Saris Bike Beam Trunk and Hitch Rack Crossbar Adapter for Dual Suspension and Women's Bicycle Frames

Very easy to use. Definitely recommend it.

3/14/2010

I just picked it up in a local bike store couple of hours ago. I wish I had bought it in Amazon though.. I would have save a bunch of money. At 31$, this is a great vakue.

My wife bought a new bike last week... a raliegh upright bike... and we had a Saris Bones bick rack. We did not think about, how we would load the bike on top of the bike rack... and once we came to the parking lot, it caught us by surprise. I think every bike store should recommend a bike beam to their customers who buy women's bike. Anyways, we managed to somehow bring the bike back... by handing it upside down :-) the first time.

Today i visited the bike store and asked if they have any solution for this... and they showed me this product. I was impressed by how quickly it opens and closes... that it makes it a snap to put this one on the bike. It takes <15 seconds to put this on a women's bike. I paid $39 instead of the nice $31 here at Amazon. Almost feel like returning it and buying here... but I will settle for the good Karma and local jobs instead.

While driving, I did not feel that the bike shook or anything. So I will use this a lot. Waiting for the summer to arrive :)

Women's bike solution

2/4/2010

This makes it so easy to mount a women's step through frame bike on a car rack. The coated ends protect the bike from being scratched. My only complaint is that ist seems heavier than is necessary.

Flimsy

9/19/2009

The claws at each end don't lock securely - one of them came open while we were driving on the interstate. Luckily it stayed attached to the bike, but with worse luck the bike could have fallen onto the highway and gotten dragged or lost. I'm throwing it away and looking for something that attaches more securely to the bike posts.

Great Device but with design flaw

9/11/2009

I received my Bike Beam this week and gave it a test. It does exactly what is advertised to do and appears well built except for a design flaw that will cause the plastic collar where the two tubes of the bike beam slide together. The molded collar has a wedge molded into the inside of the ring which rides into a grove of the smaller tube. The problem is that the end of the grove ends before the inner tube bottoms out in the outer tube. This causes the wedge of the molded ring to rise up out the groove, putting a large amount of stress on the molded ring causing it to crack and eventually causing the ring to break and fall off. I believe the purpose of this ring is to make for a smooth operation when expanding the bike beam and to prevent debris from getting in between the 2 tube walls. I can see after a period of time without the ring, the Bike Beam may become harder to put on and off the bike as the debris between the 2 tubes builds up. I have written to Saris company about this flaw, but as usual I suppose the e-mail was read by a person hired to handle first level complaints and has no understanding of what I am trying to describe to them unless they have a Beam to look at. They quickly offered to send me a new bike beam but until the design flaw is corrected, briskly contracting the the beam or jarring either end when it is fully closed will cause the ring to break again. I have no problem with the collar being cracked because I will repair it myself and as far as the beam doing what it is supposed to do, it has little effect on that unless it is left un-repaired and debris is allowed to build up. My main purpose was to make Saris aware of the problem and correct it, because the next person may not think it is as minor of an issue as I do. I would of given this Beam a 4 or 5 even with the broken piece because it is that good but I am giving it a 2 in hopes it will flag someone at Saris to take a look at this problem.

It's solid

7/9/2009

this piece of equipment seems like it is going to work out fine, I have only used it a few times and so far I have No complaints