High End Specialty Hitch Mounted Bike Racks

Ivor Allsop and his family have sought to make everyday tasks easier. Like all of our products, Softride Access Racks developed out of necessity. Ivor's brainchild arose with the realization that his five-foot wife, Betty, would never be able to lift her bike atop the family Suburban. Like he had been doing for nearly 25-years, Ivor sought to make this burdensome process easier by creating a hitch mounted bike rack.

In one afternoon Ivor and his two sons, Jim and Mike, sat down and brainstormed what was the first hitch mounted bike rack. The men quickly went to work patenting their ingenious parallelogram design that allows individuals to lower their rack parallel to the ground. The parallelogram functionality is unsurpassed because it does not "dump" bikes onto the ground when the user lowers the rack. This allows the user to easily access the rear of their vehicle without having to remove their bikes from the rack.

Seventeen years later, the Allsop family & the Softride team have maintained the same primary focus solving consumer problems. This year marks an exciting evolution for Softride as they unveil four new hitch mounted racks, including two upright racks, a tray style rack and a cargo rack. Maintaining the "access" advantage, Softride has updated the features and aesthetics of their bike racks significantly expanding the line. The four new racks will allow Softride to serve a much larger range of consumer needs from the Access Dura to the premium aluminum Access Elite.

Features:

1. Parallelogram Tilt Down Design- This unique bike carrier design keeps the rack arms and bikes level at all times.  It allows you to tilt the carrier down for trunk access without your bikes even touching the ground! Spring-loaded, quick-release pull pin handle shifts upright bars away from the vehicle. Upright bar extends from 90 degrees to 45 degrees when tilted out

2. Rubberized Cradles- Soft rubberized cradles hold your bike safely on Softride bike rack arms. The picture below shows the Access Element Rack. The rubber straps secure your bike to the rack.

3. Anti Sway Cradles- These upgraded cradles include one anti-sway cradle and rubber strap to prevent bikes from rocking back and forth.  They come standard on Access Dura models in addition to the Rubberized Cradles described above.

4. 6 Strap System- The standard security system for most trunk and hatchback bike racks across the industry.  Straps attach around the lid of your trunk: 2 on top, 2 on the sides, and 2 on the bottom.