Thule

I have a lovely Thule (pronounced 'tool' I understand) bike rack on the back of the car. It attaches to the spare wheel, flips out to hold two bikes and only cost two arms and a leg. It is so incredibly awkward to remove that I have never taken it off, although I will have to one day if I get a flat. I dread that day.

I got it because it was the only rack that will go on the back of the car. I initially bought one that was supposed to clip onto the tow ball, but it wouldn't fit unless I had the towbar extended.

Anyway, it's a pain in the bum, but it works. It beats having to take the front wheel off and then stuff the bike into the back of the car. It allows us to go on holidays with luggage and two bikes. It also allows me to go under things - the Disco is nearly 1.95m metres tall, so if I put a bike on the roof in one of those standy-uppy things, I would be too paranoid to drive under bridges, trees etc.

It has one major flaw though. It has two big nuts that you slacken to allow the bike carrier thing to flip out, then you tighten them up again. These nuts have a bad habit of coming loose and vibrating off entirely. I lost both a few years ago, and Thule were nice enough to post me two replacements for free. I had the car in for some panel beating recently, and I think they played with the nuts and didn't know to tighten them afterwards, and I have lost another one.

I am so paranoid about them, I tighten them every time I refuel the car, which is every 3 weeks or so. They can easily come loose that quickly.

Clearly, Thule needs to do a bit of redesign, or simply ship them with a proper washer.

Great product, stuffed up by a 30 cent part.