuat.

I'm on the same page regarding tilt. My only potential use for it would be to unblock the obscured license plate when traveling without bikes, which is most of the time. As a generally law abiding driver I'm a little conflicted about the license plate business. My friend thinks I'm overly paranoid about being stopped, and she also thinks the license plate on top of the rack (with the holder accessory) looks a little strange. It does look odd, I agree.

 

[mfgrep]

I'm on the same page regarding tilt. My only potential use for it would be to unblock the obscured license plate when traveling without bikes, which is most of the time. As a generally law abiding driver I'm a little conflicted about the license plate business. My friend thinks I'm overly paranoid about being stopped, and she also thinks the license plate on top of the rack (with the holder accessory) looks a little strange. It does look odd, I agree.

I too am a conscientious and law abiding citizen. That said, I agree with your friend. There are plenty of things to be paranoid about these days....obscuring your license plate with your bike rack is imo not among them....at least not within my medium sized city.

 

[smorgasbord]

I use my ramp on the opposite side for the second bike. Bikes are faciing opposite direction. I like my Super Duty 1Up.

So, I take back what I said about opposite sides for the ramps. Turns out to avoid handlebars hitting each other you want the second ramp on the SAME side as the first bike. That means you're rolling the second bike up backwards (rear wheel first), in which case if the second bike's seat clears the first bike's handlebars (we have dropper posts on both bikes), all you have to worry about are the pedals hitting each other, which is easily rotated out.

I tried this the other day. It works, although rolling the second bike up backwards is a bit harder to steer to keep on the rack. Two people can do it if they take a little bit of time, but at least you're not lifting anything heavy.

I looked up the new Super Duty rack on 1UPs web site, but they don't show close-ups of the locking mechanism. Their Maintenance video (

) even has the guy admitting that the locking racks will wear but should still lock, and that you can swap racks from one side to the other to get to unworn parts of the rack. This is this rack's achilles heel. Even though mine is holding, it's worn enough that there are jams both locking and unlocking - it's annoying. Making those racks out of aluminum isn't the right choice - I hope they've fixed that in the new Super Duty, but there's no way to tell from the web site.


As for the handle for tilting the rack - I have it and like it for my usage, which is only for installing or removing the rack from the car. I think the key here might be you have to lift most of the weight off of the mechanism to be able to pull the lever and disengage. Which is easy when you don't have any bikes on it, but if you've got two heavy eBikes on, then, yeah, I could see it being a problem. And, correct you can't use both license plate and tilting handle on the same rack - which pissed me off because they let me order the rack with both options and just filled the order without telling me this. I sent the license plate holder back and got a refund, but it was a hassle that could have been avoided if their order fulfilment had been paying attention.

BTW, that video I linked about talks about rack stability and using two wrenches to tighten up play that might have developed. I wonder if the poster who had his bikes swaying too much should watch the video to see if he could tighten that play out.

 

[Taylor57]

So, I take back what I said about opposite sides for the ramps. Turns out to avoid handlebars hitting each other you want the second ramp on the SAME side as the first bike. That means you're rolling the second bike up backwards (rear wheel first), in which case if the second bike's seat clears the first bike's handlebars (we have dropper posts on both bikes), all you have to worry about are the pedals hitting each other, which is easily rotated out.

I tried this the other day. It works, although rolling the second bike up backwards is a bit harder to steer to keep on the rack. Two people can do it if they take a little bit of time, but at least you're not lifting anything heavy.

I looked up the new Super Duty rack on 1UPs web site, but they don't show close-ups of the locking mechanism. Their Maintenance video (

) even has the guy admitting that the locking racks will wear but should still lock, and that you can swap racks from one side to the other to get to unworn parts of the rack. This is this rack's achilles heel. Even though mine is holding, it's worn enough that there are jams both locking and unlocking - it's annoying. Making those racks out of aluminum isn't the right choice - I hope they've fixed that in the new Super Duty, but there's no way to tell from the web site.


As for the handle for tilting the rack - I have it and like it for my usage, which is only for installing or removing the rack from the car. I think the key here might be you have to lift most of the weight off of the mechanism to be able to pull the lever and disengage. Which is easy when you don't have any bikes on it, but if you've got two heavy eBikes on, then, yeah, I could see it being a problem. And, correct you can't use both license plate and tilting handle on the same rack - which pissed me off because they let me order the rack with both options and just filled the order without telling me this. I sent the license plate holder back and got a refund, but it was a hassle that could have been avoided if their order fulfilment had been paying attention.

BTW, that video I linked about talks about rack stability and using two wrenches to tighten up play that might have developed. I wonder if the poster who had his bikes swaying too much should watch the video to see if he could tighten that play out.

Yeah, I havent had a problem using the black bar to move the rack up or down, it's when I have had bikes strapped on-no matter how much I got the black bar to move and no matter how much I jiggled it-no way to get the bikes to tilt...

 

[mfgrep]

Yeah, I havent had a problem using the black bar to move the rack up or down, it's when I have had bikes strapped on-no matter how much I got the black bar to move and no matter how much I jiggled it-no way to get the bikes to tilt...

I can get it done.... But the process makes me feel old and weak. Mine requires some jiggling, finesse, and strength. I have never even attempted to tilt the rack with bicycles mounted.

 

[Taylor57]

I can get it done.... But the process makes me feel old and weak. Mine requires some jiggling, finesse, and strength. I have never even attempted to tilt the rack with bicycles mounted.

I've tried in with my Level 2, Espin Sport and even the Gravelster that only weighs 35 lbs and I still couldn't get em to tilt...

 

[rcdanner]

Using my thighs to hold the rack level (taking some pressure of the black bar), then two hands pressing in bar, I can then gently move my knees out of the way and the two ebikes can be swung away from vehicle. This allows access to rear hatch with bikes mounted. Not a fun thing to do everyday. Still the best rack I've ever owned. Needed two people to return the rack level with mounted ebikes.

 

[Doggyman1202]

I'm still rounding the learning curve with my 1Up SD double. Has anyone here purchased the wheel stop? From the 1Up web site: "Improves front wheel stability caused by fork rotation". https://1up-usa.com/product/wheel-stop
My problem is the fender on the rear wheel though, so I'm not sure this would help at all. (My Priority Current has screws protruding from the rear fender support arm so the arm alignment looks marginal at best. I removed the front fender on day one so that arm aligns perfectly on the wheel).