etrailer | A Closer Look at the Thule Epos Bike Rack with LEDs for 3 Bikes

Click for more info and reviews of this Thule Hitch Bike Racks: https://www.etrailer.com/Hitch-Bike-R... Check out some similar Hitch Bike Racks options: https://www.etrailer.com/dept-pg-Hitc... https://www.etrailer.com Don’t forget to subscribe!    / etrailertv   Full transcript: https://www.etrailer.com/tv-review-th... Hello neighbor, this is Curt with etrailer, and today we're taking a look at the Thule Epos, 3-Bike Rack with LEDs. Now the Epos is an excellent bike rack if you're looking for versatility. And what I mean by that is that there are a lot of different styles of bikes out there and some of them have different features, different sizes, different materials that they're made of. So having a bike rack that'll be able to accommodate just about any bike that you wanna bring along to the trail is a huge plus. So we're gonna begin talking about the versatility of the bike rack, but in this video we're also gonna be going over some of the specs, what kind of bikes this can handle. We're gonna take a look at it in real on-road use, and we're gonna talk a little bit about some of the different safety and security things that come along with it and about how you can best use it. But to start off with the versatility, there are gonna be three contact points for each of our bikes. We're gonna have two ratcheting wheel straps, one for each wheel, and we're also gonna have a mast and cradle attachment that can be attached to the tire and different parts of your frame. It's gonna operate pretty simply, right now. We've got it here around our wheel, but I'm gonna go ahead and release it and we're gonna take a look at just what this mast can actually do. So it is gonna be maneuverable back and forth at a pretty good rate here. So you got a lot of room back and forth to kind of maneuver this and it's gonna be able to be moved up and down accordingly as well. As well as having this articulating head, which is gonna allow us in this case, to go on the C-post here, we can lower it and get it around our cross tube here, or we could just bring it right back to the wheel where we had it. And if you have a bike with fenders on it, obviously we're not gonna be able to attach it the way we are right here. But what we would be able to do is bring it over and attach it somewhere on the frame. However, if you've got a specialty frame, maybe a custom paint job or a carbon fiber frame, we're really not gonna want to be mounting it on here so we don't damage it. In that case, we'll come back here to the wheel. And in order to get these on, you're just gonna feed your strap right here through this slot. It's gonna start clicking away as you can hear. And once we get this kind of tight, we can use this tab here to ratchet it until it's really snug. And once it's in this position, we'll be able to take our included set of keys and we'll be able to lock this in. And once that's locked into place, it's not gonna allow you to lift this tab up and release it. So it's gonna keep your bike secured to the bike rack. And our wheel straps down here are essentially gonna work the same way. You know they're gonna be able to be released just like this fed through and then ratcheted down tight. Now let's talk for a minute about kind of the safer zones on the bike where you could actually mount your cradles. If you're gonna mount it on the wheel, we really want it only to be on the rear wheel. The front wheel we don't want to do because being on the handlebars, this has too much movement, it's not gonna be very secure. So on the rear wheel, I would say about the one o'clock position would be the best place to put it. And when it comes to the frame, we need to make sure that it's outta the way of the chain, but really anything along here, here or here or the seat stem itself or all safe places to put your mast and cradle. This will accommodate bikes that have anywhere between a 20 and a 29" wheel diameter, up to a 53 inch wheel base and it will accommodate tires up to 3" wide. Now if you do have a fat bike and you have tires that are more than 3" wide, there isn't available strap kit through Thule, that's gonna be an extension for those type of bikes. They come in pairs and you can buy them right here at etrailer.com. Each of these trays can accommodate a bike up to 75 pounds. However, in total, we really don't want more than 160 pounds on this rack. So if maybe you have two e-bikes or something that weigh around that 70 or 75 pound mark, you can use both of those on here. However, we're gonna need to leave that third tray open because it's just gonna go over our overall weight capacity. So as long as the total weight is under 160 pounds and you have 75 pounds or less on each bike tray, you should be good.