YAKIMA JustClick 2 hitch rack in review

Three fiddly jobs drive us up the wall: running cables through a frame, changing the batteries on the smoke detector and attaching tow bar hitch racks. Regarding the latter, Yakima say they have created a technical marvel in the form of the JustClick 2 hitch rack, which revolutionises installation. We tested the hitch rack priced at € 599 for you.

Have you ever found yourself keeping your empty bike carrier on your car just because you can’t be bothered to remove it from the tow bar and haul it to your garage or basement? Sounds familiar, right? Well, you’re not alone in this, but Yakima have declared war on such unnecessary hitch rack trips. With the JustClick tow bar racks, the expert in transport carriers offers two models that can be attached and detached within a few seconds. We tested that claim, and being German, of course we had a stopwatch in hand.

The JustClick 2 is a robust hitch-mounted rack for two bikes, the larger JustClick 3 has space for three bikes. Both can be upgraded with an optional JustClick+1 bike rack extension retailing at € 160 for an added extra space, which also requires a third extra-long fastening arm for just under € 20 (so, we’re thinking, why not make it a bundle?). For our test, we chose the smaller JustClick 2 model. It weighs 17.3 kg including the two fastening arms and at this weight would rank in the middle of our hitch rack comparison test. Subtract the 17.3 kg from the maximum vertical load of your trailer hitch to get the total permissible weight of your ebikes. Yakima specifiy a maximum bike weight of 60 kg for the JustClick 2 hitch rack. The finish of the frame, the bracket and the mechanism are very solid, the hitch rack also comes with a 5-year warranty from the manufacturer.

When it comes to mounting the bike rack, the Yakima JustClick 2 scores with several clever solutions. When folded, the JustClick 2 is not the most compact package on the market at 100 x 77 x 35 cm – Yakima themselves have an even more compact FoldClick tow bar rack in their portfolio – but the JustClick 2 is still handy enough to fit in a small car boot. What’s also practical if you have to transport it over longer distances to your car, is that the hitch rack stands upright on its own, and you can pull it behind you on two small wheels, just like a trolley with a jammed extendable handle. To save tall people from having to bend over too much, they can pull the JustClick 2 behind them using one of the longer attachment arms. The full extent of how easy and convenient handling is becomes apparent when the tow bar and the rack are joined together: the JustClick 2 is simply placed vertically on the hitch ball and folded out. An indicator window shows whether the hitch rack is properly locked: “Red is dead, green is good”. Installation could not be easier. The JustClick 2 is a little wide in the area around the hitch ball, partly due to the small transport wheels, which means that it was not compatible with all cars in our test where the power plug is located directly next to the hitch. To remove, lift the bike rail upwards and the mounting system disengages and noticeably clicks out. The licence plate is held by two plastic clips – in case one should break off, two replacement clips are attached directly to the mounting plate.

Attaching the bikes is also intuitive, but not quite as clever and high-level as the new mounting system. The rails can be extended in both directions to a length of 130 cm. Yakima release the rack for bikes with a wheelbase of up to 1,250 mm, which nowadays corresponds to a M to L size mountain bike and is not really enough. If you want to transport bikes with a longer wheelbase, you can use longer straps, which are available for an additional € 20. They are supposed to make it possible to also transport fat bikes. With the extra straps, we were able to load mountain bikes with a wheelbase of 1,280 mm onto the hitch rack without any problems. While Yakima specifiy the permissible wheelbase rather conservatively, they are generous with the tire width: According to Yakima, up to 3.25″ wide tires should fit on the hitch rack. However, in our test we already had problems lowering the wheel into the rail with 2.6″ wide chunky tires. To be on the safe side, we recommend to let some air out of the tires and tighten the tire straps firmly. The straps are tightened and fixed with a ratchet with an additional lever to release the fastening. Compared to the rest of the hitch rack, the ratchets appear to be of lower quality and are rather fiddly to use. The frame of the bike is fixed with a fastening arm with an internally rubberised clamp. With classic steel and aluminium frames, that’s no problem, but with carbon frames with a square top tube, it made us break out in a cold sweat, since the clamps only hold the frame at certain points and exert a lot of pressure on it. We would much rather prefer a fastening arm with a strap instead of a clamp in this case. The bracket on which the fastening arms sit is nice and wide on its upper side. However, it tapers and gets a little narrow towards the bottom, and sits too low for particularly large bikes. For bikers who can only grip their frame with the fastening arm on the seat tube or seat post, for example, this could become a problem. Yakima offer all step-through bike owners, where a top tube is obviously missing, an optional support bar (Yakima ClickTop, € 30) that’s mounted between the saddle and the head tube, to which the fastening arm can be attached. The fastening arms and the rack itself can of course be locked with a key.

The two rails of the JustClick 2 are spaced out by 28 cm from centre to centre, which means that even two generously dimensioned ebikes can fit next to each other. The outer rail is offset upwards, which has the advantage that the path of the fastening arm from the second, outer bike is not restricted by the top tube of the inner bike. If you have problems lifting a heavy ebike onto the rail, the optionally available ClickRamp for € 57 provides a solution, allowing you to roll the bike onto the hitch rack. For optimal weight distribution, the heavier, and therefore in most cases larger bike, should be placed on the inner rail. The distance from the hitch to the first rail is quite narrow, so that a wide handlebar will touch the back of some vehicles, e.g. a van or VW Caddy – the only solution here is to loosen the stem bolts and twist the handlebar. Station wagon and hatchback drivers, on the other hand, will enjoy the simple tilt mechanism that allows the hitch rack to be lowered, giving easy access to the boot. A step on the foot lever under the licence plate is all it takes. A small drawback is that the area between the outer rail and the licence plate is very tight and there are no other eyelets to attach the lower half of a warning sign (which is mandatory in several European countries) to the hitch rack.

Conclusion

The Yakima JustClick 2 hitch rack is a solid, well-thought-out design with one of the best mounting systems on the market. The price is fair and the accessories list is extensive enough to adapt the carrier to your own preferences. However, when it comes to attaching bikes, the JustClick 2, apart from the elevated second rail, cannot set itself apart from the competition and is undersized for particularly large bikes without the use of additional accessories.

For more information, visit yakima.com

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Words: Rudolf Fischer Photos: Various