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Sportworks Insta-Gator Pickup Truck Bed Bike Rack
By John Walter
I love having my pickup truck. I
love being able to toss my gear into the bed and just taking off. I love
being able to throw anything wet or muddy in the bed if needed. I even
love that the seating capacity is limited so I always have an excuse not
to take many people with me.
However, I've always hated the way I had to transport bikes in the bed
of my truck. If it were just one bike, I would just lay it down in
the back. That worked all right, except the bike would invariably slide
around while I was driving. If I was transporting more than one bike,
I'd have to lean the seat and handlebars over the side, or even worse,
stack or lean the bikes on top of each other, causing the paint to chip
and the frame to wear wherever the bikes rubbed together.
I've always been adverse to any truck bed bike rack that needed to be
drilled or bolted anywhere on the bed to securely hold bikes. I loved
the ease of use of car-top bike carriers and wanted the same for my truck.
I wanted a rack that I could use without having to remove the front wheel.
The Insta-Gator Pickup Bed Bike Rack from Sportworks fit this bill nicely.
The Insta-Gator bike rack is super easy to install. Open the gate of the
truck, drop the two anchors on the Insta-Gator in the gap between the bed
and the gate, close the gate and ratchet down the anchor straps. Takes
less than 10 seconds out of the box to install. The anchor straps have
a ratcheting mechanism exactly like the straps on a snowboard binding.
To secure a bike just place the front wheel in the rack and rotate the
grip arm up until the hook contacts the back of the fork and pull arm
to lock it into place. Removing your bike involves pressing the quick
release button on the arm and dropping the arm out of the way. It
literally couldn't be easier.
The Insta-Gator will accommodate bikes with wheels from 20-29 inches.
It'll work with disc brakes, lefty forks and wide tires. I found that my
roadie's thin tires were a little harder to secure in the rack than the
wide tires of my mountain bike, mainly because of the small distance
between the headtube and the tire. However, Sportworks doesn't recommend
the Insta-Gator for any bike that has a headtube angle of less than
68 degrees, which includes many recumbent bikes. Two Insta-Gators will
easily fit in the bed of most pickups. Trucks with a tailgate wider
than 51 inches can accommodate three Insta-Gator racks.
When using the Insta-Gator, I was concerned that back wheel was
completely loose in the back of the truck. So I tested the rack in a
variety of situations including high speed on the freeway, around town
and on dirt access roads. The Insta-Gator held the front tire securely
no matter what the situation. However, the rear of the bike did bounce around some,
especially on bumpy roads. A bungie cord through the back tire easily
solved that problem. In most cases it wouldn't even be necessary.
I have only one complaint and one gripe. The complaint is the fact that
there is not an option for locking the rack or locking the bike to the rack.
It would be easy for thieves to release the locking arm and liberate your
bike, as well as just dropping the gate and taking the rack. You must
make other means to prevent this. The gripe is that the rack comes
configured with the arm in place for the passenger side. While Sportworks
does enable the ability to reconfigure the arm for the driver side,
it is a little convoluted and requires getting agro with the hammer.
There has to be an easier way. Other than these two issues, I'm
completely in love with the Insta-Gator.
Summary: At $100 dollars, the Insta-Gator Pickup Bed
Bike Rack from Sportworks is a great investment for anyone truck owner
looking for a better way to haul their bikes.
Shop for bike racks at GearReview.com.
Walt is the climbing editor/managing editor/webmaster/grounds crew/janitor at GearReview.com
For more information, contact:
Sportworks
15540 Wood-Red Rd NE, A-200
Woodinville, WA 98072
888-661-0555
customerservice@sportworks.com
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