Submitted by
teartags
a Cross Country Rider
from Lyons, CO
Date Reviewed: May 24, 2011
Strengths: Pretty colors make it easy to recognize your car in a crowded parking lot.
Weaknesses: Made with poor quality materials.
Bottom Line:
The metal piece that goes under your rack bars is cheap metal and bends when your bike gets slung back and forth on a bumpy road. Then it just gets worse and your bike teeter totters all the time. Love it when I see the shadow of the top of my bike moving 10" back and forth.
Also, the pin that this piece of metal grabs on to works its way out making the front of the rack come off entirely and letting you see the front of your wife's bike drop down next to the passenger side window while the back wheel is still attached. Awesome.
Finally, when the passive side of the skewer inevitably rusts and you need to adjust it for another bike, you grab your pliers to hold the nut and when you crank on the handle using only your hand power, the skewer breaks in half! My hands are pretty strong, but...
So you make a few trips to RM (local here) and get free replacement parts for all of these problems, but the same things happen again.
That's when you throw these in the garbage and buy Yakima Vipers.
It's harder to find my truck in the parking lot now, but I'm not checking my sideviews for my bike every 10 minutes either
Submitted by
billyloon
a Weekend Warrior
from Houston, TX
Date Reviewed: April 20, 2010
Strengths: Solid design, inexpensive, easy to install, cool colors, optional disc brake adapter and locking skewers
Weaknesses: Uses a Torx bolt to secure to the roof rack. I wish there was an option to lock the bike tray to the rack. Not like it mattered for me anyhow since my entire rack and trays were stolen off the roof of my car.
Bottom Line:
These are a great, affordable alternative to Thule and Yakima trays. I would buy them again if I wanted to roll the dice with a roof-mounted rack again in a high crime area. They are well built trays. I never had a problem with them in the 3 years that I owned them. I did cover up the Torx bolt that secures the trays to the rack with a piece of black electrical tape to make it harder for a thief to figure out how to remove the trays. It was not the bike trays fault that these were jacked from my car, it is THULE'S FAULT for making such an easily removed rack system (despite 4 LOCKED rack towers).
Submitted by
Sean Bussard
a Cross Country Rider
from Montclair, NJ
Date Reviewed: December 21, 2007
Strengths: I had a thule rack and they never felt very secure. these are nice and solid! I got a green one and it is totally rad, easy to find my car in the huge parking lots.
Weaknesses: none yet, but they do not make a matching front wheel holder.
Bottom Line:
The quick releases on these things are awesome! I wish these guys made them for bikes too. Everything just seemed better than my thule ones.
Submitted by
tyler stambaugh
a Weekend Warrior
from colorado springs, co
Date Reviewed: May 13, 2007
Strengths: great price, customer service is top of the line
Weaknesses: none yet
Bottom Line:
dont waste your money on the other guys. great product, great performance. customer service is the best ive seen yet. I ordered my racks from an online company, they shiped missing a pin in each head. I called rockymounts and after and I had two replacement heads in the mail the next day.
Submitted by
blantonator
a Weekend Warrior
from fairfax, va
Date Reviewed: April 23, 2007
Strengths: -Price (half the price of the competition -Comes in different colors -Seems to hld the bike just fine -Has nicer racheting system for rear tire... new Yakima's have a cheap clip system for rear tires.
Weaknesses: -rack held on to bars by a torx bolt (easy to steal) -have to screw quick release a bunch of times when no bike on roof
Bottom Line:
This is a cool affordable bike rack that comes in a variety of colors... mine being gold. I have to two gripes. First of all even with the additional barrel lock, the rack and bike could easily be stolen if a theif has a torx screwdriver. For me this is a pretty common tool. My second complaint is that the quick release must be screwed together several times when there is no bike on the rack, otherwise the QR will flap in the wind and can easily be stolen This takes a minute or two and is slighly annoying. The quick release is two piece and appears it could be stolen pretty easily when there is no bike on the rack. I live in a fairly safe area, so I'm not to conserned about the rack or bike being stolen, but i may end up drilling out the head of the bolt on the rack, preventing me or anyone from removing it without a stuggle.
Bike Setup: Tri bike Flyte Mtn Bike with disc brakes
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
noah
a Racer
from boulder, co, usa
Date Reviewed: June 9, 2005
Strengths: Inexpensive, holds my bikes to my car well, customer service, comes in "pimp daddy gold"
Weaknesses: On the older version, the skewers wore out...not a problem with the new ones (see below).
Bottom Line:
These racks do everything they should for a lot less than Yaks and Thules. I happen to live about 4 blocks from where they make these in Boulder, CO. The skewers on the older models started to wear out (the o-ring holding the spring in dried up - it still worked fine, just annoying). I drove over to Rocky Mounts, showed them the old skewer, and a minute later the guy walked out and gave me a brand new one (actually 3, one for each of my mounts). The new ones seem to be made a lot better with more metal parts - no problems so far. So 5 for value, and 5 overall because even though I had a problem, the customer service was fantastic. Also, the new product is excellent, which shows that Rocky Mounts actually engineered a sensible improvement into their product, rather than more bells and whistles which do nothing but double the price.
Submitted by
Jason
a Cross Country Rider
from Cape Cod, MA
Date Reviewed: April 4, 2005
Strengths: works on yakima and thule. great customer service/attitude
Weaknesses: pointy QR lever hurts hand rattles without bike
Bottom Line:
Well, I had a set of the older rocky mounts, and they are great. simple, work on thule or yakima, and the customer service was great when I broke one mount driving into the garage, replacing stuff for free/cheap. We got another set when we got another car. Then new ones (lariat) are not that great. the way it attaches is more secure, but at the same time, you have to make it super tight in order to have the axle skewer slide freely. with that, it rattles when you dont have a bike in it. my other gripe is that some idiot made the end of the QR lever pointy and sharp. so it hurts your hand. so go for the old ones, but not the new ones.
Similar Products Used: I used Yakimas trays before and they began to have problems with the closer skews after 6 months.
Bike Setup: Schwinn Homegrown with XT/XTR with Rock Shox SL.
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Cheap Guy Rob
a Cross Country Rider
from Colorado
Date Reviewed: February 13, 2005
Strengths: Inexpensive, but bomb-proof. Customer service is second to none.
Weaknesses: Wasn't free.
Bottom Line:
Great design, since it fits both Yakima and Thule cross bars, but more importantly, it is the only thing that looks good on my 87' Subaru Ghetto wagon.
Similar Products Used: I have used yakima and thule trays in the past
Bike Setup: Maverick ML-7 with the double crown fork
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
Jim Potter
a Cross Country Rider
from Longmont, CO USofA
Date Reviewed: February 12, 2005
Strengths: Strong and simple. Fits Yak and Thule bars, quick on/off. Dreamy colors.
Weaknesses: Can't think of any.....
Bottom Line:
Very good product. Been using Rocky's for about a decade now, wouldn't use anything else. Fits whatever, holds bike very secure, way past appropriate and prudent speed limits. The price is right and you get your choice of colors, locks, etc. Just use 'em.
Similar Products Used: Yakima years ago (not last year)
Bike Setup: Moots Smoothie Blend
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
greg keefer
a Racer
from Austin, TX US
Date Reviewed: February 12, 2005
Strengths: durable, easy to install(no brainer), quality build, stellar color choices. I mean if you aint riding your ride, the least you can do is give the carrier some style. Black is great, but I like to separate myslf from the masses of tourons with bike racks attached to their SU EVERYTHING...
Weaknesses: none that I have encountered so far. Going away from the older design utilizing metal has strengthened the product.
Bottom Line:
My LBS doesn't carry rocky mount. I am working on this and I think it should be an easy sell. The product is reasonably priced, built to endure, looks hot, and man it's so easy to install. Why not break it up a bit and give the guys who are offering a killer product at such a good price a piece of the pie. Not to mention that in world of half ass customer service that I have encountered with some large bike companies, which happens I understand, the folks at Rocky Mount were quick to help me out, on a Friday night none the less. Now that's customer service. Give them your hard earned dollar, they deserve it!
Similar Products Used: thule..when my thule carrier shuttle actually busted I went to price them and I freaked out. Way too much $$$.
Bike Setup: How does this pertain to my Rocky Mount carrier? XC race bike.
Overall Rating:
Value Rating:
Submitted by
John
a Racer
from Longmont, CO
Date Reviewed: February 11, 2005
Strengths: Style, Compatibility, Price ($)
Weaknesses: None
Bottom Line:
If you want some color to hook up on your car or the versatility of having a tray that can be swapped around from car to car regardless of Bars (Sans Saris) this is the Tray for you. These trays have been moved from car to car as we car pool to the Western Slope of Colorado and are so easy to swap especially since I run a Thule rack system and most of my friends run Yakima, but with these it does not matter cuz they go 'Both Ways'. I love the new metal face which was the reason I upgraded from the plastic of old to the new metal faced (Lariat trays). And for the price and cool color these are a no Brainer. 5 Chilis to Ingenuity.