Rack Finder

Need help with rack size, vehicle fit, bike fit, tire sizes or other questions? Let us help you determine the best VelociRAX to fit your individual needs.

If you can't find your answer here, shoot us a text or email us at info@velocirax.com

*The first question is how many bikes do you plan on hauling?
- Many customers consider buying a rack that hauls one more than their current need. Refer to the chart below to see which racks haul your selection of bikes.

Reference Key: ✓ Good to go!
* Possible if able to rotate the road bike handle bars
*** Can be done, but the rack will be wide compared to car body. DO NOT exceed the hitch capcity of the vehicle.

QTY/Bike Type
7 Rack
6 Rack
5X Rack
5 Rack
4 Rack
3 Rack
7 MTBs
6 MTBs
5 MTBs
4 MTBs
3 MTBs
7 Road *
6 Road * *
5 Road * * *
4 Road * *
3 Road *
2 Road
7 Fat Tire
6 Fat Tire
5 Fat Tire
4 Fat Tire
3 Fat Tire
7 Bikes (6 MTB, 1 Road)
7 Bikes (5 MTB, 2 Road) *
7 Bikes (4 MTB, 3 Road) *
6 Bikes (5 MTB, 1 Road)
6 Bikes (4 MTB, 2 Road) *
6 Bikes (3 MTB, 3 Road) * *
5 Bikes (4 MTB, 1 Road)
5 Bikes (3 MTB, 2 Road) *
5 Bikes (2 MTB, 3 Road) * * *
4 Bikes (3 MTB, 1 Road)
4 Bikes (2 MTB, 2 Road) *
4 Bikes (1 MTB, 3 Road) * *
FULL SIZE VEHICLES
MID SIZED VEHICLES *** ***
SMALL VEHICLES *** ***

NOTES: ✓ Good to go!
* Possible if able to rotate the road bike handle bars
*** Can be done, but the rack will be wide compared to car body. DO NOT exceed the hitch capcity of the vehicle.

Will the rack primarily be on your vehicle or mounted in the garage?
- Many leave the rack on their vehicle all year long while others leave it in the garage (using the provided garage mount bracket) and bring it out for weekends and trips.  If it's on your vehicle all the time we’d tend toward recommending the size you need and not up sizing.
But the final choice is up to you. The information below is what you need to know about our different rack sizes and the spacing available on each rack along with things to consider with different vehicles:
                                                                             
- ​VelociRAX require a class III two inch hitch with a capacity of 500 lbs and  3 - 3/8 inch (86mm) depth past center of hitch pin hole to insert.
- All VelociRAX models can carry 230 lbs. (bike weight)
- Each bike slot can carry up to 55 lbs.
- We recommend removing eBike batteries where possible and typically 4 ebikes will be at full rack capacity. Rubber bands (or bike tubes cut in ~1 inch sections) should also be placed on the brake levers so brakes are engaged to decrease any natural motion between bike and rack.
- Swing Aways and other hitch adaptors should be used with brake levers engaged to reduce motion between bike and rack. We now sell a hitch extender with built in anti-rattle.
- Overall height of all racks is 58 inches from the bottom of the hitch bar to the top of the tire hoops. 29 inch tires tend to be about 18 inches above this.

All Measurements in Inches

Vehicle Fit

What vehicle/s are you planning to carry your rack and bikes with?

Work wonderfully with VelociRAX! Your back door will open and clear the rack nicely.

Trucks work great with VelociRAX too. When the rack is hinged back to loading position, truck tailgates can open anywhere from 80-95% with bikes loaded. To gain 100% access to your tailgate and/or adapt from 3" or 2.5" hitch receivers (on larger trucks) to the 2" hitch receiver needed to accommodate the VelociRAX, check out our hitch receiver adaptors.

Work great with VelociRAX! Your back door will open and clear the rack entirely. In rare cases (where the hitch receiver is mounted deep under the vehicle) the rear hatch door will touch bike tires when fully opened but you will have plenty of back door access with bikes fully loaded.

We have minivan owners running with every rack we sell. While a fully loaded 7 rack with gear and riders will have your minivan weight capacity maxed out, it's your choice to load it up. Even with the greater ground clearance than a tray style 4 rack you may want to choose to cross deep dips in the road at an angle due to the lower clearance of some minivans. As a reference, even with a 1247mm wheelbase XL 29er (a very big bike) the back tire sits about 2 inches above the hitch bars so tapping tires is never a worry as the rack protects the bikes.

Please confirm you have a class III two inch hitch with a capacity of 500 lbs at a minimum (bumper hitches, extension hitches, and hitches with cantilevered sections allow too much hitch movement and are inadequate). One item to check is if a ladder could possibly interfere with the rack. Trailers and RVs produce extreme forces on racks and bikes. Take extra care to strap tight and use rubber bands (or bike tubes cut in ~1 inch sections) placed on the brake levers to decrease natural motion between bike and rack.

Yes! In most cases rear doors will open partially with the rack hinged to loading position and allow you to easily grab helmets etc. With bikes removed and the rack moved to the ground or camping position, both doors usually open completely.

Yes! VelociRAX will clear and mount on a vehicle with rear spare tires (Wranglers, Broncos, etc.). The ability to hinge the rack fully may be hindered by the spare but it will mount to the vehicle. If the spare stops the hinging and the spare can be adjusted upward, the rack will be able to hinge. In general, the vertical post is 13.25 inches back from the hitch pin hole.

With our extender/adaptor it allows for 17.25 inches of clearance from the center of your hitch pin hole and will generally allow full hinging to the loading position. If you have more questions on this, please email us.

There will be limited access and will only open slightly. Lowering the rack all the way to the ground (camp mode) may allow the door to fully open.

Bike Fit

What type of bikes do you plan on carrying with your VelociRAX?

Perfect! With VelociRAX you are good to go with all models!

- These bikes weigh a bit more than a standard bike. Each bike slot on a VelociRAX can take up to 55lbs.
- We do recommend removing batteries and accessories that can easily be removed. Rubber bands (or bike tubes cut in ~1 inch sections) should also be placed on the brake levers so brakes are engaged to decrease any natural motion between bike and rack.
- Each of our racks can haul up to 230 bike pounds.

Yes! With the wider tires you will need our fat tire baskets to load them. You can fit one fat bike among a rack full of “normal” bikes but know that it is going to be tighter and more spacing on our 3X, 412, or 5X racks may be nice. We prefer loading a 6 rack and placing fat bikes in slots 3 and 6.

- If you want to load 5 gravel or road bikes the 5X is for you (the 3X also has 15 inch spacing). If you’re carrying one drop bar bike, place it in any of our racks on the far right and it won’t interfere with the other bikes. Our 5X and 3X racks feature 15 inch spacing so drop bar bikes can be loaded without interfering with the next loaded bike. The 5X is also nice as you can unload a bike that is in the middle of the rack a bit more easily than you can on our tighter spaced racks.
- The VelociRAX 7 is great as it will hold 7 bikes but it can also hold 4 drop bar bikes by leaving every other bike slot empty.
- We have had customers load 6 road bikes on a 6 rack but bars were touching head tubes and some of the bars were narrow bars. Other customers will loosen and rotate the drop bars so they can load more without touching. This does require a wrench and tightening up your bars before you ride.

They load fine as well. Please note that fenders will need to be removed from the front tire. Handlebars may have a similar issue as bikes with drop bars depending on how they are shaped.

VelociRAX 7 can haul two with a little rope to tie the weight up; it will ride just fine when they are both mounted diagonally.

So do we! Let’s rack’em up and get riding. Typically, you load the largest (tallest head tube height) bike on the left, continuing with the same sized or smaller bikes next to it, moving to the right. If bikes touch, the load order should be switched around until clearance is found between all bikes. With many different bike geometries available today, it's hard to prescribe the perfect loading method for all situations. It will take a few minutes the first time, but loading will go quick as you figure out your mix of bikes and get the hang of it.

That's what VelociRAX were made for! With options ranging from 3 to 7 bikes, you can rack'em up and bring'em all!

Tire Fit

From 700cc road bike tires to 3”+ MTB tires to 5” fat tires and rim sizes from 20” to 29” (including 24", 26”, 27.5”), tires will fit without modification.  Fat Tire bike baskets and Small Tire Baskets are available for purchase for large fat tires or smaller BMX style bikes if needed.

Yes, load them up! There are no concerns in loading carbon wheels. If you have the deeper set carbon rims like on TT road bikes we recommend putting a small amount of padding between the bike and rack just in case, but this would be the only situation where you would have to make slight adjustments for carbon rims.

Full fenders on the front tire will need to be removed to load correctly in the rack. Mud guards will fit fine with a VelociRAX.

The stress wheels take is much more extreme in the riding, jumping, and cornering (that can be over 200 lbs of stress) than are seen when bikes are racked and hanging by their weight. Our soft straps gently but securely attach your bike to our rack with tire-only contact, minimizing the risk to expensive components.

20" BMX Tires
- Yes they are small enough that, depending on the size and geometry of the front fork, the fork can come in contact with the tire hoop they are secured to. If this is of concern, we recommend purchasing some of our extra straps to place and wrap on the tire basket to add a layer of rubber between the bike and rack. We also have Small Tire Baskets to accommodate 20" tires.

20" Mountain Bikes
- These have larger tires than most BMX bikes and so typically fit great.

16" Kids Bikes
- The rear wheel on smaller bikes aren't quite big enough to reach the lower cross bar but many rack owners have tied the back tire down to the lower bar or placed it in the center of the rack and tied the rear tire to the main post.

Other info:

Wind speed from moving vehicles can occasionally rotate rotate crank arms/pedals. If this causes concern it can be helpful to hook the pedal to the lower cross bar with a bungee ball strap to prevent pedals from rotating and touching the neighboring bike chain stays.

Loading with tires full of air with the axles and shocks that are ready to move, just like they are when you ride, does allow some normal natural motion in your bikes while on the rack. Rubber bands (or bike tubes cut in ~1 inch sections) placed on the brake levers can be used to decrease this natural motion between bike and rack.

VelociRAX are built extra tough with high strength steel and solid straps. We know all good trails don’t start on asphalt, so we also recommend strapping bikes tight, using the included rubber bands to lock out your brakes and using good judgement with all your driving.

Car wash companies will tell you not to go through the drive through. We also recommend the rack be removed before you go through an automated car wash. You can wash your rack with normal car wash soap and dry it off to keep it looking great.

Camp mode is when you lower the rack all the way to the ground allowing you to position your tire in the hoop holding the bike upright while the vehicle isn’t moving.

The garage mount bracket, which comes included with all hitch mount racks, allows the rack to become a vertical bike rack in the garage, both conveniently storing the rack and your bikes with easy access in the garage. In the garage you can place it tight to a wall on the left side but you’d want 12 inches on the right to give you a little space to load the bike on the far right.