On yer bike!
Two wheels bring adventure and (Steve forlornly hopes) a slimmer waistline...
OWNING a Land Rover and having the ability to explore the great outdoors has many advantages – but driving isn’t always good for the waistline, as I have discovered. Using pedal power however is, so I thought I’d give in and give it a go.
Having not cycled since I passed my driving test aged 17 meant that, 23 years later, I would have to start from the very beginning and buy myself a mountain bike. I convinced my wife Louise to get one too. Now owning a brace of bikes is all well and good, and cycling around the local villages will, inevitably, end with us in a pub garden somewhere – not so good for the waistline – and any good work would quickly be undone. What I needed was the ability to carry the bikes elsewhere, to explore further afield, so to negate the desire to end up in the pub.
I talked through this dilemma with my colleague Demi who works in our London HQ and looks after the advertising for one of our sister publications, Auto Express. She mentioned that there had been a couple of reviews on bike racks in Auto Express and that one or two of them had received ‘best buy’ awards.
Now knowing how Auto Express and LRM go about doing product testing, I knew that this was worth a further look so I delved into the archives to find the articles. Winners of both 2017 and 2018 ‘Best Buy’ was awarded to Maxxraxx. I took a look at their website, maxxraxx.co. uk to see what they had on offer and could see that suitable racks for Land Rovers were very well catered for. Maxxraxx’s bike racks looked as solid as a Land Rover, too. Their range will fit all Land Rover models, which is perfect. And if like me you have more than one Land Rover model in your collection, the Maxxraxx can be adapted with options to suit if you wanted to choose between cars. Choosing from their range is fairly straightforward – first identify the tow bar you have fitted, then opt for whether you wish to ‘carry only’ or have the ability to tow a trailer or caravan and be able to carry your bikes at the same time. The next choice is which upright section you’ll
require as this is what depicts whether you have a rear mounted spare wheel or not. Put simply, if you don’t have a wheel mounted on the rear (like my Discovery 3) then it’s the Voyager model you need, and if you have a Defender, Disco 1 or 2 or a Freelander 1 for example, the Explorer is the one you need which has a 250 mm offset to allow for the spare wheel. The last option is how many bikes you wish to carry, and there is a choice of two, three, four or five. I went for the three bike version as it’s nice to have an option to carry another bike if needed. The Maxxraxx is very much a bike rack for life and it’s definitely built to last.
Additionally, you can adapt your rack as time goes on and buy add-ons to fit extra bikes, or to fit it to other models of Land Rover or other vehicle types, rather than throwing it away and having to buy a complete new set-up.
I also ordered a handy carry case so that, when not in use, the bike carrier can be neatly put away in the garage and kept all in one place or in the boot for longer trips. Also, as a requirement of the law, obscuring your rear lights and number plate is a big no no, and from a safety aspect when carrying bikes it’s wise to fit a lighting board.
When the Maxxraxx arrived, I needed to get on and fit it straight away to my Discovery 3 as our new bikes were ready for collection. I looked through the instructions firstly which were fairly straightforward. As I have a swan neck detachable tow bar, I fitted that first, followed by the Easyfixx bracket. Tightening that up with the handy tool which comes with it, I could then go about fitting the rest together. Next step was to fit the upright bar and, using the suppled bolt, you tighten that by hand. I fitted the last piece by sliding the top bar into place, feeding the safety cable through the box section which will then go over the top of the bikes to lock them with a padlock into place. The bikes are then properly secured and no one can make off with them when you’re parked up somewhere.
Finally, there is a built-in ratchet strap system which goes over the top tube of each bike to secure them into place, too.
I soon realised that once the rack is attached and fixed into place, I couldn’t open my boot as it’s a split tailgate – opening the top tailgate it would hit the top bar of the rack. Handily, if you undo the hand-tightened bolt, you can drop the bar outwards at an angle (with bikes fitted to it too) to allow access to the boot, then simply fix back into place when you’ve finished and re-tighten the bolt.
The bike rack is a handy purchase, if like me you’d rather not have a roof rack. I have the ability to pack it all away when not in use. It’s also very handy to get out and about exploring new places on two wheels for a change – and I get to work on the waistline, which is no bad idea!