Fun though electric-assist mountain bikes may be, the things do tend to be considerably heavier than their conventional counterparts. The Bike Lifter modular rack system was designed with that fact in mind, as it doesn't require users to lift their eMTBs onto it.
Manufactured by Portland, Oregon-based company Suweeka, the Bike Lifter system consists of two main parts. There's the Quick Connect Hitch Cleat (QCHC) – which mounts on any standard 2-inch trailer hitch – and the bike tray, which is connected to the QCHC via a linkage.
The tray lies flat against the ground (on most vehicles) when the eMTB is being loaded or unloaded. This means that users can simply roll the bike on and off, without having to lift it.
When it's time the hit the road, the tray and its eMTB payload are simply cranked up off the ground and in towards the back of the vehicle. This can be done using either an included hand crank or a user-supplied power drill.
The bike is secured via wheel tie-down straps in the tray's gutter along with a hinged stabilizer bar that gets fastened to its frame via a sliding adjustable-position coupler. When the tray isn't in use, it folds up 90 degrees to lie flat against the vehicle's hatch or tailgate.
Suweeka is offering the Bike Lifter in one- and two-tray models, which will retail for US$2,200 and $2,600 respectively. Each tray can manage a maximum bike weight of 120 lb (54 kg) – this means that they can also be used for transporting some electric motorbikes.
The company plans on offering different gear-transporting attachments for other outdoor pursuits, all of which will simply slide on and off of a single QCHC. So in other words, users will be able to easily swap their Bike Lifter tray for another attachment, just by sliding off the former and sliding on the latter.
Suweeka will start taking preorders for the Bike Lifter system on Dec. 15th. The first 100 buyers will get $100 off, and will receive a rack from the initial production run – the timing and unit numbers of subsequent runs will be determined by demand.
Source: Suweeka
