Cart:Hollywood Gordo G2: Light and stable
Posted by Jim Strasma on October 25, 2012
At this year's Interbike, I was on a mission - to find a bike rack able to hold my Easy Racer LWB recumbent bicycle safely, that can also be attached to our car easily. We already have a trailer hitch-mounted rack that works well, but it weighs 60#, too much for my wife to lift if I unexpectedly need her to come get me and the bike.
Of all the rack suppliers at the show, only Hollywood Racks had a solution: their $120 Gordo trunk rack, which weighs under 10# and can be quickly and easily mounted on most cars and trucks. It has support arms spaced 22" apart, far enough apart to safely carry a long wheelbase recumbent. Here it is, mounted on a 2002 Prius:
The angle between the two main pieces can be quickly and easily adjusted without tools to fix most vehicles, and its six straps are plenty to attach securely. Notice that the trunk can easily still be opened with the rack mounted.
Here's the Gordo with a BikeE-RX mounted:
Note that I couldn't get the rubber strap on the right arm over the large frame of the BikeE, but still had no trouble mounting it securely.
Next challenge: My Easy Racer long wheelbase recumbent:
This time the rubber strap fit easily. With such a long bike, be careful when driving not to get too close to anything on either side of the vehicle. Also, if you try this with a fairing mounted (as I did), keep your driving speed down. I limited my driving speed to 30 MPH, which worked well. To go faster, remove and store the fairing inside the vehicle while driving.
Finally, here's the rack with both the Easy Racer and BikeE mounted:
Ellen wants me to also try mounting our 10' long tandem trike, but I haven't quite worked up the courage to do that yet, as I suspect I'd need to flag it as a "wide load."
Sound good? Let us know and we'll have your Gordo delivered right away.
Update 4/1/13:
Turns out there IS a way to mount a trike to the Gordo, even our 10' long tandem. Simply fasten two wheels to the Gordo, and let the third wheel rest on the car roof. Here's how I mounted a Sun EZ3 trike to the Prius today:
Not shown here is the simple metal roof rack we would also use to more firmly tie down the wheel shown resting on the car roof above before driving at highway speeds. We also remove seats before long trips.