HoldUp EVO

I really like this rack, loading and unloading are super easy. Folding it up when not in use is even easier! Bikes have always ridden securely on the road. It is a bit heavy, but its also well built.
Got home yesterday to find the bolt under the front tire that goes through the pivot had fallen out. I can't find a replacement anywhere, even from yakima. This is really disappointing. I think it's an M8 x 160mm with washers and nylon nut.
Yakima, please help!

I bought this rack so my son and I could take our bikes with us more places. It was easy to assemble, install, remove and secured our bikes well. Only downside is I guess we over loosened the speed knob the last time I removed it from my vehicle. The bracing mechanism came off of it and we didn't realize it until I went to install it again. It's lost now and it's out of stock on the parts site, both the speed knob and the 2" hitch. I'm stuck with a bike rack I can no longer use.

It’s odd that Yakima will not post a one star rating. Of all the racks I have owned, the Yakima Holdup EVO is definitely one of them. And one just f the worst at that. Since I cannot leave a one star rating, I will leave a five star rating. Please kindly disregard four of the stars. Thank you.

I wanted to like this rack…I REALLY did. It’s built very solidly. That’s the positive. The negative, 1. It’s heavy as heck. Not something you want to take on and off of your vehicle on a regular basis. 2. It’s noisy. Moving the wheel cradles up and down, it squeaks and creaks like mad. 3. Moving the cradles and the support arms is not as easy as it should be. These are very stiff and should move more freely. 4. There is no way that I can see these wheel straps holding a 4.8” tire. They barely fit my 3.8” tires. While these may not seem like major issues to some, I just feel that for $550, These issues should not exist.

I have fat tire bike with 27.5 x 4.5 tires. Unfortunately I need to let air out of the front tire for the hold-down to be able to swing over the tire. Advertised to fit 26"-29" up to 4.8 wide. Should change advertising specs to be accurate. Rack works for my other bikes. Sturdy and easy to use.

I got rear ended by a drunk driver going 60 in a 35 On Oct 31st 2020. Not only did the bike rack impale the drivers radiator put his car to a stop shortly after he ran away, but it also took almost all of the impact. Unfortunately... I'm out of a brand new rack that I just bought and really loved. :( I will continue to buy your product in the future due to their sold and reliable product. THANK YOU Yakima! -KEVIN

I bought a new fat tire bike with 27.5 x 4.5 tires. Disappointed to learn that I need to let some air out of the front tire for the hold-down to be able to swing over the tire. Advertised to fit 26"-29" up to 4.8 wide. Happy with other aspects of the rack.

I haven’t been impressed with the stability it provided my bikes. When not in use the trays move around and hit the back of your vehicle. Yesterday, the plastic tray broke off and the metal bent. After two months of use, I find myself looking for another bike rack. I’ve always gone with Yakima, however I’m now looking elsewhere.

This is a great rack except for a pretty obvious design flaw that has appeared in my rack and my roommate's, so it seems like a common problem. The front wheel cradle rotates down into place and back up to the folded position. It rotates around an axle. On either side of the cradle arms where they meet the axle is a plastic spacer of some kind, which is supposed to stay in place (there are notches to hold it in place) while the cradle rotate freely around it. The plastic spacers actually insert into hoops on the metal cradle arms (see photo). Well, these plastic spacers tend to bind to the metal hoops, meaning that when the cradle is rotated, the plastic spacers rotate with it. They are therefore forced out of the notches that are supposed to hold them from rotating, which causes them to pop outward, and actually the plastic piece on the end of the axle pops off. or in one case it shredded off the notches. I completely disassembled them, lubed them with silicone, but the design is such (plastic inserted into the metal hoops that aren't exactly round) that they still tend to bind. One of the spacers actually got shredded and was ruined, while the other pops off the end. As I said, the exact same thing happens with my roommate's rack. This seems like an easy thing to re-engineer and fix! Yakima customer service is great and they sent me a new rack on warranty but the new one does the same thing. I gave the old one to my daughter and while they still function, it is annoying. We have three Holdup EVOs all doing the same thing!

I'm going to start out by saying that I love the concept of this bike rack. Hitch-mounted, tray racks are awesome for easily and securely carrying a wide variety of bikes. And Yakima made a rack which is easy to install and use. However, due to some design oversights, they have not engineered the highest quality product, so after 9 months of light to moderate use, my HoldUp Evo has broken. I purchased the rack at the end of September 2019 to transport my full-suspension mountain bike, and I used it about 5 times before winter came and I stopped biking for the season. I stored my bike rack inside my garage all winter long. In May 2020, when biking season came back around, I started to use the rack again. I used it about 12 times in May with no issues, and then decided to take the rack on a road trip across the US for approximately 4 weeks. Normally I take the rack off of my car after each use, but for the road trip both the rack and 2 bikes were living on the back of the car. About 2 weeks into the trip, after a day of riding, I was unfolding my rack to put the bikes back on and I heard a pop. A plastic piece fell off the bike rack, and after some investigation I discovered that it was the through axle used for rotating the front basket and wheel-holder of the rack. I am not quite sure how this happened, because I was unfolding the rack as I always do and did not encounter anything unusual in the process, such as resistance to rotating. So now I was halfway through a road trip with 2 bikes and a bike rack which was half-broken. Using some duct tape I was able to successfully limp the rack through the rest of the trip. When I got home I disassembled the rack to see what actually happened to it, and I found some frustrating oversights in the design of the rack. Most of this bike rack is constructed using metal components (not clear on what material is used, maybe a steel or aluminum alloy), which are a bit heavy and seem quite robust. However, there are a few key components which Yakima opted to construct using plastic (also not clear what exact materials, but some hard plastic), and I am not sure why these parts were chosen to be plastic as opposed to metal. The most obviously flawed piece is the plastic through axle which broke on my rack. This is a crucial piece for proper and safe functioning of the bike rack, but it is not very strong. As mentioned, the front wheel basket and wheel holder rotate around this piece to fold up and store, and this piece also holds the wheel basket and wheel holder together with the main beam of the bike rack. It is approximately 3/4" in diameter. Additionally, there is a roughly 1/2" hole drilled directly through this plastic piece perpendicular to the direction of the axle, where a bolt slides through to hold the through axle in place. You don't need to be an engineer to understand that drilling such a large hole through this piece will compromise its integrity, and therefore reduce the material's overall strength. Well, right along this hole is where my through axle sheared into two pieces (see picture). I understand the concept of using plastic as a replacement material for easier construction and weight savings, but for such an expensive, heavy, and seemingly robust bike rack, this was not a smart design choice. Additionally, there are plastic pieces used to fit the front wheel basket onto the main support piece. When the plastic through axle broke, part of these plastic pieces also sheared (see red circle in picture), which illustrates another poor material choice for more important moving pieces on the rack. These two parts are some of the only plastic used on the rack (aside from less integral parts), which begs the question as to why they are plastic. I try to keep my bike rack as clean as possible, and I always wash it and lubricate the moving parts after use (as Yakima recommends for their racks). Somehow this rack still managed to break in under a year though. I have called to request new parts to fix the rack, but honestly I think that I will be replacing these pieces with some custom built metal alternatives, to avoid having this issue in the future. For a $550 bike rack, I honestly expected higher quality construction and a longer life.