Thule

Epos 2 With Lights

A game changer in bike transportation

Familiarity:

I've used it several times

I purchased the Epos 2 bike carrier with lights because of a shoulder injury that made using my roof rack impossible. Although the rack weighs 40 lbs, I’ve been able to mount and dismount it from my 1-1/4” hitch with ease after a little practice. It’s been solid so far, with no wobbling. I also bought a foldable ramp that comes with the rack, which has made loading and unloading the bike even easier. After unloading the bike, I leave the rack in its folded position to prevent other cars from hitting it. Initially, I hesitated due to the high price tag, but now I’m glad I made the purchase.

Easy to install and load.

Just travelled over 1500 miles with 2 e-bikes securely loaded on this bike rack. It is so easy to install. Love the locking feature keeping it secure in the receiver. The bikes lock on as well with minimal movement while traveling. The tail lights are a must especially when traveling with a bike cover as we do. The fold down feature is awesome as it allows us to easily enter our RV while the bikes stay secure.

Great Features

We love this product! It is so easy to install, holds the bikes securely, and the best feature of all is the safety feature of the tail lights that are easy to see!!

Perfect bike rack!

After extensive research, this bike rack stood out as the best and it wasn’t even close. Extremely well designed and engineered, it is also very easy to use. We travel cross country with e-bikes and this is the only rack I would use. Expensive, but well worth the extra money.

Love our Epos!

We love our Epos which I bought to replace our T2Pro XTR. My partner had a lot of trouble getting her ebike on the T2 but now it’s a snap for her with the Epid!

I keep it in the hatch/trunk

It folds up so compact that I keep it in the hatch of my impreza. This makes set up super easy as I don't even have to carry it out to the car or find a place in the garage to hold it and anytime I need it, it is there.

NOTHING better on the market

I purchased the Epos 2 with lights after I bought a new Trek Rail 9.7 mountain bike. It has a huge wheel base, so it was difficult to find a quality rack that would accommodate the bike. The Epos is FLAWLESS! Honestly, it has every feature I would have built into any rack; retractable mount support, available lock that becomes part of the bike rack (made by ABUS), bright lights to alert drivers behind you, ramp, locking hitch that is extremely easy to secure, lightweight, cover for storage, weight capacity, etc, etc ,etc.. I have seen a couple reviews that say it's difficult to attach to your car; NOT TRUE at all! I have had 4 hitch mount bike racks (1 Yakima and 3 Thule) and this is by far the easiest to attach of all of them. I have found nothing to complain about. The only thing I would change if I could would be for it to be able to fold inward toward the car. Everything else is so perfectly designed and crafted I simply can't complain!!!!!!

very functional, well designed

purchased 1 month ago, have used on several long trips- works well

Absolutely Fantastic

This is the perfect bike rack. Pricey, yes -- but you get what you pay for. Not saying that as a cliche but as coming from someone who made an expensive mistake buying a rack made by another highly reputable brand. It didn't even last a year and half before one of the arms (that pushes against a wheel to hold the bike onto the rack [hydraulic piston-based]) getting stuck and pieces of metal breaking off, rendering the rack unusable. The Epos 2 ratcheting system is so much easier and no less secure. It's relatively light weight and so very easy to put on and take off from my hitch. I love how it folds up like a suitcase and is a breeze move to where I store it in my garage using its wheels. The telescoping arms with a lockable rotating ratcheting mechanism and steel-reinforced straps are very easy to use on the bike frame to securely hold the bike with confidence. The straps ratcheted to both wheels also work great. I also love the integrated signal lights and lighted license plate holder. I couldn't be happier.

Overall, very happy but....

I got this about two weeks ago, mounted it and dismounted it one day last week, and put it in full use yesterday. Here's my list of pro's and cons: Pro's: very well made overall, the engineering is outstanding, most of the learning curve is intuitive on how to use it, very adaptable to different bikes, lots of attention to safety. On a scale of 1-10 I would give the "directions" a 9. I was a little hesitant on my first trip to drive on an Interstate highway but I'm over that now. This thing is well made and safe. Cons: I think the directions could be a little better. I had an issue with the crank handle. It has to pivot to crank and it was stuck at the pivot point and I didn't want to break it. I finally gave it more force and it worked. The only other real issue I had was the license plate holder. The directions didn't match the one I had. There were decisions to be made and thankfully I guessed right. And lastly, the key could have been made better. It's not the same level of quality as the rest of it. I'm guessing Thule doesn't make the locks and keys. I'm not sure what it weighs but I'd suggest getting help inserting it in the hitch receiver your first time. It's a little hard to hold it, balance it, line it up, and insert it by yourself. After the 2nd or 3rd time it becomes easier. (I sprayed my receiver with WD-40 which helped). Also, I put 2 E-bikes on it by myself. They're about 70 lbs each and I struggled a little since I didn't buy the ramps. Fortunately, I can remove the batteries from the bikes and that made it much easier. This is a very nice bike rack and I would recommend it. The quality matches the price.