Saris Thelma Review

[JayC]

I posted this over on BikeForums.Net. Im copying it here as well.

Ive been using a Thule T2 carrier for a while now and have been really happy with it for the most part. It can be locked, holds the bike really solidly and its easy to load and unload. It's biggest downside, tho, is that it's really heavy and Im constantly taking it on and off my car. Having to lug that thing in and out of the garage and move it around to make room to park in the garage was getting old so when a guy I ride with said he wanted to get one, I told him I'd trade him mine for a Saris Thelma. He took the deal and ordered me a new Thelma and Ive had a chance to use it a couple of times so I wanted to comment on it.
The Thelma shows up in a box that is pretty small for a hitch rack. Shipping weight was only 28#s and the box fit in the back seat of my car with no wedging required.
http://meankidsracing.com/d/2010-2/thelma01.jpg
Im not going to touch on assembly because the thing is a snap to put together. About the only advice I will offer on that is that the unit assembled with allen head bolts and nylock nuts. Someone else posted a review of the Thelma and complained that the unit's plastic wouldnt hold the nuts well enough to keep them from turning due to the resistance of the nylock insert. I ran all the nuts onto the bolts a couple of times each to loosen the nuts up a little. Nylock nuts lose their resistance somewhat after being threaded through a couple of times. Even still, they arent going to come off but it makes it easier for the plastic on the rack to contain the bolt. Assembly took maybe 45 minutes and the instructions are more than adequate. Here's a photo of the completed rack.
http://meankidsracing.com/d/2014-2/thelma02.jpg
Now to my first complaint. Saris really cheaped out when it comes to the hitch pin included with the Thelma. Basically it's a bolt that was machined down and a hole drilled in it to accept a cotter pin. It's kind of difficult to get at with a wrench when putting the rack on the car. Even a ratchet and socket dont make things much easier. I'm going to see if the threads are the same as Thule uses and if so, Im going to pick up another locking setup from Thule and used that instead. It uses a smaller head and is much easier to get on with a wrench.
http://meankidsracing.com/d/2017-2/thelma03.jpg
http://meankidsracing.com/d/2023-2/thelma05.jpg
Here's a shot of all the equipment used on the rack and the vehicle the rack is installed on.
http://meankidsracing.com/d/2020-2/thelma04.jpg
Here's a shot of the rack installed in the down and up position. Also a shot of the the clearance space between the rack and vehicle. The T2 rack had to have one of the wheel trays cut down quite a bit for the rack to fold up. The T2 has an pretty nice setup for raising and lowering the rack into position. The Thelma just uses a pin you pull out, fold the rack up and put the pin back in. It works but its not as nice as the T2 setup.
http://meankidsracing.com/d/2026-2/thelma06.jpg
http://meankidsracing.com/d/2029-2/thelma07.jpg
http://meankidsracing.com/d/2032-2/thelma08.jpg

Loading the rack is a snap. Simple place the front wheel in the tray and slide it back as far as it will go. The rear wheel drops into it's tray and you're pretty much done at that point except for strapping the wheels in. Another reviewer made a comment about the tray hitting his fork but I had plenty of clearance on both of mine and the Fuji has a pretty large fork so I dont know if Saris changed the design already or the other guy just had a mondo fork. Here's a shot of the rack with the Fuji strapped in.
http://meankidsracing.com/d/2035-2/thelma09.jpg
Here's a shot with the Blue installed and a shot showing the distance between the bikes when everything is cinched down.
http://meankidsracing.com/d/2038-2/thelma10.jpg
Ill continue this in the next post as I have used the maximum allowed images in this post.

[JayC]

http://meankidsracing.com/d/2041-2/thelma11.jpg
Once you get the bikes actually in to the rack, they are actually held quite well. You dont need to hold them to put the straps on. Here's the last two photos of the wheels strapped down.
Front Wheel
http://meankidsracing.com/d/2050-2/thelma14.jpg
Rear Wheel
http://meankidsracing.com/d/2044-2/thelma12.jpg
Conclusion:
Overall Im pretty happy with the Thelma. For the money, I guess it is what it is. It's not made as nice as the Thule T2 but it's about half the weight so I guess corners had to be cut somewhere. It also doesn't hold the bikes quite as firmly as the T2 but it's more than adequate.

Loading and unloading bike can be accomplished in about 2 minutes per bike. It's pretty quick. It takes longer to slide the bike into the mount than anything else. Getting them out, you lift a little and turn the front wheel to slide it out. Pretty simple.

The two areas I feel could have been improved are the straps and the hitch pin. The straps are kind of cheap and cant be worked with one hand. They also just sort of snap into place on the rack and will slide around a little. I may look at retrofitting some other kind of strap on there in the future but right now, what's there works.

The pin, I already touched on that above.

Oh yea.. and there is no way to lock the bikes on the rack. I ordered a locking cable from Saris but I think that's more or less just for looks as it would be easy to cut away. The T2's locking setup is pretty much the same. Pop the front wheel loose from the frame, take the frame and rear wheel and once the frame is off the front wheel, you could work it out of it's lock.

I'd recommend this rack to anyone who wants a hitch mounted rack that doesnt weigh a ton. It's simple, functional and should last for years. I'm willing to give up some of the sturdiness of the T2 in return for not having to lug that sucker around all over the place.

[JayC]

Time to update the review.

On my way home from a ride tonight, I ran into a freak windstorm with my bike on the back of the car in the Thelma. I pulled over, checked the straps to make sure they were tight (They were), turned the hazards on and drove home at a slow rate of speed as I watched the bike get battered around by the wind in the Thelma.

Ive said for a while that I wasnt real pleased with how the bikes are held in the Thelma. They're secure but they're not near as secure as the way the Thule T2 holds them. Essentially they're held in place by one strap and some plastic tabs.

The Thelma is also really suceptible to swaying in the wind, even at highway speeds. Ive watched the bikes rock back and forth on the rack crusing down the road at 65mph and in fact, the Thelma is actually bent to where the trays dont line up with the rear wheel holders when you lower them down to stow them.

So anyway, somehow or another, I dont know if it was the Thelma's wheel tray bending in the wind or the rest of the wheel twisting while the one strap held the wheel in place, but somehow I ended up with a grenaded front wheel out of all this.

Here's a couple of photos that show what kind of shape the wheel is in now.

http://www.trianglecycling.com/gallery/files/1/059r.jpg
Touching the fork

http://www.trianglecycling.com/gallery/files/1/061r.jpg
Not touching the fork

http://www.trianglecycling.com/gallery/files/1/062r.jpg
It WAS a nice wheel

The wheel is bent in a lot of spots. Im not sure if its going to be able to be straightened back up by trueing it. Im going to take it somewhere tomorrow and see.

This would have never have happened on the Thule rack. It holds everything securely enough that this would have been a non issue. Most likely this will conclude my use of the Thelma and Im either going to get another Thule T2 or the same style rack from Yakima or Saris.. just need to do some price shopping and see what's available.

[paul]

Great feed back and write up JAYC. THis really helps in my decision in what to look for in a bike carrier.

[RickF]

On my way home from a ride tonight, I ran into a freak windstorm with my bike on the back of the car in the Thelma.If the wind where you were was anything like the wind I experienced, it was something else. I was at the intersection of Old Raleigh Road and Apex Peakway when a dust cloud so thick that you could not see two feet in front of you came up. I was sweeping a group of seven riders, and we were nearly blown off our bikes. We made it to the BP station at Laura Duncan and US 64, where we took shelter. About the time we turned onto Laura Duncan, the rain and hail was coming at us sideways. Bladed spokes do not take kindly to crosswinds. Fortunately, we all made it to shelter safely.

I have always been partial to the Thule carriers. They are heavy, but they are rock solid steady. I also prefer the carriers that hold the bike by the top tube and seat tube instead of by the wheels. Wheels, especially high end (read light) wheels, are not designed to stand up to the unusual torsion that can happen when the bike is being held up by the wheel. The forces on the wheel are much different in that situation than they are when the bike is being ridden.

[BrianJ]

That sucks. Betsy and I really like our Thelma. Hopefully this was just a freak accident. I do notice some rock when driving 60+ but the whole bike appears to move at once.

[aliepins]

Just a thought...I was driving down US 1 toward Sanford when the gust front came through and thought the Pathfinder was going to be picked up and thrown off the road. I called Sanford AWOS (the weather station at the airport) and it was reporting 19 kt winds (sustained) with 41 kt gusts. For our area, these are freak occurrences. I also saw a cyclist crossing over the highway during said storm as the words "Dix hill" passed through my mind!

I have a Thule rooftop rack and have been very pleased with it - for 8 years. I would be afraid the winds would have done some damage with bikes on that rack, too.

Cheers,
Andy

[TREKRALEIGH]

I just wanted poeple to know what happened in the end with the Saris Thelma. Saris stands behind their product extremely well. I talked with Saris directly, and they don't know why the rack bent. However they did replace the rack with Cycle-on Pro. Saris is a great company to work, I have never had problems with their customer service. We try to base our customer service from them. If anyone need help with Saris products please ask and we will do our best to you help you. Thank you.

Dave