The bikes secure like a sandwich the top piece which secures the bike frames to the rack comes with two securing bolts, one of which is lockable (key included). Which is nice if you want to stop for something to eat (or some other errand) on the way back from your ride.
The bikes felt very secure during our drive on the highway.
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We sought a spare tire bike rack to use with our '05 Honda CRV and this rack fits the bill par excellence! This rack works great. It's solid, easy to install, and includes lock-down security which is a real plus. The rear gate also readily opens and closes when bikes are on the rack.Security is two-fold: 1) the bike rack itself can be locked down (using the padlock of your choice we use a secure, hard-to-cut padlock) and 2) the bikes can be locked onto the rack with the supplied locking bolt. (Only 1 key is included for the locking bolt, which I thought was an error so called Surco who'll send a spare at $5 each; we opted to get a 2nd one made through a locksmith which also cost $5.)
This rack installed with no problem and is SOLID -the bikes don't budge once tightened down into the rubber-padded wedges between two plates. While the two bolts do take a while to fully tighten or loosen to remove the top plate it's also possible (if only 1 or 2 bikes are on the rack) to just loosen the bolts enough to slip the bike frame to or from the inner or outer wedges, and lift the bike through and off of the bike rack.
I also like that the rack is easy to remove while keeping the rack plate bolted behind the tire AND the spare tire cover fits (without having to remove that plate bolted behind tire).
Lastly, because CRV spare tire is off-center, when loading 2 or 3 large bikes, one or two may extend past the side of the car a bit, but that hasn't been a problem (other than maybe causing some drag, but not bad). Most important is that the bikes are SOLID and SECURE. We highly recommend this bike rack.
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I just completed a 500 mile trip to Maine with three bikes on this rack. It was attached to my CR-V. We encountered all types of road surfaces from high speed highway to dirt roads and the rack preformed very well. The bikes (two mountian and one kids) were held firm and without any sway or wobble. To mount and dismount the rack was a piece of cake. The only thing I had to do was purchase a conversion tube for my daughter's bike as it is of the modern kids style that has a large frame tube.Honest reviews on Surco BT300 Spare Tire Rack
This is my second Surco Spare Tire rack had a Jeep about 10 years ago and loved the one I bought then. Now I have another Wrangler and just got a new BT300. Both were excellent. The pros:solid and secure no jiggling or shaking like the ones that insert into the hitch and are not snug.
can fit 3 bikes
has locking mechanism
no worries about getting in the way of the tailgate opening
Cons:
the screw-down mechanism for securing the bikes is not as quick as a strap-down model but there's a real sense of security with this mechanism
my first one had a little rust, we'll see how this one fares.
All in all, I think this is the best set-up for folks with spare-tires on the back.
I recently bought this rack to fit on our 2004 Toyota RAV-4. It installs pretty easily you have to take the spare tire off to mount it, and the first ... tirerackbike.blogspot.com
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