Shingleback Vertical Rack - 5 Bike

Fantastic rack for trips away riding gravity tracks with the kids. Its quick and easy to load and unload, the tilt works well to get into the boot back at the camp site, and the stand stores the unit and the bikes in the garage when you get home. An absolute cr*cker. Show details ·  1

There is a lot I like about the Shingleback Verticle Rack, but the biggest problem with it is if you go over bumps at highway speeds the bikes can come out of the top wheel holders, even when held in place with the rubber straps. This happened to me and our electric bike was a write-off. I now tie the top, and bottom wheels with rope, and make… Read more

sure the top rope is tied to the main part of the frame under the wheel so the wheel holds tightly in place and can't jump out of the wheel holder. The bike rack needs a redesign to overcome this problem.

Shingleback disappointing – We purchased the Shingleback sport rack for 4 bikes thinking it would be easier and a good option for our van when travelling with our bikes but we were wrong. From our first trip the bikes moved a lot and the tyres rubbed on the sidewalls , we covered them in padding and even strapped the bikes on to help but nothing seemed to stop it and the… Read more

rubbing was almost through the tyre completely. Contact with Shingleback directly didn’t help as they offered a few suggestions but we had already tried these and they basically stated that there are no faults with the rack. Really disappointed because these look great and after spending 2 grand it should work great but doesn’t.

Solidly built but heavy and cumbersome – The Shingleback 5-bike vertical rack is certainly solid and well built. Once its on the car, loading and securing the bikes is easy (although you have to lift the bikes pretty high to get the wheel engaged, which may not be easy for everyone). Unfortunately, the rack is both extremely heavy and very top-heavy and unbalanced, making it virtually… Read more

impossible for one person (of average strength) to fit to the tow hitch on their own. Storing the thing when its off the car is also a problem (unless you want to fork out an extra $400+ for their stand), because its huge and doesn't sit nicely on the ground. When you do get the rack engaged in the hitch receiver, it will wobble like crazy unless you secure it with the anti-wobble bracket supplied with the rack. This takes time, because its secured with nyloc nuts and you need to get them very tight. You also have to make sure you have the correct socket and handle on hand whenever you fit the rack.

I took the plunge and spent $1500 on this rack because I thought it would make life easier, getting the bikes loaded quickly and easily and getting me and the kids out mountain biking more. I'm sad to say its been the opposite - we've been getting out riding even less, because the rack is such a pain to get on the car, and leaving it on isn't an option for me. Reluctantly (because it is a nice bit of equipment) I'll be selling it and will probably get some kind of platform rack instead.

Shingleback 5 bike rack review – I just wanted to write a review on the Shingleback Offroad 5 bike rack. Being a MTB family and having carted our bikes around oz on home-made bike racks I was convinced by reading reviews and talking to friends to take the plunge and part with $1500 for the ducks guts of bike racks. Initial observations were that the rack is super solid and well… Read more

made. The welds are very neat and the steel used is thick walled. The fixings are solid and overall I would give the build quality 5 stars. For ease of use the wheel cradle and bungee cords work very well and as opposed to loading bikes on the roof.

However there are some limitations of the rack and if you are going to shell out $1500 you may want to consider these. Firstly because of the solid construction the thing is heavy. I am fairly used to heavy lifting but this thing is really heavy and awkward to get onto the vehicle. The reviews I read didn't mention the weight as an issue. Secondly, unless you get the swing-away arm you may not be able to open a barn style tailgate even with it folded down. The hitch of the upright sticks up and for me my Pajero door won't clear it. The reviews say you can still have tailgate access when it is folded down but these must have been other style tailgates. One last thing that isn't mentioned in reviews is the potential for brake levers to scratch the daylights out of your top tube if you don't put a rubber band around them to keep them pulled on. This is largely due to different bike sizes which I realise but for the price of the rack personally I would expect this to be sorted. All in all I like the design of this rack. It is a solid easy to use rack and Shingleback Offroad are an Australian based company who are a pleasure to deal with, being helpful and efficient. I write this simply to point out things that I would have appreciated knowing in doing my comparisons.