First off, I’d like to start with a bike count and this is before Santa comes….we have over 10 bikes in our garage. Oh Man. We need some intervention, or something! My entire family are bicycling fanatics. I have 3, hubby has more than 4 (I’ve lost count) and the kids each have one plus more that we need to re gift as they are now too small. Every single vacation we go on involves bikes- even trips to Italy (back in the day before 2 kids). For the past 5 years, we’ve used this style of Yakima rack to haul our gear. And, for additional storage space, we use a Sky Box (I refer to as a rocket).
Our car trips involving bikes are always a minimum of one hour with a maximum of 8 hours away from home. On our annual trips to Monterey, we usually haul at least 4 bikes (2 adult and 2 kid). The smallest kid bike went in the trunk, but, the rest were mounted on the bike racks. Although, this bike rack was great for hauling bikes, one thing that was seriously wrong was that we couldn’t open the back of the car unless we wanted to take all the bikes OFF. This leads to a lot of frustration when you want to get your kids a snack and can’t reach the ice chest. Or even, if we stay over at someone’s house, we can’t get to our gear without removing the bikes- which is a serious hassle.
Yakima contacted me regarding their new racks called the Swing Daddy. Through a series of emails, they asked if we wanted to try the new Swing Daddy that comes with a 2? hitch. My husband and I, of course, was super excited to try out the new rack. When we first got it, we went straight to the garage to try it out- only to find out that one part was broken. Boo. Yakima immediately sent a replacement part but it then took us another 3 weeks to get back in the garage to test it out. (It’s the off season, friends, we don’t use these racks normally until 2nd week of February!) Anyway, below is my husband and two of our bikes that are loaded on to the Swing Daddy. They are mounted every other (handlebars away from each other) and this one could easily fit two more bikes- maybe even three. It took him approximately 15 minutes to mount the rack to the car, and another 10 minutes to add the bikes. The Swing Daddy is really classy compared to our old version. There is a locking mechanism that is inside the frame of the mount and to lock the bikes, you simply pull it out.
“Oh no, the tailgate is up!”
“What shall I do?”
“I released this latch here and the whole thing swings out of the way!”
The Swing arm is completely straight out.
“Voila, the tailgate shuts!!”
Put the Swing Daddy back in place, and lock the bikes down. It’s hard to see but the little red nob on the left under the bigger red piece is the lock. The cable loops through all of the bike frames to lock in the front of the bike mount.
All Yakima products can be purchased online or through a variety of retailers. We always use REI for big purchases like these. Yakima specializes in mounts for all kinds of gear, not just bikes. This includes kayaks, ski’s and even bike cruisers! We have been absolutely pleased with all of our Yakima purchases and are very thankful to have received the Swing Daddy for purposes of review! Please feel free to add any additional information or testimony you might have regarding Yakima racks.
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