1-Bike Add-On for Kuat Piston Pro Bike Rack for 2" Hitches - Wheel Mount

Video Transcript for Kuat Piston Pro Bike Rack 1-Bike Add-On Review

Hey everyone, it's Evangeline here at etrailer and today we have the Kuat Piston Pro single bike add-on or the one bike add-on. This is gonna be used with your Piston Pro bike rack to convert it from two bikes to three bike capability. We'll talk about how it looks, how it works, how it fits and how it installs right here at etrailer.com. So for how it looks, it's the exact same as your Kuat Piston Pro with that sandy black or that kind of matte black finish. Compared to the Piston Pro X, You don't have the same type of Kashima coating as well as bright accents, but it still has that durable and good looking finish. For how it works, it's pretty much the same as the two bike version but with a very important difference.

So all the pistons and the functions are pretty much the same. It does have less weight capacity though. So if you had just the two bike platform rack, it would have a weight capacity of 67 pounds per bike. But once you add that add-on you now have a weight capacity of 50 pounds per bike. If you have extra heavy electric bikes that is something to consider with how it works.

And with the ability to carry around more bikes you'll also have to consider more length added-on to the back of your vehicle. So for how it fits, I measure for the length of our add-on and that is going to be 10 and a half inches compared to your previous two bike rack. So if you have a small garage or need to fit into a tight parking spot, that's a measurement to consider. But another thing that you would consider is how much height is now adds behind your vehicle. So it is going to be different for every vehicle how your bike rack sits on it, but that 10 and a half inches is also something to look at for your tail lights, your backup camera and your license plate clearance.

And if you we're considering getting the two bike add-on that's another thing to look at. Here we have pretty good clearance for our window. The two bike would cover a little bit of even that. You do get another cable lock with a single bike add-on but you can see compared to our two bike platform rack cable lock, it does sit a little shorter. Well, that's because this is designed for just that single bike.

On the bike rack, there are two spots for those cable locks and you can just use them accordingly. Now the actual assembly of this tray, which you do the very first time, is gonna be exact same as how you assembled your platform rack where you put in the two tray sides together with the bull in the middle you take off the packaging for the one tap lever, things like that. So once you do that all the first time then you don't have to ever do that again. So the actual add-on process is what we're gonna focus on. So this is what our bike rack looks like without the add-on. This is how you would usually get it with just a two bike platform rack ready to go. But if you have a friend that wants to go for a ride as well, or maybe you're just upgrading to that three bike for a growing friend group or growing family, then we're gonna take a look at that process of adding on. Different brands or different bike racks have different methods of how they make that extension happen. So we will take a look at this one and compare to see which might work better for you. So start everything off, grab your tools and this is actually included with your bike rack which is gonna be the security Allen wrench. And you're gonna use this to first take off the end cap of your platform rack. Now because there isn't that much space between the bike rack and our vehicle, we're gonna pull this lever and drop this either to a tilt or all the way down to the ground, whichever is more convenient for you and start loosening that bolt. Once that bolt is free, we can then take this out as well as the end cap. Now hold on to this because we will need this later but first let's take a look at the bolt holes inside the bike rack. We are going to use those. On your add-ons, you are going to have two bolts which will line up with those holes. So just get your bike rack add-on and fit it into that tube there. Notice how you don't really have to hold it into place. It automatically fits in so that you can get yourself situated. Looking at the end of the add-on we can now see the heads of those bolts. We're just gonna push them in to line them up with those threads and tighten them down with our included Allen key. So once your add-on is secure and you check that by making sure you can't tighten down those bolts anymore, give a good shake test and double check that that gap between the add-on and the bike rack is closed. Now it's time to put the end cap back on. So just like how you took it off earlier, line up that bolt with the thread and tighten it down with the tool. And just like that, very simple process, you are now able to transform your two bike rack into a three bike rack. Really the most difficult thing about this whole process is where are you gonna store your add-on when not in use because it's so fast to put on and it's such a seamless transition, a lot of people just leave it on their bike racks pretty much permanently afterwards. So that's an option for you. Also, there is the option to get the two bike add-on if one is not enough. That process is gonna be the same as well. You can check that out here at etrailer.com. So I have worked with other bike racks that do have add-ons and they'd all definitely have different ways of adding onto their rack. This one was really easy to do with just needing to use one tool for the whole process. It was just those two bolts as well as that end cap that you needed to undo and then redo. Now on the other hand though, some other racks when they add on, they also extend where that tilt away lever is. For the Kuat Piston Pro, They don't extend that, which makes the process easier but also means you're gonna have to reach in further to tilt the whole rack away. And if you have three bikes or even four bikes on there, that can be really tricky to do all by yourself. So there are reasons behind why they made certain things on the Kuat Piston Pro. I like some of them, I understand the others. But hopefully this video helped you out so that you can decide if this is the right fit for you. And if you need the one bike or the two bike add-on, you know where to find it. And here at etrailer you can get this separately, you could get the individual parts or we also have full kits available for you. So if you immediately want a three bike or a four bike Kuat Piston Pro, we got you. But this right here right now is a look at the Kuat Piston Pro one bike add-on and my name is Evangeline and I hope you enjoy the journey.