With more and more companies putting out high quality “tray style” hitch mount bike racks, Yakima’s extremely popular HoldUp was facing some fierce competition. The original HoldUp has received some updates along the way, but this is the most feature packed update yet.
How does it compare to the other tray style racks on the market? Jump past the break to find out.
Impossible to miss, the new HoldUp is now bathed in a gloss black finish that somehow manages to make it stand out while at the same time, blending in. The slick finish not only looks higher end than the previous hammered grey, but should do a better job at preventing surface rust than rough surface of the previous HoldUp. However, they could have just changed the color because I used to have a grey car, and when I traded it out for the black E, they felt it necessary to match – yes, I’m sure that’s the real reason for the switch.
Like most tray style hitch racks, the HoldUp still supports the bicycle by the tires therefore preventing any part of the rack from touching the frame or fork. The layout also prevents individual bikes from touching each other at all which pretty much guarantees your bikes will arrive at your destination in the same shape you loaded them in – especially useful with carbon, or high end bikes. The rack will fit bike with 14″-29″ wheels and up to a 48″ wheelbase. The only time you’ll really run into any issues transporting a bike are those with front fenders, and fatbikes (we’ll get to that in a second).
Another big change to the HoldUp is having a lock cable now built into each support arm, rather than the long lock cable that was a separate entity on the previous model. When not being used, the lock cables next neatly inside the arms with the lock head cliped into the top to prevent it from falling out or rattling around. When you need to lock up a bike, simply pull the lock out of the arm, wrap it around the wheel or frame, and then lock it to the pin on the support arm. While this set up is much more convenient than the previous version, it would be nice if the cable was about a foot longer.
The Locks work very well for normal bikes, though the first time I used it, I was trying to lock a fat bike through the wheel and the frame, but the cable was simply too short. When carrying normal bikes, the support arm should be farther back on the front wheel, closer to the fork. However, I’ve found that with the fat bike, it needs to be farther forward, or the bike can rock back out of the front wheel tray. This puts the arm farther away from the frame, effectively shortening the cable. All in all, the HoldUp really isn’t designed for carrying fat bikes, so do so at your own risk.
On a road bike I had no trouble putting the lock through the front wheel and the frame, easily locking up the bike as it was intended.
One really nice feature of the HoldUp, is that all of the Yakima SKS (Single Key System) lock cores are included with the rack. That includes a hitch lock as well, so no one can simply steal the rack with the bikes still on it. The rack includes two of the same keys, that will unlock both the bike locks and the hitch lock.