Product Description

Premium trunk mounted 3-bike carrier

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44792 in Sports & Outdoors
• Size: NA
• Color: Black/Silver
• Brand: Allen Bike Racks
• Model: 103S
• Released on: 2007-03-01
• Dimensions: 5.00" h x 18.00" w x 28.00" l, 5.00 pounds

Features

• Fits most sedans, hatchbacks, minivans, and SUVs, including some vehicles with spoilers
• Quick set-up design pops into place right out of box; can be folded down using one hand
• 15-inch long carry arms easily accommodate up to three bicycles
• Comes fully assembled and can be set up and installed in minutes
• Lifetime warranty on workmanship and material

Amazon.com Product Description
The Allen 103S Premium trunk-mounted, 3-bike carrier snaps easily into place right out of the box and can be folded away with one hand. Featuring 15-inch long carry arms, it also offers added internal clearance to fit most sedans, hatchbacks, minivans, SUVs, and vehicles with rear-mounted deck spoilers. A patented dual compound tie-down cradle system individually secures and protects your bicycles. It comes fully assembled, and it's backed by a lifetime warranty on workmanship and material defects.

About Allen Bike Racks
In 1967, after a few years of working on the aerospace technology for the Apollo missions, Dick Allen was out of a job. Government cutbacks led Allen, a Harvard-trained physicist, to transform his garage hobby into a new industry. A cycling enthusiast, inventor, and family man, Allen had a personal need for a bike-carrying device. On weekends, he would take his sons and wife to Cape Cod or the White Mountains of New Hampshire. What proved difficult time and again was the transport of his family’s bicycles. Rather than fight through inconvenience with twine and a dinged car, Allen sought an answer for himself as well as a market in which he foresaw major growth possibilities.

Always a pathfinder, Allen took to work in his Lincoln, Massachusetts garage in search of a more efficient way to transport bikes. Drafting designs during the day and constructing them throughout the night, he put together a model made of electrical conduit, metal strapping, and fire hose casings (for padding). At first, the Allens tested the prototype on weekend excursions. Finding the first trunk-mounted rack to be a success, Dick started Allen Bike Racks. Dealer acceptance came quickly, and by 1971 Allen Bike Racks were sold nationally through a number of major bicycle distributors. Today, the company owns over three dozen patents and offers a versatile product line of bike racks while Dick’s son Alex now owns and operates the business. What started out as a small garage run operation now operates three warehouses nationally, two factories abroad, and has products sold in more than a dozen countries around the world.

Customer Reviews

Quick rust / poor service
After owning a 103D for several years, I gave it to my son and purchased a new 103S expecting an even better rack. The rack is stronger and spreads the bikes a little farther apart. The hold-down system is wonderful. I attached the rack in mid-May. Within a month, I notice that the nuts had started to show rust. Those on the old rack still looked new. By July, the rust was so bad that I e-mailed customer service. They responded immediately stating that this was not acceptable. They took me up on my offer of close up pictures that they could relay to their supplier. After that I heard nothing. Finally after several inquiries, they said that they had given the photos to the supplier. Since then (it is now 1/16/09) none of my five e-mails have been responded to. After many tries, I finally got a connection on their phone line in October. Reluctantly, they promised that new nuts would be sent, but that they would be the same material. I just gave up and purchased new stainless steel nuts at the hardware store and replaced them so that I would not worry about the safety of the rack over time. When I asked via e-mail about sending the rack back under their "lifetime warranty", there was no response. Silence is disappointing customer service.

excellent design
This rack fit snug on my Mazda 3 hatchback and carried three adult bikes from NYC to Maine and back without a waver, even on poor quality highways. I had been considering a roof rack, but I'm very glad I found this instead.

Some standout qualities:
1. A sturdy, snug fit.
2. A very quick, simple, and logical setup/dissembly.
3. The excess strappage from the upper tensioning straps is generous and ideally positioned to thread through the wheels and tie, thus prohibiting front wheel knock.
4. When not in use it easily collapses to a profile that's nearly flat. It should easily fit in most closets.
5. It's very reasonably priced.

A caveat: at least on my car, only the lower rubber pads touched metal, as the upper mounted against the hatch window, so I had no concern for abrasions. However, the way this thing stuck I doubt it would be an issue on any car, provided you wash off any grit at least in the few places the rubber meets the body.

Strong and reliable...but basic.
I opted for this rack over others because I kept hearing about things like recalls on the Yakima "Joe" series racks and that those and other similar racks had a nasty habit of dropping bikes. This was often because these racks had plastic hinges that failed. A button release mechanism might be really cool and convenient but if it drops your $1000+ bike...it tends to lose its coolness.

The Allen Premium 3 Bike Rack is hell for stout. The pipe is thick and because it is bent rather than joined with bolts or rivets, it does not flex. Also, the hinges are metal. They are two metal plates that swivel together and are secured in the locked position by a 3/8" steel pin. This is not going to fail unless you do something stupid like haul lumber on it.

The rack only has 4 straps and I thought that would be a problem...but because of the inherent side-to-side rigidity of the design, it does not need any side supports. When it is strapped down and tightened you can grab the thing and shake the whole car. The only movement in the rack is a result of compressing the squishy foam pads that rest on your car.

Speaking of straps...the buckles on the trunk straps are high quality cam-lock style. They are all metal and are a smaller version of the buckles used in my motorcycle tiedowns...they are bulletproof and will never release. The harder you pull on the strap, the tighter they bind. If they seem to be stuck, give the loose end of the strap a little pull and the button will push right in.

The lower straps have a rubber section in them that holds tension on the rack even if it shifts a bit. Pretty cool idea but I wonder a bit about the durability of that rubber.

Other nice things: The pipes where you slide your bike on are fully covered with vinyl so if you bang your bike up against them, it's no problem. The vertical tubes are also covered in this manner.

Negatives:
This is a very basic rack. There's no mechanism to keep your bike from swinging so you'll need an additional strap and buckle or a bungee to put around the frame and wheel. The buckles that hold the bike on - while extremely secure - are not super convenient. After a few uses, you get the hang of it though.

The bottom line: If you are not hung up on getting a trendy brand. Consider this rack. If you want a rack that is so strong that your trunk will probably buckle before the rack folds up, this may be the one.