Thule EasyFold XT 2 Hitch Bike Rack, 130lb Load Capacity, E-Bike Compatible

(My Requirements) I purchased the Thule EasyFold XT 2 Hitch Bike Rack after doing a lot of homework on an easy-to-install, easy-to-use bike rack for our 2 bikes. A Trek FX3 road bike and an Electra Townie 7D Step-Thru bike. Two totally different types of bike frames, weight and design. I also wanted an easy rack to pull out of the box and install on either of our SUV’s hitches, a 2” and a 1.25-inch hitch. Storage was also a prime requirement as our garages already had so many items to store in an organized fashion; I didn’t need something that did not store easily. And the most important requirement was the ease of loading, unloading, and protecting our bikes, without lifting, numerous bungee cords, protective padding, etc. And a rack that would be useful as our bike styles change. I read all of the reviews, watched many videos, and decided to give it a go. Why not? It had a 30-day return policy. (Delivery and Install Day!) The product arrived on time, and the box was in perfect condition. It was time to dive right in, open the box, and pull the product right out of the box. I found it fully assembled as promised by the videos and reviews. Removed some packing materials and the product was ready to use. How easy is that? I rolled it over to my SUV, pulled down the receiver arm (stinger), picked it up (only 45 pounds), and it slid right into my hitch receiver. Turned the nob to tighten the hitch and the receiver arm. I used the key to lock the knob and was on to the next step. Folded down the platforms, and it was ready to mount the bikes. OK, so it's time to mount and adjust the bike secure arms. This took a few minutes since it was new to me, and both bikes differed in frame design. Instructions tell me to install the heaviest bike closest to the vehicle first. So, I used the included ramps to load the Towne first. Wow, was that easy! Just rolled it up! I strapped down the wheels with the built-in straps with a ratchet feature and found the best location for the stabilizer arm to attach to the bike and the rack. Tighten it down, locked the knob, and got ready for the next bike. For the FX3, I just picked up, strapped it down, and found the best mounting place for the stabilizer arm. And I was ready to go. No more straps, bungees, pads, etc. I’m ready to go. All was secure and locked, and we were on our way! (Driving with it attached and loaded) We have had a few very good and well-made hitch-mounted bike racks. However, the strapping down, bungee the wheels, protecting the bikes from hitting each other in transit, the locking with a cable lock, and the noticeable bouncing and swaying became annoying. I even built an antisway bar to keep our bikes from hitting each other. And for the Townie, I required a top tube adapter sometimes called a crossbar substitute. This took way more time and frustration to secure everything than with our new Thule EasyFold XT 2 Hitch Bike Rack. Biking is supposed to be fun, right? Unloading was just a reverse of loading; we folded up the platform. We are ready to ride!! We have taken the bike rack off and stored it in the back of the SUV, but for many of the places we go, we just leave it on, fold it up, and back our vehicle into our parking space so the rack does not hang out into the riding or driving areas. Now for the take-it-off and store. Well, reverse of install, roll it into the garage and let me tell you the footprint of this product is smaller than my snow blower or lawn mower. Don’t even know it’s there. (Overall recommendation) If you’re looking for an easy-to-assemble, easy-to-install, easy-to-use, easy-to-store, which I was, I give this product a thumbs up!!! It was well worth the price paid. Now, as our bikes change our lifestyle, we can add mountain bikes and e-bikes without a problem. We even take our little kids' bikes just to take them someplace. Enjoy and Bike-On!

Expensive, but seemingly worth it. This is the best rack my wife and I have seen and it ends up working just as advertised. Here are some comments and suggestions for potential buyers in response to other reviews and from my own observations and experience: 1. Definitely watch the video review of this rack at [...] It is very helpful given the scant documentation and problems others have mentioned with the graying out of the installation diagrams. 2. The rack ships with the 2-inch adaptor installed. As noted by others, the hexhead screws holding this to the end of the stinger are extremely tight. They can, however, be removed with the included hex wrench. Just make sure the short end of the wrench is fully inserted into the screw heads before turning in order to avoid stripping the screws. Perhaps you should tap the wrench with a hammer before applying twisting torque to make sure the wrench is fully inserted. 3. Do not attempt to adjust the remaining screw with the colored thread in the 1.25" stinger. 4. Removing the second cushioned clamp is a good idea if you are carrying only one bike. Leaving it on the rack might create a potential for the second clamp to vibrate during transport and thus damage the finish of the single bike being carried if it is not carefully positioned and held away from the single bike being carried. The video review shows exactly how to remove the second longer clamp if you watch closely. What the video doesn't say or even imply is that there is NO WAY to remove the second clamp before you actually mount this bike rack on your car. I'm not sure why that is so, but it is. Thus, don't worry at all the way I did, thinking the rack was defective, when I struggled with all my might for an hour or more trying to get that second longer clamp to detach from the rack. Once the bike rack was mounted on the car, the second longer clamp released with little effort, as if by magic. 5. As others have mentioned the anti-rattle pin seems kind of useless, at least when used without the 2-inch adaptor. The pin just fits into a recess in the 1.25-inch shaft. It does not go into the hollow middle of that shaft, much less all the way through the shaft and out the hole on the other side. The pin thus doesn't seem to provide much protection against the rack falling out of the receiver shaft and thus falling to the road. The real tightening is done by tightening that anti-rattle knob as tight as you can with your hand. Tightening that knob expands the 1.25-inch shaft, making a very tight wedged fit between the rack's shaft and the receiver shaft. Tightening that knob also tightens the anti-rattle pin in the recess into which it fits, making it impossible to move the anti-rattle pin out of that recess. Thus, perhaps the "useless" anti-rattle pin really does prevent rattles and provide additional structural integrity this way, who knows? 6. The ramp works as adverstised and certainly does not tend to collapse under the weight of a fairly heavy Sun bike (not electric). I seriously doubt whether the extra weight of an electric bike would tend to collapse this ramp. While made of aluminum and not steel, It is quite thick and seems very sturdy. 7. The extra strap which came attached to the second longer clamp can be used to lock together the two sections of the platform when no bikes are being carried and the two platform sections are stored vertically. While pressing the plastic release hinges is necessary to get the two sections to lay horizontal, without strapping the two sections together, they will tend to come apart a few inches and thus not be vertical. Some rattling might occur this way. Strapping them together with the extra nylon locking strap will prevent this. 8. Thule should provide some sort of storage bag for keeping together the second longer clamp, the ramp, the 2-inch adapter, and the hex wrench. This bag of goodies could then be kept with or near the rack or in the car to allow the owner to stay prepared to carry one or two bikes or to use the rack on a different vehicle.

I admit I purchased this bike rack with no intention of testing it out and getting another if I didn't like it. I just wanted to invest something that I knew would be rock solid performance-wise, easy to use, and built to last. I do not have other bike racks to compare this to, but in the several months I have had this rack, it has been all of the above. Off the top of my head, it only has 6 major movements to mount this the back back of my truck, and mounting bikes seems self explanatory. I do not even own a e-bike yet, so I cannot comment as to how effective this rack would be, but for a mountain bike and a hybrid, this rack has served me well on bumpy roads, keeping my bicycles secured between Los Angeles to Lake Tahoe. I like that the hitch has a built in lock, as well as 2 fastening arms with locking clamps. I have only left the bikes on my truck while en route to places, but it is easy enough to remove and store indoors when I get to where I'm going. I highly recommend this rack in its simplicity, performance and design. I plan to use this for long many more trips / vehicles to come, and eventually for an e-bike or two. Thank you for reading.

Based on online reviews, I did not think that this rack would be sturdy enough, so I bought a Kuat NV 2.0 -- a gorgeous, tough rack, but a total beast to manage. If I wanted to leave a rack on the car or truck however, this is the one I would get. But after I wrestled it on and off the car a couple of times, I sent it back. Too damned heavy. Start with what sort of eBike rider you are. If you are young, strong, and race up hills, heavy racks are fine. But if you are old, strong, and race up hills -- or old and like flat roads -- having a lighter rack that is easy to manage counts for a lot. My local eBike shop assured me that they had seen great results with the EasyFold, so after I sent the Kuat back, I bought one. And it immediately made me nervous. Lots of plastic on this thing. Long wheelbase bikes don't fit well. The clamping system seems kinda hinky. I thought the ramp was a joke -- although some people really like it. But getting it on and off the car is a breeze. It folds up, wheels away, and stows easily. I even found the cover for it. We have tested it with two expensive eBikes a few times now -- and it's been rock solid. Check YouTube to see how these racks work. I learned a few things: 1. I pay a LOT of attention to clamping the hitch tightly into the receiver. I move the rack every which way and get the hitch very, very tight before locking it down. 2. I don't use the ramp. I just toss the bikes up. You can do one wheel at a time if you need to. YMMV -- some people like the ramp. Looks fussy to me. 3. The clamps work fine on our bikes because we have round, normal seat tubes. But the clamps take some practice. You want to get them on straight, no weird angles. Tighten them until the torque clutch slips. I am not sure that these clamps will work with every pair of bikes, but they do a decent job with ours. And the clamps lock, which is nice (I would trust these locks for few minutes in a store. Much longer, add a proper lock or a serious cable). Update: my bike was stolen (not off the rack) and my replacement bike is MUCH harder to secure. If your bike doesn’t have normal, vertical seat tubes or a seat post within reach of the clamps, this rack doesn’t work well. Dropped to four stars. 4. Strapping and clamping the wheels is easy and important. Again, I am not sure that a real long wheelbase will be happy on this rack, but up to 1200cm or so works fine. 5. Most of the miles we have with this rack are on-road or good dirt roads. I would hesitate to take it on really rutted roads -- but then I hesitated to buy it in the first place and it has been fine. 6. Some cars, including ours, freak out when there is a hitch rack on the vehicle. All of the backup collision sensors go nuts and sometimes you cannot turn them off very easily. Nice thing about this rack is that you can fold it up, pop it off, and store it in the car in about a minute. 7. E-bike batteries are heavy, but removable. Taking them out and carrying them in the cuts the weight on the rack a lot. So far (six months in) I am happy with the rack. Maybe a bit more city than country -- it's made for smooth roads and small garages. But if that is what you need and the price does not scare you off, it's a very clever, decent rack worthy of the Thule badge.

This is by far the best designed bike rack we've every had. It folds up easily and relatively compactly. You can wheel it into the storage area of your garage where it won't take up a lot of space with no odd metal attachments sticking out. It is not lightweight but they have put wheels on it and made it super easy to install. The heft is needed for the two e-bikes we own and we have the fat tires as well so there aren't many bike racks out there that will accommodate these types of bikes. This one does it with ease. It even has a ramp (conveniently stowed in the rack) to help with loading and unloading bikes. No more hoisting them up onto scratchy metal arms. The platform is wide enough to be easy to get the bikes on and off without stressing over being about to steer them off one side or the other. It is stable because of the adjustable hitch that tightens down and eliminates wobble. It literally becomes like part of the car. The jaws adjust anywhere on the bike and that is important with E-bikes because they typically don't have the usual set up of frame design. Overall, we couldn't be more pleased. Our only complaint, and it's not about the rack itself, is that the manufacturer doesn't go ahead and include the wheel straps for the big tires. Instead they are an option that is an additional cost. This rack is not cheap and it seems it should come with the alternate straps. Even with that said, I would recommend the rack.

I researched for a bike rack that is easily removable, but lockable, durable, can carry two large, fat-tire e-bikes, and one that wouldn't break the bank. I found everything but that last feature. The wife and I have e-bikes with 4" tires and weigh around 59-60 lbs. There are lighter weight bikes out there but we've already spent the money - and these bikes "fold" or they used to. Hang out in Florida too much and that ability to fold easily goes away... something, something, salt-water. Anyway, this rack is great. Using the "not-included" larger straps, it holds the bikes really well. The locking mechanism should be frustrating for any would-be thief (which is bad because if my bikes were stolen, it'd give me an excuse to buy new ones, but alas...) Is it worth the money? Yeah, really it is because look - it takes 2 minutes to pull this off the hitch and tuck it away somewhere. It weighs all of 45 lbs. by itself, so carrying it around is super easy (although, the wife says she still can't lift it - odd, she was a SCUBA instructor and lugged around air tanks, now she's with me and they're too heavy to lift, go figure). Anyway, "most" people can lift and move around 45 lbs. pretty easy, so... for the money, I think it's great.

Great product! EZ to install and use. Storage is a snap due to the small size when folded up. Although slightly on the heavy side, the wheels make it EZ to move, with the conveniences of a built-in handle to pick unit up. Pricy, but we'll worth it! Used ours for 2 years now without any problems!

Pros: well built, sturdy (but see cons), attractive, folds easily, easy setup - I didn’t even need to read the instructions. Love the knobs to secure the clamps plus they are keyed so they just spin around when locked, makes it very hard to steal the bikes. Cons: Unlike the other Thule racks, this one has a 1.5” tongue with an attached adapter for 2” receiver. I wish there was a 2” tongue version of this rack because it would be more secure. All the weight of the rack plus bikes is on a weld on a 1.5” bar, which is a weak point; it would be a lot stronger if it was a 2” tongue. Why doesn’t Thule offer a 2” tongue version? Second con: the “grooves” for the tires, which hold the bikes down onto the rack, are quite shallow, so the tires are not gripped very strongly. I wish these grooves were at least 0.5” or 0.75” deeper - and our bikes have only 2” tires, they aren’t fat tires, which others have complained about. Third con is trivial but there isn’t any way to secure the ramp in place once the bikes are on, I just dropped the ramp into a depression in the middle of the rack and held it in place with a bungee cord; that shouldn’t be necessary on an expensive rack like this. In summary: this is a very good rack but it could be improved.

Facil de montar y desmontar. Los cinchos para sujetar las llantas son algo cortos y los largos tienen un costo adicional, y por cierto muy elevado. Para lo que cuesta los debería incluir tomando en cuenta que este rack se usara en mayor parte para bicis de montaña con llanta grande. Aparte de eso es un producto excelente.

The Thule Easy Fold bike rack can be installed by one person easily and quickly. Also, I like the fact that I can install without having to kneel down; definitely a feature I now consider a necessity, for the sake of my aging knees. When loading heavier E-bikes (pictured), the ramp is a definite asset, and I will continue to use. Unloading, I found it equally easy without the ramp. The only thing that will take some practice is the placement of the bikes with the clamp arms and with the other bike; everything else is intuitive. For the first attempt at securing the bikes, I do recommend having two people, one to hold the bike and the second to install the clamp arm. Also recommend taking a picture after the first loading, so you can see how you have each clamp arm is positioned. I did use the photo (pictured) to perform the second loading, and it was useful, and helped me avoid any trial-and-error. The clamp arms that holds onto the bicycle frame are widely adjustable to accommodate other bikes, but the placement will vary for different bikes or bike combinations, so take a new picture of each new bike or combination of bikes to help recall clamp arm placement. After securing the clamp arms, use the the wheel straps (one per wheel) to finish securing the bikes. Loading is easy, and faster than rack I had been using. Instructions show the rack can be tilted away from the vehicle, with the bicycles in place, to access the rear tailgate. That said, I have tried this with lighter conventional bikes, but not with with heavier E-bikes loaded. Nice to know that rack can handle it, but I do not like with idea of tilting over 100 pounds combined E-bikes weight, so I will likely not use this feature when the E-bikes are loaded on the carrier. I regularly use the tilt feature, but only once I have unloaded the E-bikes, to access my other gear in the cargo compartment of the car. The rack does fold, but it will always be in view of the cars backup sensors when reversing the vehicle. You will need to learn to turn off the vehicles backup alarms when rack is attached. For my wifes newer vehicle, we needed to know how to turn off backup alarm, as well as disabling automatic safety braking (separate functions). This was also true bike rack I had used up to now. When removed from the vehicle and folded, the rack is easy to move. Completely folded, it is about the size of a medium size suitcase, it has wheels and it can be rolled. Like luggage, rolls nice on hard surfaces, but not on grass or gravel. I like the fact that when folded, there are no protruding pieces to smack me or catch or doorways when putting into storage. I don not have a garage, so it is being moved down a tight basement staircase without issue. Prior to purchasing this rack, I had used a hanging-style bike rack, with bike cross-bar adapters for the E-bikes. It worked, but it was unwieldy with the additional weight of the E-bikes, it definitely needed 2 people minimum to load the E-bikes. Even with 2 people, it was difficult and unpleasant to load the E-bikes. With the ease of use with this new rack, I now consider this a must-have bike accessory for anyone considering the move to an E-bike. Of course, you would not need this if you only use your E-bike to commute around your own town or city. Bit you will miss the opportunity to tour other cities or towns on your E-bike.

My purchase of the THULE bike rack was amazing, great solid design and strength.Really easy to fit to my vehicle tow bar, easy to put our bikes on and a great locking system to keep them safe. Awesome product

Excellent product. I’ve used it for the past 7 months. Mainly on the back of my fifth wheel. I have travelled over 3.000 miles and can’t believe the peace of mind. Very well made and handles our two e-bikes without any issues. It was pricey, so I ordered a similar one thru Amazon at half the price. It broke before I had a chance to use it. My suggestion is to spend the extra for the Thule. You won’t be disappointed!

No me gusto q venia con una rueda rota