We are planning a trip with a bike rack attached to our trailer hitch. What is the best way to lock the bikes while the vehicle is unattended? I see some racks have locks on the knobs but they don't seem very strong.
What do you suggest?
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Sign up to join this communityWe are planning a trip with a bike rack attached to our trailer hitch. What is the best way to lock the bikes while the vehicle is unattended? I see some racks have locks on the knobs but they don't seem very strong.
What do you suggest?
Don't rely on the racks locks alone to keep you bikes safe. They willat very best, slow the thief down (shows the point). A hitch rack provides a good lever that can be effectively used to snap the rack (or the hitch) off to take the bikes, and if the bikes are damaged in the process, the thief just walks away leaving a mess.
Strong cable lock though a closed loop on the car (the cars tie down loop / eye) around the bikes, threaded to limit the range of twisting and lever motions, meaning the racks locking mechanisms cannot be push further than they can cope with.
For any length of time, take the bikes off the rack and store safely inside, or out of site locked to a secure rack. Cheap bikes also help.
If you anticipate stopping in places with a real potential for bike thievery, I would lock the bikes up the same way I normally would while leaving them unattended in the city, with u-locks. No sense losing the bikes mid-trip.
On trips with little to no chance of such potential for theft, I'll be in proximity to the car the entire time, or I'll just be at remote campgrounds near other vacation-going folks like me, etc, a simple cable lock will suffice.
If you are going to be in any densely populated areas, I can't stress enough about the inadequacy of a cable lock. Some $15 branch loppers will go through them like butter.
Side note: make sure your hitch-mounted rack is locked to your hitch, otherwise your bike lock will be rendered useless when a thief walks away with your entire rack.
I would start by considering avoiding the use of a trailer hitch for any other purpose than that for which it has been designed: hitching a trailer. Hitches are constructed to support lateral, longitudinal and vertical forces applied at low heights, the latter up to about 50kg - think a maximum of two bikes and the rack itself. However, they are not built to withstand torque applied either side-to-side or front-to-back. The other vehicle attachment points will have to stand that - but these points are usually on the tailgate which is also not built for that particular purpose.
The safest way I know of transporting bikes on a (perhaps long) trip is inside a rather non-descript van, with no windows potential thiefs can see through and doors that lock. Perhaps you could consider renting such a vehicle? I am sure you can get quite good prices by shopping around and choosing a time frame in which businesses typically do not need to rent many vehicles, e.g. in summer.
HTH.