“Having upgraded from another Cruz bike rack, I'm very disappointed in this product.
(1) The lockable toggle mounting to the roof bars are an absolute pain because you are compelled by the design of it to tighten the retaining bolts in full turns only. This inevitably means that it is either too loose and therefore can slide left and right along the roof bar, or is too tight and securing the toggle down into position results in a slip and a hand injury. Making them lockable but also made of plastic seems performative - a big screwdriver would have the thing off quicker than undoing the thread on a normal bolt.
(2) The same plastic lockable toggles are used to clamp the bike frame. They're not quite as awkward to clamp down (probably because there is some give in the clamp faces), but they are shaped oddly which means they "slip" when clamping down - the heel contact point moves as it rotates, so they're just weird to handle, again almost as if they've been designed to risk hand injury. They also face only one way and can't be changed, which means access on one side of the car is OK, but it's just awkward on the other side, particularly when trying to secure the lock as it usually ends up being misaligned.
(3) Lastly and most significantly, there is movement of several mm in the frame clamp along the frameholder tube. This means that the "A"-frame of the frameholder tends to sag left and right, and the movement is amplified at the handlebars so a big bike falls to one side by a noticable amount. Of course, the further the bike is from vertical, the more weight is on the frameholder too. I've driven 1,500 miles to Europe this summer wondering if my bike was going to drop off the side of the car when going over a bump in the road.
Poor design and substandard manufacturing - my old Cruz bike rack had a simpler design and was better constructed. The third point raised above in particular means I don't actually think it's fit for purpose.”
