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INCOMING: YAKIMA HOLD UP PLATFORM RACK

Posted by Caleb Smith on Friday October 17 2014

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If you’ve travelled outside of New Zealand to ride your bike in the last ten years there’s a pretty high chance at some point your bike has ended up on a Yakima Platform bike rack. We haven’t seen this style of rack here too much as they rely heavily on the American style 2″ hitch receiver, (as opposed to our weak-arse bendy towballs), but with more and more cars coming into New Zealand with this style of fitting as standard we thought it was time to show you the very rad Yakima Hold Up that’s available here now.

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The best bit about Yakima’s roof and platform racks is there’s no fastening to the frame like other brands. The front wheel is clamped down on by the pivot arm and the rear wheel is held in place with a ratchet tie-down. To load a bike on this rack takes literally seconds and the individual bike holders can be moved to eliminate bikes touching.

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The pin at the hitch end of the rack pulls out, allowing the rack to be folded up when not in use. You can also pull the pin and drop the rack down to access your hatchback or boot. It’s a pretty damn resolved system and I’m a bit gutted my car doesn’t have a hitch mount. More and more New Zealand new cars are rocking them and most towbar-outfits now offer to fit them; just make sure you ask for a 2″ to maximise your options.Yakima-Hold-Up-1522-web

We thought we’d load up the Nomad and my new Cannondale ‘cross bike to see just how quick and easy it was, and without any tweaking there was zero contact between bikes. This rack will be heading down to one of New Zealand’s newly appointed Yakima brand ambassadors, Sam Blenkinsop, after we’ve finished. Kelly McGarry has already been on the Yakima programme for over a year now and has been seen sporting various bits and pieces around.

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Yakima-Hold-Up-1529The pivoting wheel cup and ratchet tiedown contact the rim, but that’s pretty much it.Yakima-Hold-Up-1512

Yakima-Hold-Up-1531And it all locks up. It’s not a Kryptonite lock but it’s a deterrent and is built in so you won’t lose it. Also, Yakima have what they call the SKS (or Same Key System) where one Yakima key will open everything Yakima you own, be it the roof racks, bike rack or your cargo box.Yakima-Hold-Up-1513

Yakima-Hold-Up-1527As you can see, apart from the ratchet tiedown on the rear wheel, there is nothing touching your bike.

Yakima-Hold-Up-1515Even though the bikes mount in opposite directions, if you find they do touch, you can still fine-tune the fit with each bike very easily by loosening the four Allen bolts and sliding it across.Yakima-Hold-Up-1517And the brawn of the whole system is this 2″ receiver and the wonderful little pin right there.

Yakima’s range is absolutely massive and you can check it out here. All the New Zealand prices are on the site, as well as links to find your nearest stockist. That said, your local bike shop should also be able get them in for you.

Yakima-Hold-Up-8238Oh I almost forgot to mention we have four of these cool Yakima T-shirts and bottle-opening key chains to give away. You just need to email us here and tell us what year Yakima introduced The SteelHead, Yakima’s first locking fork bike mount, and your T-shirt size. You can find the answer at Yakima.co.nz.

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Last updated: 29th October 2014

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