Design

When it comes to bikes, there’s a solution for almost every rider and ride.

Tyres range from the size of your finger to the size of your face. Frames are all sorts of shapes and lightweight carbon lay-ups are not designed to be clamped.  Securing your bike for the adventure is getting harder and harder.

In 2015 we set ourselves a mission, to get our bike to the trail-head regardless of the bike we choose. Heading back to first principles of design, back to the drawing board in search of a secure, fast and gentle solution. We wanted less hassle, more riding.

 … AND UPSIDE RACKS IS IT!!

Turning the rack upside down was just the beginning. With the Upside Rack’s secure and lightweight design, you can get your bike on your car in seconds. And it's portable so you can switch vehicles and bikes with ease. The Upside Rack is engineered to be compact and easy to store when you’re not riding, and rugged and secure to perform for as long as you need when you are.

Our pioneering design holds your bike at the same contact points you do, and clamps down with one quick and easy action. Best of all, your bike frame is safe, stable and secure.

We’ve designed a quality product for any ride. You choose the bike and we’ll help you get it there.

Upside. Innovation designed for unlimited adventures.

Materials

Aluminium: Is the third most abundant material in the crust of earth and has for years been a material of choice for lightweight stiffness and strength. The surface can be chemically changed by anodizing producing a better appearance, tougher finish and protective layer. An anodized aluminium extrusion is a fantastic way to hold a load over a span without adding much weight.

Glass Filled Nylon: Can hold the weight of a large SUV car hanging from a rod the size of your thumb! Nylon is an engineering Polymer, though calling it a “plastic” is technically true it does not do it justice in common understanding. It takes design skill and significant initial cost to get it right but the results are amazing. The benefit of injection moulding is a strong part with significant freedom in shape enabling the innovative clamp and release mechanism on our sliding hook. It slides up to automatically clamp on the thread and is easily released with a squeeze of the sides.

Acetal: Like Glass Filled Nylon, Acetal can be injection moulded and has extremely high strength and surface hardness as well as the benefit of being self-lubricating. This is one of the reasons Upside Rack are extremely hard wearing and never need maintenance. The loads Acetal can handle are astonishing to most people. Danny Macaskill could ride across a suspended Acetal beam narrower than any MTB tyre without it breaking.

SEBS: Achieving a soft, flexible but strong attachment to your bike is no easy task. That’s why we enlisted the help of the super material SEBS. Able to stretch to over eight times its own length before breaking it is also incredibly strong. In fact, the seat strap we have is so strong you could use it as a swing … while holding your bike.

Testing

As a newer player to the market we wanted to establish credibility and make you confident to use us. So we found every test available to push our design to the limit.

City Crash test: This is an international standard as part of ISO 11154 for roof load carriers on vehicles. It involves simulating a low speed crash in which the rack with a bike installed is exposed to eight times its weight, commonly known as 8g.

The rack passes this test if the bike remains fixed to the rack and car as well as no part of more than 10 grams in weight coming loose off the rack. This same standard applies to roof bars ensuring they don’t move under crash conditions so therefore we only recommend use of ISO approved roof bars.

Belgium Blocks test: This is the abuse test. Driving over an extremely rough test track, the bicycle carrier must hold a bike 50% heavier than it’s rated maximum at low to high speeds and over a total 6km of driving. Rarely completed we didn’t skip this test and were pleased to pass without any movement or damage.

Other load tests: Additional parts of ISO 11154 include pushing, pulling and lifting the bike as it is fixed to the rack and measuring any movement to ensure a secure fit. Forces of over 60kg are applied to simulate hard braking, braking while cornering, side wind load and aerodynamic lifting affects.

Rough road exposure: We come from the land of long, remote and harsh corrugated roads that disappear over the horizon. We know a little about durability and harsh, rough roads in both professional and recreational capacities. So, when it came to producing the Upside Rack we put in place all our experience but also know the benefit of real world testing so have an extensive test plan in place for the prototypes and first production units so that by the time you get yours, we have tested it more miles on rougher roads than you ever will.

Environmental testing: The awesome environment we live and ride in is harsh. Salts, Ultra Violet light and other weathering impacts damage materials during their life. These impacts can be rapidly accelerated in laboratory conditions to understand lifelong impacts in normal use before any customer puts one on their roof. The Upside Rack has been carefully designed around long lasting and weather resistant materials such as anodized aluminium providing years of reliable use and maintaining the appearance you expect from a top-quality brand.

Static tests: It doesn’t just stop at trying to break it. We also analyse every joint, component and operation for any sharp edges, pinch point, squeaks and rattles to make sure you have nothing but an enjoyable experience with getting to and from your ride. In fact, the better we do, the less you need to think about bike racks. That’s our goal. A rack that’s intuitive, unobtrusive and forever reliable.

Innovation

An Industry first electronic lock sealed inside the crank handle is an option for those wanting more security from theft. It disengages the clamp/unclamp mechanism required to release your handlebars from the rack and the rack from the car cross rails. Simply tap the provided key fob to the handle and it locks, tap again to unlock. The handle spins freely when locked making tightening and loosening the rack impossible until unlocked.  

• Environmentally sealed from the factory with Lithium batteries included (no dust, dirt or water problems)

• Over 4000 lock/unlock cycles. That’s 11 years if you use it once every day!

• Batteries and electronics rated for -40°C to 60°C (-40°F to 140°F)

• Coded key fob is linked to your rack with one of over 75,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 unique combinations.