The Best Rear Bike Rack

We have been testing ways for commuters to carry gear on their bicycles since 2015. For this guide, Wirecutter’s Eve O’Neill did the following over the years:

• To find the best models for commuters, she researched 38 racks and chose 8 to test in person. Then she spent a total of nine months commuting with them, examining the ease (or lack thereof) of installation, the overall durability, the quality and effectiveness of the mounting hardware, and how well specific features improved (or hindered) portability and access to her cargo.
• She spoke to Mia Kohout, then the CEO and editor in chief of Momentum Magazine, a commuter resource dedicated to functionality and style. She consulted Eric McKeegan, then the tech editor at Dirt Rag and Bicycle Times. To get a heavy-user perspective, she interviewed Andrew Blash, a Yosemite National Park host who commutes 170 miles by bike two to three times a year. And no one knows bike carry better than touring cyclists and commuters, so she referenced a wide variety of forums and blogs.
• Like all Wirecutter journalists, she reviewed and tested products with complete editorial independence. She was never made aware of any business implications of her editorial recommendations. Read more about our editorial standards.

The racks we recommend can carry up to 55 pounds strapped on top or hanging from hooks on the sides without having too much impact on your bike’s handling. That’s plenty for a commuter who wants to take a laptop to work or pick up groceries.

We looked primarily at aluminum racks for this guide, but if you’re going mountain biking or bike packing, a heavier steel rack may be more appropriate. Those higher-end racks, like the Tubus Cargo, are stronger and capable of holding more weight, but they cost a lot more (more than $150) and appeal primarily to touring cyclists who traditionally have valued the ability to repair them in the field.

Front racks, by the way, do exist, but they can’t carry as much as rear racks, and adding weight to the front of your bike can affect your ride much more than weight over the back tire.

That said, if you’re just running small errands around the neighborhood, a front basket might be all you need. Baskets can hold about 10 pounds of stuff—going beyond that can make the bike hard to steer and hard to stand upright. Or, if all you need to carry is a lunch or a spare sweater, you could use a bike handlebar bag.

Top pick

Topeak Explorer MTX 2.0 Rack

The best rear bike rack

This rack was the easiest to install on many kinds of bikes and felt the most stable carrying heavy panniers.

Buying Options

$50 from Amazon

$53 from REI

$53 from Walmart

Topeak Explorer MTX 2.0 with Disc Brake Mounts

For bikes with disc brakes

This rack was the easiest to install on bikes with disc brakes—these require a different mount than rim-brake bikes—and felt equally stable carrying heavy panniers.

Buying Options

$58 from Amazon

$58 from REI

The Topeak Explorer MTX 2.0 works better with a wider variety of bikes than any other rack we tested. That’s due to the flexible attachment arms and a sizable amount of wheel clearance over the back wheel. It’s also sturdier than other models that cost the same because it has three stays on each side to steady the load instead of two. (Apart from a small opening at the front of the rack platform, which allows the rack to accommodate Topeak’s newer line of rack-top bags, the current version of the Explorer is identical to the one we tested.)

If you have either 26-inch or 700c wheels (most people do) or the recently popular 27½-inch size, chances are the Explorer MTX 2.0 will fit your bike. However, if your bike has disc brakes, make sure to get the disc-specific version, because you’ll need the extra clearance around the brake. If you have a mountain bike with 29-inch wheels, get the 29er model (also available in a disc-specific version).

Because they can flex, the Explorer’s flat steel arms can attach to a wider range of bike-frame rack mounts. This design makes finding a proper fit easier compared with models that use stiff aluminum tubing as arms such as the Axiom Journey.

The Explorer offered 1¼ inches of wheel clearance when installed on our Trek hybrid, which has 700c wheels—that’s more clearance than any other rack we tested. That amount of clearance, in addition to the movable arms, gives you more compatibility with a variety of bikes and means that the rack should fit over even the burliest of puncture-resistant off-road tires. Other racks we tested such as the Axiom Transit left only a few millimeters between the rack and the tire.

Once installed, the Explorer provides a sturdy and stable platform for carrying up to 57 pounds of whatever you want. Often, when discussing durability of a rack, a review will talk about the type of metal used to build it. In this case, Topeak uses 6061 hollow aluminum. The “hollow” makes it lightweight, and the 6061 is an extremely common type of general-purpose aluminum.

But how the rack is supported is as important as what it’s made of when talking about durability and stability. The rack needs to be welded together, not just riveted with bolts, and in the case of the Topeak, three triangulated stays on each side support it—not just two. Although other racks may be rated to nearly the same 57-pound capacity as the Explorer (our budget pick, the Eco Rack, for instance), it’s that third stay that stabilizes the load fully. Higher-capacity racks will be modified even more to add the necessary stiffness.

We loaded each side of the Explorer with panniers carrying 2 gallons of milk each (17 pounds per side) to see if it swayed, but everything stayed in place.

Other things we like about the Explorer include the fully welded-on taillight mount. It’s more substantial than the thin, bolted-on piece of metal on many other racks we tested. Topeak includes steel mounting hardware, and the included nuts are locking nuts with nylon inserts, which absorb road vibration and stay screwed on better than standard nuts.

Rack platforms, in general, are useful. The one on the current version of the Explorer can accommodate both the original Topeak MTX QuickTrack luggage pieces as well as those using the newer MTX 2.0 QuickTrack system if you want them (though we did not test any of these options). It also provides two mini-perks: It gives you an unobtrusive way to carry a bike lock if you’re going without panniers, and, like most rack platforms, it acts as a built-in fender that keeps water off your back in light rain.

Most cycling publications specialize in either road or mountain biking, so we didn’t find a lot of existing reviews for commuter racks. Amazon reviewers also gave the original version of the Explorer 4.6 out of five stars in almost 4,000 reviews. (The current version has only 43 reviews as of September 2024; they average 4.3 stars.)

Flaws but not dealbreakers

In the world of bike accessories, “easy to install” is a relative term. The biggest issue with this rack applies to all racks—it can be confusing and even downright frustrating to figure out which variation of the rack should work with your bike and install it. (If you’re not sure what size wheel your bike has, just check the tires: The size will be printed or embossed on the sidewalls.) Should you run into problems, though, we recommend checking with your local bike shop (and buy your helmet there, while you’re at it).

The people there will be able to confirm which version of this rack will fit your bike, and if there are any mounting issues, they’ll know how to deal with them. They may even have the Explorer in stock, as it’s a very common rack.

It’s also possible that your bike will not have the proper attachment points on the frame to bolt the rack to. Enter the P-clamp: a small metal loop commonly used to tack down cables in construction. They can be purchased at any hardware store. Wrap one around your bike frame at the appropriate place to create the attachment point you need.

Runner-up

Planet Bike Eco Rack

Cheaper but less sturdy

It’s not the toughest bike rack we tested, but it installs easily and performs better under load better than most of the others.

Buying Options

$49 from Amazon

$45 from Walmart

Planet Bike’s Eco Rack is the only other rack that installed as easily in testing as the Topeak, due to the height of the rack above the wheel (1¼ inches) and the same flexible arms that are a key feature of the Explorer. In opting for the Eco Rack over the Explorer, you sacrifice some stability, as this model has only two stays supporting the platform instead of three. It’s rated to carry 55 pounds (nearly same as our top pick), and it toted the same 4 gallons of milk we put on the Explorer. But it felt less stable, as if all that liquid was pulling against us as we biked home.

It also wasn’t completely level when we first installed it, although P-clamps are included in case you run into the same issue. (The clamps will allow you to affix the arms at whatever height achieves a level surface.) This rack will fit 26-inch or 700c wheels, but Planet Bike offers no disc-brake version of this rack design. Overall, the Eco Rack is not a standout, but if the Explorer is sold out or you can’t find it—and as long as your bike doesn’t have disc brakes—this rack will get the job done.

The Axiom Journey lack our pick’s flexible, sliding steel arms, which made it more difficult to fit. It also did not sit parallel to the ground when I put it on our test bike; to get it to do so, I would have had to remove sections with a saw. This problem may not happen with all bikes, but the fit we achieved was less than perfect.

The Ibera PakRak Touring Carrier Plus+ has adjustable legs. We installed it to see if we got more clearance over the rear tire, but the adjustable legs stretched to their limit when mounted over our 700c wheel, so this rack could fit smaller bikes but nothing bigger than what’s already standard. The extra bolts in such models also introduce another point of potential failure. (We tested the rim-brake version; a disk-brake version is also available.)

The Thule Tour Rack is meant to modify a full-suspension mountain bike into a touring bike. The Thule requires no frame eyelets for mounting, and I had no problem putting it on our Trek, but it costs $140. Given that you could solve the no-eyelets problem with P-clamps, this seems unnecessary for anything other than the specific job it was intended for.

This guide was edited by Christine Ryan.