Buy Yakima SideWinder Tandem Fork Mount Rooftop Bicycle CarrierYakima SideWinder Tandem Fork Mount Rooftop Bicycle Carrier Product Description:
- Rooftop bicycle carrier designed to securely hold tandem bikes
- Swing-out skewer arm makes it easy to load and unload tandem
- Padded boom cradle and quick-release ratcheting straps
- Supports any 9 mm/100 mm tandem forks; handlebar strap
- Compatible with round and square crossbars; lifetime warranty
Product Description
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
Tandem Rack
By Ken Sturrock
This rack works well. Essentially:1.) the fork holder swings out to the side of the vehicle (can be set up to go either way: right or left).2.) You lift the front of the tandem up and place the fork in the skewer and then clamp the skewer down.3.) You then lift the rest of the tandem up and place the boom tube in the cradle. At the same time, the arm swings back in line with the rack.4.) You tighten the arm locking bolt down and attach the straps that go over the boom tube and lock down in the holder.I routinely load and unload the tandem by myself using this rack - but I prefer to have help. I am not particularly strong, but I am tall. The user has to lift the bicycle up and on to the boom tube holder while simultaneously pulling the front arm straight. If the sidewinder is mounted on the passenger side of the vehicle - you will also have to lift the tandem high enough so that the chain clears the boom tube cradle as well. I'm 6'1" and stand in the rear door sill.Some people think that the Tandem looks ungainly perched up so high - but the sidewinder's design is very versatile and still lets you open the hatch (if you have one) a little bit when the bicycle is in place. It doesn't stick out to the back at all with no bicycle in place.The only problem we've had with it is one of the boom tube "buckles" for the strap fell off somewhere - but Yakima shipped us a replacement immediately for free. I have seen other Sidewinders with the same missing buckle - so I wouldn't suggest that you always leave the sidewinder on the car, unless you somehow tie the buckles on to the cradle with a bungee cord or some such.We use our Sidewinder on top of our '06 Prius and it sure makes transporting the tandem a lot easier. The rack is pretty expensive - but for us it was well worth it.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
yakima sidewinder
By freeski1057
I bought this tandem rack to replace an older Rocky Mounts rack with the hope that it would make the process of getting a tandem on to a roof top rack easier. Unfortunately I've been very dissapointed. To begin with the cross bars I had on my vehicle weren't wide enough to allow standing the bike up to place the fork into the mount without the chain rings hitting the side of the car. I purchased wider bars which did solve that problem. The rack is designed to swivel out the fork mount, stand the bike on end with the front tire off, put into the mount, then lift the bike and swing it around and drop the bottom tube onto a support. In theory it's supposed to be a one person operation, but my experience as a 5'8" person is forget it. Even with my wife assisting by pushing the swivel fork mount back inward it was very difficult to set the bike down onto the support for the bottom tube because the chains get hung up on it. This requires lifting the bike quite high and using my hands to keep the chain from catching. Then the weight of the bike sits on the cables which are routed along the bottom of the tube. Finally placing the two straps over the bottom tube to secure it is a major pain as well. I can actually only get one of them on with the geometry of our bike, and the other again requires handling the chain. I have ended up with chain grease on my hands, shirt, and shorts every time we've used it. This rack is quite expensive and poorly designed in my view. Fortunately we purchased it from REI and even though we've been using for about a month they will take it back. I'm going to look at the updated Rocky Mounts tandem rack, the Thule tandem rack or simply stick with our old rack.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Great tandem mount! Extremely pleased after four years.
By Steve Larsen
This is a really great mount. We have been using it for out Trek T900 tandem since 2007, including hundreds of miles of travel with the bike mounted on our suburban. I can easily load and unload the tandem by myself and do so routinely. The bike is held in a solid fashion and I never worry about it.I recently picked up the bike from the shop where I had it tuned up. When the staff offered to help me load the bike, I instead offered to demonstrate my Sidewinder by loading the bike myself. I like this a lot better than the Thule and Rockymounts, because of the cradle (the others simply have a longer tray with a wheel strap at the back). I believe that the cradle holds the larger tandem bike more securely. The cradle has some "trenches" for cables to lay in, so that the bike doesn't rest on the cables.I noticed one reviewer was unhappy that he or she had to lift the bike extra high to get the chain over the cradle. If you have an option to place the mount on the other side of the rack (left vs. right), that inconvenience should be eliminated. The same reviewer had a narrow rack which put the front sprocket in contact with the vehicle. My suburban is quite tall and presented a similar problem. I simply place the back tire on a small stool when attaching to the fork mount--much cheaper than purchasing longer crossbars and I get to keep my rack no wider than the vehicle, which I prefer.I love this mount and have no regrets after four years of use.
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