In our Thule 561 Outride review in Issue 75 we explained how you have to remove the entire locking mechanism in order to fit the supplied thru-axle adaptor. That’s all fine if all you are ever going to carry on your roof is thru-axle bikes. But, if like many bike owners we know you have lots of bikes with a variety of axle types then it’s a great faff to have to totally disassemble the rack each time you want to transport a different bike. This is the problem the Fork Up solves in a blindingly obvious way that we can’t understand Thule have not realised.
Simply leave the axle tube out of the rack altogether by fitting QR tabs to it. Sorted. If you keep this adaptor in the car you don’t have to mess with your 561 rack at all to fit a thru-axle bike to it. You can leave the whole locking mechanism in place (it needs to be removed from the 561 in order to use the standard Thule supplied adaptor, which is just a tube). Of course for full ‘any bike’ compatibility you need to buy both a 15mm and 20mm version, but still, as it is it’s a far better solution to the 561 thru-axle problem than the solution sold for the exact same price by Thule themselves.
Overall: The same price but better than the Thule solution of replacing the entire locking mechanism with a tube of metal. Remember to use your own cable lock though as the only thing securing the bike to your rack will be the axle itself.
