Saris Bones 2 Bike Rack

The Saris Bones 2 is a rear mounted, injection moulded cycle rack.  Designed to carry 2 bikes, with the bike rack mounted on your rear windscreen or boot.  Lets see what the Bones 2 can offer.

OVERVIEW

The Bones 2 from Saris is a rather attractive looking beast.  Far from the utilitarian looking frame units that we are used to seeing hanging off the backs of cars, this is curvilicious.

The Bones 2 carries 2 bikes hanging off the boot of your car (that’s the trunk if you are reading this in the good old US of A).  The claims are that it will fit practically any vehicle – vans, saloons, hatchbacks – even cars with a  spoiler.

The arms are made from 100% recycled, “heavy duty” (i.e. thick) injection moulded plastic.  It is attached to your car in the usual manner for rear mounted bike racks – using ratchet straps that hook onto various points on your car.

EASE OF INSTALLATION

Saris have provided an installation video on their website showing how to install it.

As you can see, installation is pretty much as for all boot mounted bike racks.  The trick is getting it lined up correctly and then double…. no, triple checking that it is all secure before driving off.

As with all rear mounted bike racks, installation is subjective to the car you are driving.  What may fit easily onto my car, won’t necessarily fit easily onto my car, so check before you buy.  This is the same with all rear mounted bike racks though and the Bones 2 is no exception.  Although Saris claims that it will even fit cars with spoilers, when I looked my car up on their fit guide (which I always have problems with boot mounted racks because of my spoiler) they don’t support it.

One good point is that Saris provide stickers so that you can mark the rib positions before you disassemble the rack.  This makes re-assembly so much faster, so plus points for that.  One purchaser said he spent 20 minutes installing it the first time, but since then its only taken him 2 minutes, which is pretty good going.

Ease of Installation: 70%

 

BUILD QUALITY

Being made mostly out of injection moulded plastic, you can guarantee that the arms and legs will never rust, unlike most metallic frame based bike racks.

There have been some complaints that plastic screws are used for the fittings and that these strip when tightened too much.  From delving further into the reviews, these screws do not need to be over-tightened and they have simply been overtightened on the misguided belief that this will provide a more secure fitting.  Simply tighten them to finger tight and it should be fine – as long as the fittings aren’t rattling.  Being plastic, this will absorb any vibrations more than meta and so is less likely to work loose.

There are a few complaints about the plastic coating on the tabs wearing away and scratching car paintwork.  It’s a hard design workaround this one.  If the straps are fitted and tightened properly, then there should be little movement.  However, any plastic is bound to wear eventually, so its worth keeping an eye on it and if you start to see wear, then you can always put a thin piece of material from an old t-shirt or something between the tabs and your paintwork.  Again, this is an issue with this type of bike rack, rather than this specific model.

Build Quality: 80%

 

DESIGN

For a rear mounted bike rack, the Saris Bones 2 is well designed.  Getting a boot mounted bike rack to fit some cars is a tough job, with the rear configurations of cars being so different.  Saris do provide a Vehicle Fit Guide to check that your car is suitable for their racks, so check this before purchasing.

Complaints about this rack scratching paintwork were in the minority, but there were a few.  Reviews stating that it DIDN’T scratch the paintwork were more plentiful, with plenty of people praising the amount of rubber padding on this rack.  For those worried about it scratching paintwork, as with all bike racks that mount onto your paintwork, I recommend firstly cleaning the area underneath the mount thoroughly.  If you get a bit of grit between the mount and your paintwork, then small vibrations will make this act like sandpaper.  Then, if there is no rubber padding where it comes into contact with the paintwork, then use some fabric from an old t-shirt (again, ensure its clean – no grit!) as a buffer.

There were a few complaints about full suspension bikes not fitting onto the rack. If you have a full suspension bike then take care, whichever bike rack you end up looking for – particularly with the boot mounted ones, as they do tend to use the top tube to support the bike.

The kit comes with a sway strap to prevent your bike moving around on the rack.  It is also worth investing in another strap to prevent your front wheel spinning and damaging your car, or itself.

As with all rear mounted bike racks, you cannot get into the boot with this fitted.  It also has no way of being locked up, so you wouldn’t want to leave it at a motorway service station for a 30 minute break.  Again, this is a fault with all rear mounted bike racks.

Once the bikes are removed, the rack folds down to a size that will fit into most boots, so there are no problems taking your bike off out into the country and going out for a ride.

Design: 80%

 

PRICE

For a rear mounted bike rack, this is not a cheap piece of kit.  Coming in at over £100, this is on the pricey side.  If you have roof bars already fitted to your car, you may be better off getting a roof mounted bike rack, but you need to weigh up the pros and cons of each design.

Price: 60%