Australian Mountain Bike – August 01, 2019

http://www.ambmag.com.au - 89

TESTED

but what about off road doing shuttles – these
can be the undoing of some racks that are
suited to sealed-road pursuits. In order to test
this the Team at Mercedes Benz offered me
the use of one of their new X-Class dual cab
utes and said “go as off road as you like”. Once
installed something that was really nice is the
fact that due to this rack being a single bar
coming out of your tow bar hitch, if you have
parking sensors they do not go off until you
have bikes installed. This was also the case on
a VW Amarok.
When installing your rack there is a
surprising amount of fine tuning you can make,
including the distance from the rear of your car
and the angle of the rack. You are also able to
lay the rack completely flat (with bikes removed)
if you need to get into a ute tray, open the back
of a SUV or boot of a station wagon. It would
stand to reason that the closer in you have the
rack the stiffer it is due to the leverage being
put on the rack once full loaded up. This did
ring somewhat true and even though during
some half decent off road use where the rack
did hit the ground several times (sorry) it didn’t
bounce around that much at all. In fact it was
only adjusted closer in order to allow for better
ground clearance. Please remember this rack
is as wide as your car and on some angles the
outside bikes rear wheel may touch the ground
before any other parts of your rack or car
depending on the terrain you’re on.
As recommended we loaded bikes left to right
which makes unloading them easier also. This
is very straight forward. Pop your bike on its
back wheel and lift it up so the front wheel slips
into the highest mount on the rack. Hot tip; put
your knee under your seat and use your leg to
help lift the bike, it’s much easier and will save

your back lifting Downhill and eMTBs. The only

real gripe with the Shingleback rack is that the

first few times you load it into the first space

on the left you may let the bike swing into the

rear wheel mount and hit your derailleur as

the mount is offset. You will only do this a few

times before it’s natural to move the rear wheel

to avoid this.

Both on and off road the Shingleback was

impressively stiff and flex free offering great

peace of mind to the driver, also it takes up

much less room in traffic and pub car parks

due to its vertical style mounting. It is also

fast to load and unload if you are doing shuttle

runs, especially once all the riders have loaded

their bikes a couple of times and are familiar

with the rack.

Shingleback also offer some great

accessories including a fully powered number

plate board with both brake and indicator

lights if the supplied alloy number plate mount

does not meet your state’s road rules. This is

only $170.00 when you buy your rack and likely

well less than a fine. Other accessories are a

swing arm style hitch that moves the entire

rack out of the way of the rear of your vehicle

while fully loaded at $899 and a

trolley (that could also mean your Shingleback

can be used as a home bike rack) coming in

at $369.00.

All in all at up to $1299.00 including shipping

for the 5 bike model, the Shingleback rack

is not cheap but when you look at what is on

the market for around the same price it is

just better value. Compact, strong, stiff and

Australian made are some reasons you should

be checking out the Shingleback rack. It would

be the most secure and fastest way to move up

to five bikes that I have used.

HITS

Supersolidconstruction

Easytomountandfitbikes

Optionsforlight boards

MISSES

A big investment

FROM: SHINGLEBACKRACKOFFROAD.COM.AU