Yakima’s celebrating their 35th anniversary this year, and to show how far they’ve come their booth showcased an original roof rack circa 1979. It was fitted with an era-appropriate bike and mounted to an era-appropriate car, but neither detracted from the interesting peek into history the rack provided.
We’ll start this post off with a little gallery of it, followed by the new and thoroughly modern Fourplay and Twotimer hitch-mount tray racks, bringing the favored style to a lower price point. And for non-bike pursuits, their new SUP carriers and roof boxes look pretty good, too…
Note the simple metal extrusions and plastic corners on the roof tray, screwed together with basic metal screws.
The foot pods were essentially giant washers with rubber bases to prevent slips and scratches. Straps were pulled tight around the rain gutters to *shudder* keep things from blowing off the road. Fortunately, I think this was about when the federal highway speed limits were mostly reduced to 55mph.
My how things have improved.
The new Fourplay ($499) is lower cost tray-style rack, hitting the middle point between a hanging trunk mount and their higher end Holdup tray racks. The secondary section slides out, quickly converting it to a two bike rack when the extra capacity isn’t needed. It’s made for a 2″ hitch only.
Unlike the Holdup, which grabs the top of the front wheel, it’ll work on bikes with fenders.
The Twotimer is the two bike version, which retails for $299 and is made for a 1-1/4″ hitch.
The upright section folds flat, allowing the rack to fold snugly against the rear of the vehicle when not in use.
Oversized wheel trays slide back and forth to fit any size bike, and the straps and width accommodate fat bike tires, too!
New roof top cargo bags (left) start at $99 and go up to $149 and $199. The $99 Softtop model also comes in camo, but is only really for spring and summer. The others are more for four season use, and the top model gets a bit of molded structure on the top.
The hardshell Skybox Carbonite roof boxes get a new dimpled texture.
Have you heard what SUP? It’s only the biggest outdoor craze since Pogo Bal.
Yakima has two new roof rack mounted SUP carriers, the SUPdawg and SUPpup:
The SUPpup is the basic version and adjusts to carry one board up to 34″ wide. The SUPdawg handles two boards and builds in rollers to easily slide larger boards into place, plus cable management and easier install.
