Fiamma Bike Rack Review - 2x 29ers

[greenbrier62]

The fiamma bike rack, as many might find, is one of the many choices of bike racks for the vanagon. Due to the boxie-ness of the vanagon, as well as the lack of power mainly due to the altitude I live at, I chose to go with the fiamma rear-hatch mounted bike rack. I had tried the top mount system, but found the extra height to be detrimental during high winds and it added drag. In addition, my wife had trouble using it.

When the fiamma arrived, install was pretty basic after reading the instructions and mocking it up. It folds up nicely and the van fits in the garage still. One of the downfalls of the trailer hitch mounted bike rack is that one may have issue parking the van in the garage. Although some bike racks fold down, the extended length still may be too much.

The fiamma bike rack is easy to use: put the bike on, lock it into place and take it off. One of the issues that I have found though is that two 29ers are hard to haul. It can be done, but it takes a little time to figure it all out. I have two medium bikes: a Scott Spark 950 (wifes) and a Pivot Mach 429 (mine). To haul them, I have to take the Scott's seat off or put it all the way down. If not, the levers of either bike catches on the seat of the other. At first, I was hauling mine closest toward the van with the Scott on the outside. The arm of the rack that clasps to the upper tube rubbed a scratch in the paint on mine When my wife noticed this (we were on a two week road trip; ended last weekend) I started to put mine on the outside; no damage has occurred to hers (the Scott). One of the other issues I've noticed is that the trays do not like wide tires. Both bikes have 2.2 tires on the front and rear and they do not sit firm on the bottom of the trays. This causes cinching the tire straps to be very difficult. In fact, if you ride with high pressure, you may have to release some of it to get it to cinch. I'll have to take this into account when I purchase new tires; big nobbies might not fit at all. In addition to these issues, the rack does not come with a lock nor allow a Tule type lock that hides in the tube of the rack and is connected to the rack. A standard cable lock works though.

All in all, the ease of installing the bikes and my wife being able to use it out weigh the issues I've run into. I have solid work-arounds for all the issues I've encountered and use a standard HD cable lock to secure the bikes. Overall, for the price, this is a nice rack!

Hope this helps someone decided what system to use to haul their bikes...

(I'm not connected to fiamma nor any company that sells them)
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1987 Vanagon camper
2005 VW Passat TDI
1962 Chevy Greenbrier

[bdcain]

Lovetrain bike trailers (backstack) is my choice

and yes I am connected to the product
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANfjh85UeSI ]

anyone know how to paste the vid rather the link?[/youtube]

and you can make one too!
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It looks just like a telefunken u-47

[D Clymer]

I like my Fiamma bike rack a lot too. I keep it on the back of my Syncro and use it often for hauling mountain bikes. I haven't noticed much of a problem with the 2.00 width tires on both of my bikes fitting the rails. With the frames of mountain bikes getting more and more complex and compact, rail type racks are a much better choice than the typical hanger type racks. My brother has a Yakima rack for his Suburban and he had to buy something called a Tube Topper for his mountain bike because the hanger prongs on his rack wouldn't fit through the frame. The Tube Topper is basically a bar that mounts between the neck and the seat post and gives you something to hang the bike from. It is kind of a hassle and it takes more time. With the Fiamma, I can have two bikes secured and ready to go in about two minutes.

The only bad thing I can think of with the Fiamma rack is it is a little hard on the paint of the rear deck lid. But for vans like my Syncro, that are in decent but not excellent shape, this isn't really an issue.

Initially, I was having trouble with the hydraulic struts not holding up the deck lid with the rack attached. But a year ago, I bought some of GoWesty's hydraulic struts, which are stronger than stock, and they easily hold the deck lid and rack wide open.

David

[jackbombay]

For a hitch rack the Kuat is hard to beat, it is a tray style so any bike drops right in, 15 seconds to unload a bike, maybe 30 seconds to load a bike? It is spendy though.
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[bdcain]

what about a couple of surly's
with 4 inch clown shoes?
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It looks just like a telefunken u-47

[DeanZimmer]

I really like the Fiamma rack. It takes a couple of minutes to figure out the best way to load each new combination, i.e. 2 mountain bikes, or road bike and mountain bike, but once you get it figured mounting each bike takes only a minute.
And yes I it did carry my Moonlander with 4.8 tires, I couldn't used the stock straps on the wheels, I used a couple of canvas straps to cinch them down and everything was secure.

[Chuey]

[bdcain]

that can be done too on my setup
just put prongs for wheels up on top rung
make progs longer if needed after putting on top rung
and top rung wider depending on wheelspan
as all stems /connectors need 4 allen bolts to loosen and re position

my set up cost roughly 120$cdn or less to make

next plan is to make a bike trailer/ bike rack/ladder
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It looks just like a telefunken u-47

[jackbombay]