Ultimately if you want to carry your bikes safely, a quality tray style hitch rack is hard to beat. The no frame contact designs rely on your tires and wheels to keep the bike in place, and the staggered trays keep the bikes from banging into each other.
While racks like the Kuat NV are generally considered superior, they’re also quite expensive. That’s where the motivation for Kuat’s latest rack came from – the desire to offer an affordable hitch rack that still made bicycle transportation as simple as possible. Unlike most “entry level” tray style racks, the new Transfer from Kuat still offers secure hold without touching the frame. It also fits an impressive range of bikes all for less than $300 for a 2 bike rack…
The key to the affordable design is the use of a u-shaped frame instead of the traditional trays. The wheel trays and arms are positioned on the two arms, and the rack folds up like most tray style racks.
However, the Transfer has a clever foot pedal release that keeps you from having to bend over when folding the rack. The foot pedal allows the rack to fold up when not in use, or to fold down to access the tailgate of the vehicle.
The stepped wheel trays and design of the arms allow the Tranfer to fit all bike from 20″ wheel bmx and Kid’so bikes up to 4.5″ fat bike tires. In order to allow for different shaped bikes the trays are adjustable side to side. The ratcheting wheel supports are very similar to their other racks with a push button release. Sold without any sort of locking devices, Kuat will soon have a locking upgrade kit available separately with arms for the locks and hitch. Kuat just informed us that the weight of the rack for the two bike version is 35 lbs, which is pretty impressive for a tray style hitch rack and it carries a maximum wheelbase of 47″.
Out of the box the Transfer will fit both 2″ and 1 1/4″ hitches and will be available in separate 2 or 3 bike versions. Available around April of this year, the racks will retail for $289 for the 2 bike and $389 for the 3 bike racks.
