Michael, Pretty sure you've already tried this but I'll forge ahead anyway. My wife and I both have Riv's with Albatross bars outfitted with racks, bags and baskets, using any rack is a challenge. I've used a number of them over the years.
Currently on my Miata I use a Saris Freedom hitch rack https://www.saris.com/product/freedom-2 ( tray type with central mast that attaches to the down tube) And on our truck with camper I have a swing away hitch rack ( the type that suspends the bike from the top tube) to have access to the rear. http://www.yakima.com/shop/bike/hitch/swingdaddy An arm adapter is required on this one with the Mixte. In both cases I have to loosen the stem and rotate the handle bars and either lower or raise the seat to clear each other. I make sure to mark seat and handlebar height/position obviously. I used to have a Thule hitch rack like the one you're considering. The stabilizing arm ideally makes contact with the top of the front tire. I suppose you could cheat it a bit forward to clear the leading edge of the fender but that wouldn't be optimal. https://www.thule.com/en-us/us/products/carriers-and-racks/bike-carriers/hitch-mounted-bike-carriers/thule-t2-2-bike-916xtr-_-916xtr In one of the pictures in the above link you can see where the stabilizing arm makes contact with the front tire. I sold mine when I sold our other truck and bought the Miata. The Saris is much lighter weight. All have pluses and minuses. Hope I was of some help. Tail Winds, ~Hugh On Friday, June 12, 2015 at 5:52:05 AM UTC-7, Michael Hechmer wrote: > > I have been riding bikes with fenders for about 15 years now and have only > found one downside - they often don't play well with racks, neither locking > racks nor car racks. > > We have a Saris TBones Hitch rack on our Prius and I found it worked well > with both my Saluki or Ram and Pat's Sequoia. However I have never liked > having the weight of the bikes up that high with the additional stress it > puts on the rack and hitch. Now Pat has switched to riding a Betty with > Albatross bars and I am always struggling to make the two bikes fit. It is > doable as a two person job. I bought and tried one of these parallel TT > but it made the situation worse. It's a challenge to get the her handle > bars & my front rackto clear. Likewise my bars & her rear rack. Since > both bikes have racks & fenders, they are fairly heavy as bike go today but > still within the racks spec. Still the vertical support flexes some under > load. > > So... I have been looking at a new hitch racks, especially ones where the > bikes sit in a well and get clamped around the tire. Does anyone have > experience with these to share? Do you have to put the top clamp around > the tire, or is it OK to put it over the fender? The Yakima rack > installation instructions specifically say to put the top hook within 2" of > the fork, which clearly rules out using it with any top rack, like my > Mark's mini. The Saris instructions don't say that is necessary, but the > video on their web site shows them setting it up that way. Finally, how > close together are the wells; is there sufficient space for Albatross bars? > > Michael > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
