“The Shingleback [vertical bike rack] has been well and truly tested over the past few months…we’ve struggled to find a fault with this impressive unit”
Design
“When it arrived for testing, the Shingleback LITE 4 Bike was in a couple of boxes, ready to be put together. It is of steel and alloy construction, and you do have to build it yourself…thankfully, Shingleback supplies a comprehensive set of instructions (and there’s an excellent YouTube video guide if you prefer visual instruction), making even the most hapless of handymen look like a home improvement legend…a big bonus is that all of the holes and bolts married up perfectly – very much appreciated!”
“The cradles that are used to hold the bike’s front wheel are adjustable…allowing you to adjust the cradle both forward/back and rotate in either direction. This is simple, obvious, and bloody clever, enabling you to tweak the angle of each bike to its neighbour to avoid touching the neighbouring bike/handlebars”
Picture from Australian Geographic – Gear Test
In the field
“The LITE 4 has been on test for a few months now and it has been most often loaded with four bikes. We’ve now got the loading process down to barely a couple of minutes – a far cry from the ‘bad old days’ of playing bike Tetris for 30 minutes with racks that position bikes too close to each other, then tout themselves as ‘four bike racks’ when, in reality, they’re really only good for two.”
“The LITE has a nifty foot lever that allows you to tilt the rack (and loaded bikes) back enough to either open the rear hatch/window of your vehicle, or to aid in loading the bikes; smaller riders don’t have to lift the bike up so high/at all to put the front wheel into the cradle.”
“The Shingleback [vertical bike rack] has been well and truly tested over the past few months and it has seriously impressed us. Between me and a couple of other senior gear testers, we’ve struggled to find fault with this impressive unit. The very clever design, robust construction, attention to detail, and how incredibly easy it is in use, makes it a definite candidate for one of our Best Gear awards this year…For any cycling family looking for a bike rack that offers model versions that can lug anywhere from one/two up to six bikes, the Shingleback range is well worth a look.”
