The Saris Sentinel II is a rear suspension bike rack with adjustable arms and unique hold down straps designed to carry two bikes. It can be mounted on hatch backs, sedans and passenger vans. Made in the USA this rack comes with a life time guarantee and is fully assembled.
Manufacturer: Saris
Model: Sentinel 2
Attachment Type: Rear
Max Weight of Bike:
Max Total Weight: 31 kg
Max Assembled Weight (minus bikes): 6.4kg
Additional Features:
OVERVIEW
This is an inexpensive bike rack that comes ready assembled and which all reviewers felt could be fitted, easily, in less than ten minutes. It is light weight and folds down for easy storage either in the car when cycling or when at home. Made from light weight metal and plastic it looks perfectly acceptable.
EASE OF INSTALLATION
This rack comes pre-assembled and, with that rare commodity, clear instructions. The arms can be extended and it is important to make sure than when fitted to the car they are at an angle slightly higher than horizontal. There are some short videos on the internet but it is not really necessary to view them as assembly is so straight forward. Bikes are held down by means of pre fitted hold down straps, but see comments in the Build Quality section.
Ease of Installation: 80%
BUILD QUALITY
This is probably not a piece of kit that is going to last you a life time if you use it regularly, despite the lifetime warranty. The hooks on the straps are often mentioned as leaving marks on the car and several reviewers reported that they were forced to cover them with gaffer tape to give greater protection. The biggest complaint though seems to be that the plastic hold down straps work themselves loose on long journeys or at high speed. This could be overcome with additional bungees or tie down straps, but when you are paying for a product, you don’t expect to have to add to it to make it useable.
Build Quality: 30%
DESIGN
Designed with the occasional, or weekend cyclist in mind this is an easy to fit, easy to store rack that is highly suitable for that purpose. The fact that it fits a few cars with spoilers is a plus. You might want to think about something a little more robust if you do a lot of bike hauling or if you have got a couple of thousand pounds of bike hung out there though, especially in light of the strap issue.
Design: 20%
PRICE
At a starting price of under sixty pounds, whilst this is cheap for a cycle rack, the design flaws in the straps and the hooks let it down and there are cheaper alternatives out there – but not if you have a spoiler and this rack fits your car.
Price: 30%
OVERALL
This is a rack that will fit on most car types and is quite rare in that it can be fitted to a car with a spoiler. Although many users observed that the strap hooks were not adequately padded most seemed to feel that the vinyl brace coverings on the bars offered good protection for the car paintwork. There have been question marks raised about the plastic hold downs though for this price perhaps one should expect to use an extra hold down strap or two. Although the manufacturers have let themselves down in regard to the hook coverings and the tie down straps, all in all, with its ease of mounting and its reasonable price this is probably a good rack for the leisure cyclist who will not be hauling a bike rack every day.
Overall: 3.5