For those of us that don’t own vans and have families that probably don’t want to share their personal space with a muddy, awkwardly-shaped bike while on a car journey, the only practical option to transport bicycles is one of the many different types of cycle carrier. Rear-mounted racks have a few advantages – they’re dead easy to attach a bike to and they don’t have too much of an impact on fuel consumption or cause too much extra wind noise. But they’re generally more expensive than roof-mounted racks and are a lot heavier. Even a ‘compact’ version of a leading-brand towbar-mounted cycle carrier weighs about 60 kilos, which is admittedly very sturdy but you’re going to be doing some grunting and complaining when you put it on or take it off. This Auxtail rack on the other hand weighs just 13kg and is available as a flange towball-mounted version, a ‘swan neck’ towbar type or a type specifically for the Nissan Qashquai (Craig Broadbent, the chap that designed the Auxtail used to work for...