Saris Super Bones 3-Bike Rack

The Saris SuperBones brings a venerated classic bang up-to-date, and makes it easier and more secure than ever to use.

I'm a huge fan of the original plastic-and-alloy Saris Bones rack, released in 1996. Living in the US at the time and using a variety of lease cars for work and travel, from 4X4s to sporty coupes, the Bones rack followed us everywhere, fitting every vehicle I've ever tried it on. (See Rob's review of the Saris Bones 2 here.) 

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The gold standard in bike rack practicality, performance and security must be Thule or Atera tilting towball-mounted models. But at around £1000 all-up including towbar and electrics (if you don't have them) and with many people not allowed to fit towbars to leased vehicles, frequently this is not an option. Roof racks/rails can be expensive, are almost always car-specific, require upper body strength and height to safely lift bikes, and you have to remember they are up there when approaching garages/parking lot barriers. So boot/trunk-mounted racks can sometimes be the only solution. Just as well Saris has such a cracker on offer in the SuperBones.

An inherent issue with the original Bones design was the straps – basically a jumbled mess of six varying lengths, with plastic-coated metal hooks and buckles you had to juggle when fitting the rack. It was always advisable to check strap tension every hundred miles or so, and you had to lock the bikes/rack to the car itself; I carried a plastic-coated braided cable to pass through the tube for this purpose. Strap fitting/tension and security were standout discrepancies in an otherwise excellent design. For the SuperBones, Saris has innovated the bejeezus out of the original; from a distance it looks the same, but there's wizardry afoot.

Strap-flap

Previously, arms had to be slid off the splined alloy tube and repositioned, then tightened. Doing this for four arms was always a faff, and the chance of getting it on the car only to find that one arm was one spline out of alignment was high. Now it's a case of lifting a locking lever, pivoting the arm, then pressing the lever back down.

The headline difference is the straps. Now, instead of a confused jumble passing through the centre tube, each of the four 'foot arms' has an integrated ratcheting strap that is adaptable to run either over or under the arm, depending on your car's design. This is facilitated by a cunning removable metal hook and rubber sheath at the end of each strap, making swapping between fundamentally different vehicles a matter of a few minutes' reconfiguration.

Two of the four ratchet levers have locks, and the cables include four steel strands to slow down thieves – if someone really wants your bike/rack they'll have it, but these features will at least slow down the drunks/kids having a go on the offchance.

Rounding out the security features, there's a thin plastic-coated metal cable that retracts inside the end of one of the 'bike arms', which loops around the frame of the third bike and locks into the arm end. It looks like it would last maybe two seconds under a decent pair of shears, but again it's to slow down the opportunist, not the pro.

The straps are spring-loaded, so once roughly in place a press of the ratchet lever tightens them by spring, then the lever is ratcheted a few times to tighten firmly. It works brilliantly – getting a fit tight enough to lift the rear of the car from rest took a few seconds. As the rack is tightened down the multi-pivot feet conform to modern curved or sloping surfaces, ensuring a tight fit with a distributed load.

The tight strap fit possible with the ratchet mechanism plus the pivoting feet means the SuperBones doesn't need an anti-sway stabiliser strap, cleaning up the lines and also removing any chance of the dread thrum when taut straps hit resonance at certain speeds.

On (with) yer bike

Weighing 8.4kg, the SuperBones isn't too heavy – anyone should be able to fit it. The Saris website has video guides recommending arm and strap orientation for many vehicles. Once the rack's on and tight, the bike arms can be adjusted to any angle using a simple locking lever. At this point you might narrow the arms to fit them between a particularly narrow frame – such as a child's bike. Small frames might not be able to fit the arms, so practise is important.

For restricted or step-through designs Saris sells a 'bike beam' for £35 that simulates a top tube, and for £13 it sells sets of four foam blocks that slot over frame/fork tubes to stop bikes knocking against each other. Given the relatively narrow spacing of frames, this is a sensible investment – certainly less faff than using strips of rag or foam to separate frames and forks, particularly with the increasing popularity of disc brakes, with callipers and rotors needing protecting.

> Beginner's guide to transporting your bikes by car

You put the first, largest/heaviest bike on first, then the rest. Bike top tubes end up spaced 17cm apart, so all combos of bikes will have overlapping handlebars. As with any rack there's a bit of trial and error to work out the best order, direction and placement, but once you sort it out the process is easy.

The rubber-coated straps don't mark frames and cinch down tight. You do need to be aware when tightening the straps over external cables; I always kept a few small sections of rag or inner tube to hand to slot between frame and cable.

To aid stability and frame protection, the 'anti-sway' straps that attach to the seat tubes can be screwed outward to increase the spacing between bikes – a nice touch, and they pivot out of the way for bike installation or removal.

On the road

Having had 15 years' experience with the Mk1 Bones, I was not disappointed with the SuperBones. Everything stayed put, and the act of removing the rack to put it in the back of the car was a matter of a few seconds, as was replacing at the end of a ride. Compared with the previous model, which involved undoing/doing up six straps, it was a breeze.

As always with any rack, you need to be aware of bike placement and protection. When not in use for carrying bikes, the two bike arms can be quickly folded down out of the way.

If you can't fit or afford a towbar/towbar rack or roof rails/rack, the SuperBones is the next best option. A classic reinvented, better than ever.

Verdict

Classic design updated and improved with pivoting arms and ratcheting straps – excellent