Hey—it’s just a bike rack. It’s not supposed to make you excited. It’s just supposed to attach to your car and carry your bike(s) without drama, fear, or rattling from one place to another. If it comes off and goes on easily, that’s great. If you can drive for miles and miles down rutted dirt roads with bikes weighing the rack down without it wobbling itself practically out of the hitch receiver, that’s even better. If it can handle everything from thin-tired roadies to fat bikes, now we’re onto something. If it looks cool and isn’t something you’re loathe to attach to your car, heck that’s awesome. If it does all of those things, it’s probably the Küat NV 2.0.
Also, it probably costs a near fortune, which the NV 2.0 does, at $690. That’s a lot of money for a bike rack, but it doesn’t take a ton of use before that figure seems perfectly reasonable. This is an elegant, sturdy, hassle-free, very well-engineered piece of equipment. Best-in-class when it comes to hitch-mounted bike racks.
Fits pretty much any kind of bike.
Swings low away from a hatch quite easily.
I’m a heavy user of bike racks, driving nearly every day to trailheads with one or two weighty full-suspension rigs on the back, occasionally one mountain bike and my 60-pound e-bike. For more than four months I’ve given the NV 2.0 plenty of reason to develop a squeak, a worrisome wobble, an annoying clank. So far, nothing. It’s as smooth and quiet as the day I put the sucker on.
If you’re familiar with platform and tray-style bike racks, there isn’t much here that’s revolutionary (save a couple of neat tricks—we’ll get back to those). That simplicity is actually a selling point. This is an intuitive rack. Assembly aside, which had me pacing my garage, beer in hand, frown on my face a few times—until I thoroughly read the manual, everything works exactly as you’d want it to. The platforms for the rear tires are nice and wide and flat, you don’t have to line up the tire with a groove or anything. The front trays are spacious and burly. The locking arms move smoothly and ratchet down to hold the tire with a pleasing confidence. Same with the thick rubber ratchet straps for the rear tire.
Raising and lowering the rack is butter smooth with a foot pedal/lever, which doesn’t require brute strength to operate, nor does the internal spring mechanism ever get hung up on anything. It works perfectly fine, every time.
Lower by pushing the lever with a foot, or by pulling it with a hand.
The integrated repair stand is awesome.
Carrying two bikes and don’t want to worry about handlebars and seatposts getting hung up on each other? The front wheel trays can raise and lower between three different positions, changed with a hex key that lives permanently in the rack. Easy peasy. If you have a fat bike, they make a “Phat Bike” kit that extends the rubber strap for the rear tire and includes a velcro strap for the front. With this kit, the rack will accept tires up to 4.8 inches. Each platform has a long cable lock, but I wouldn’t trust them to lock up a bike you care about—somebody cut through mine while I was in a shop for five minutes and made off with one of my bikes. But that was my fault, not the rack’s. The rack locks to the hitch with a pin, by the way, an added security measure I appreciate.
Besides the fit and finish, the best part of the NV 2.0 is the Trail-Doc, an integrated bike repair stand that is permanently fixed to the rack. Flip a lever, extend the stand, and it clamps with a couple twists to a bike’s top tube or seatpost. This is such a well-designed and appreciated feature. While it doesn’t take up a ton of space to toss a folding bike stand in the car, it’s far more practical to have one built into a rack.
Even without an integrated repair stand or adjustable front trays, this would still be a rack worth the expense, simply because of how well it’s put together, how much confidence it inspires that your bike won’t bounce off the rack if you hit a pothole at 60 mph, and, unlike the spindly, all-black racks that look like a curled-up dead spider is glued to the back of your car, the NV 2.0 is elegant and aesthetically appealing.
Yes, it’s expensive. But it only takes one trip off-road with bikes on a rack that’s so solid and smooth you forget it’s even there to justify the cost.
Specs:
Weight: 52 pounds
Capacity: 2 bikes; can get extender for 4 bikes total
Max weight per bike: 60 pounds
Rear hatch access: Yes, swings down
Hitch sizes: 1.25 or 2.0 inches
Tire size: Up to 4.8 inches
$690 • BUY
I’m just as interested in what wheels and tires you are rocking on that Subie. Please tell.
Flattery will get you everywhere Matt. Wheels are Method 502s. Tires are Yokohama Geolandar ATs.
I saw a Subaru and I clicked (I’m a Subaru Ambassador). I dig the rack!. If my wife and I used our bikes more often I would’ve invested in a hitch and rear rack. We went with a pair of Rockymounts Tomahawk’s on the roof of my 17 Outback.
I love my Kuat but the bike repair stand clamp is kind of a POS. Mine broke while holding my dh bike. Aside from that these are the best racks out there. I have the extension for 4 bikes and it’s still rock solid with 2 dh bikes and 2 trail bikes on it.
I still have the scars on my shins where I walked into one of those tray style bike racks after partying into the darkness while on a camping trip.
I switched to a hanging style hitch mount and my shins have never again paid the painful price.
Another related Subie question: Have you installed or considered installing overload springs for your Outback? I have the same gen wagon and a 3-bike RockyMounts tray-style rack (which I love). But with three 30-lb full squish bikes and the weight of the rack that far out (not to mention camping, climbing, or skiing gear), my Outback gets pretty saggy in the rear and the already impaired departure angle from the hitch rack gets worse.
I have considered it, yes. Have not done it.
1 UP is another bike rack that you may love more. More secure in my opinion as it secures both front and rear tires. Works on skinny and fat tires. Also has tilt. Made in USA for the same price! More a a midwest scene rack it seems.
They’re all over the place in California too.
I received a Thule XTR T2 a few years back as a marriage gift. Many, many issues with that rack, a lot of cheap parts and many design flaws. Biggest annoyance is that the arms have never, ever locked out on mine so you extend them all the way, grab your bike to load it…and zip…arm falls all the way down and you are hosed.
But, far worse than the rack was the tailgater who smashed into my wife’s car, with the rack on. Rack still seems to work, but the toe hitch was driver so far under her car that it isn’t useable. I’ve been meaning to take it to a body shop to see if they can pull out the hitch, but the entire frame of the car in the back was pushed forward. Thank you, Ms. Tailgater.
It’s a toss up about getting it fixed, as the car has 365,000 miles on it. But, it’s a Camry so probably has about another 100,000. She doesn’t drive much and I ride a bike everywhere, so the car might last another five years.
tow hitch, of course:(
I’ve owned basically every major brand of tray style rack at this point. Yakima and Thule are off the back (pardoning the pun) compared to Kuat.
I’d echo the resounding “meh” on the Trail Doc repair stand, and say that the NV Core can be had for a chunk less, sans Doc. While a nifty idea, the execution is on par with what you’d get from a bargain econo model repair stand, and as a shop owner and life long wrench, I’d rather have a buddy hold it for me, than spend a chunk more on something that tics me off when I use it.
To the mangled shin user, I’d ask this. So, taking a rack mid chest or in the face, is better than the shins? At least if you think about it, you can fold it up and out of harms way, a lot of times, those arms are hard positioned, just waiting to bloody your face…
Currently own a 1 Up, color me utterly unimpressed, and looking for a buyer so I can go back to the Kuat. More fiddly, more money, you need two hands for basically every function on it, even twice over, since it makes such a racket when folding the wheel stays back down, and often catches and stops moving unless you trigger the release the whole time. The only redeeming quality is that it’s made in the USA, and for everything it puts me through to use it, that small factor is pretty unimportant. I wanted to like it, it’s certainly nicely made, but man, so damn fiddly and poorly engineered user interfaces, for the money.
Why do so many of them seem to elicit glowing reviews from their owners? My guess would be, they are too ashamed of how annoyed they are, for the money they spent, so they fluff it rather than admit it’s crap.
I sell my racks every few years, when some buddy or another needs one and is a tad short on cash. I can’t wait to get another Kuat NV on back…..
My rack decision came down to the following factors:
-4-bikes (30+# FS, not featherweight road bikes)
-Hang out (protruding)distance of rack
-Cost for 4 bikes
-No frame contact
-Warranty not void for installation on the rear of RV or Travel Trailer.
Yes, most racks explicitly state that the warranty does not cover damages or wear and tear, and are not designed to withstand the loads exerted on them when used on the back of an RV.
There are only three that meet all of these requirements, and I chose a Recon Racks four bike shuttle rack.
This is my conclusion as well. I had a great NRS 6 hitch rack made in Vancouver, BC. Next rack is the Recon Rack out of Bellingham, WA.
Having owned both, the Kuat is good but the 1Up is better IMO. Lighter, ability to expand bike capacity. Rust free aluminum except for the hardware (powder coat on Kuat eventually start to bubble and peel from rust developing on the trays). Better locking system. More reliable clamping mechanism (Kuat candy canes stopped ratcheting a few times over the years, one replaced, others disassembled and cleaned up). The 1Up is still expensive but costs about $100 less for the same 2 bike capacity plus locks. Sold the Kuat to a friend. Now have two 1Ups, one for each car.