There are many ways to transport your bike but few are as effective as the vertical carry design. Extremely popular in North America we're not seeing more and more of these designs in Australia, in particular the 'Dirty Possum' rack has caught our attention. Locally made in Brisbane and with a great list of features we jumped at the chance to go shuttling with one of the racks and see just how well it faired.
The Dirty Possum Bike Rack Options
Everyone has different needs for their bike transpiration as a result of their bike type, vehicle type and style of use. The rack itself comes in a 3, 4, 5 or 6 bike rack option starting at $1099.95 so you can chose how may mates you do or don't want riding with you. The rack itself mounts to your car via a 50mm hitch mount, some customized options may be available for you though! If you're after a bit of extra space to get into your boot you can attach a swinging arm so the rack can move out of the way easily.
Using The Dirty Possum Bike Rack
It has to be easy. Whether you're rushing out for a last minute ride before sunset or punching laps with your mates shuttling, loading your mountain bike onto your rack should be a quick and easy process. The Dirty Possum holds onto your bike securely with three contact points; your front wheel, rear wheel and crank / pedal.
You load your bike by sitting your front wheel in the upper cradle and resting the rear wheel on the crossbar. To lock the bike in place there is a small bungee to loop around the front wheel and a strap you loop over your crank / pedal before tightening. This strap is essential! It feels natural to loop the strap around your wheel but this is NOT where you want to be looping it. By hooking around the wheel there is no vertical downforce on your bike and can enable a bit of bob up and down. It would still take a lot to bounce the bike out of the rack without this strap around the pedal but it's there for that purpose so let's use it right! By using all of these attachments your bike will be safe and secure. Even when the rack was fully loaded the bikes weren't touching each other. Another nice bonus is that the rack doesn't attach to any point on your frame, only your wheels / crank. Other racks that attach to your frame can leave your bike vulnerable to paint scratching or in extreme cases even crushing frames if over tightened.
The Dirty Possum Bike Rack In Practice
We were luck enough to head out to shuttle at the Beerburrum DH track on the QLD sunshine coast. The turn around is very short at Beerburrum so fiddling around loading your bike on and off will dramatically slow down your run rate. In this instance the Dirty Possum rack was quick and easy to use and we had complete confidence in the rack. Confident that our bikes would not only be there at the top but that they wouldn't be rubbing against each other on the way up.
Dirty Possum Bike Rack Overall Impressions
The Dirty Possum bike rack was very impressive in the sense that we didn't have to think about it. We weren't thinking about a specific order of loading bikes so that they fit, paint rubbing, brake leavers clashing or even are the bikes still there. It was a simple and seamless experience. Whether you're taking your family riding, a bunch of mates or doing shuttles at your local trail, the Dirty Possum bike rack is an easy to use option.
You can check out the Dirty Possum range online or swing by to look at a rack in-store. If we don't have your desired size in we can get them in quickly for you!
