How To Add Taillights to the Thule EasyFold Bike Rack

Question:

I am trying to add taillights to a Easyfold bike rack. I would like to order the left and right reflector housings along with the reflectors in order to fabricate an adapter to mount the taillights onto them. The rack is mostly plastic making it difficult to securely mount anything permanently. The only thing I can come up with is getting inside the reflectors housing and bolting in a light weight metal frame to hold the taillights. Do you know where I can order the housings and reflectors and would you have any other ideas on how to permanently mount the lights. I do not want to put the lights on the bikes. The whole idea behind purchasing the Easyfold was because of the ease of installation and storage. I still don’t understand why Thule makes these with lights on them in Europe but refuses to manufacture them that way in the US. Any ideas would be welcome.

asked by: Carmen A

Expert Reply:

There a few options to add tail lights to the Thule EasyFold XT 2 E-Bike Platform Rack part # TH903202. You could use the brackets part # BK70BB and LED light kit part # 98174LED which is designed to add lights to cargo carriers. Since the rack is plastic the only way to really allow these to mount is to use zip ties. This would be the only semi permanent solution to adding the brackets to the bottom of the bike rack.

The easiest and less invasive way to add lights is to simply use the Magnetic LED Tow Light Kit - Weatherproof - Red Lens part # TLL21RK and magnetic squares part # 3378895404 since the EasyFold is not magnetic. I have attached a photo for your reference. The other option is to use the Magnetic lights on the vehicle itself instead of trying to attach them to the bike rack. You will need a 4-Pole flat on your vehicle for both of these options so if you let me know your year, make and model I can recommend additional parts if you do not have a 4-Pole flat on your vehicle.

I can understand the frustration of Thule designing the European version of the EasyFold with tail lights. Europe does tend to have stricter safety regulations compared to the United States so that is probably why the EasyFold in the United States does not have tail lights.