Whispbar WBT31 3 bike tow bar carrier

The Whispbar WBT31 Bike Carrier is a premium rack packed full of features to make transporting bikes a breeze. You definitely get what you pay for.

If you're after a towball-mounted carrier, it's one of the best-possible three-bike (four if you buy the adapter) options.

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Fundamentally there are four ways to carry a bike using a car: inside, on the roof, hanging off the rear or using the towball. The first option is limited by internal space and your desire to keep mud and grease off your interior. On the roof depends on your ability to fit roof racks, lift your bike up and secure it there without dropping it, then to remember bikes are up there when grabbing a drive-thru takeaway or entering a garage. Hanging your bike off a contraption tied by straps to your boot or hatch is often both insecure and a genuine faff (as well as preventing access to the boot while a bike is fitted), which leaves the fourth option: using your towball (admittedly not every car has a towball, and some lease vehicles are excluded from having them fitted, in which case your best bet is the rather excellent Saris Superbones).

The Whispbar WBT31 rack started life in Belgium as the Cykell (Swedish for 'cycle') rack, having collected a prestigious Red Dot Design Award. Cykell was acquired by cycle accessory giant Yakima in early 2016, which rebranded it 'Whispbar' to match its previous acquisition, the premium Whispbar aero roof bar and rack.

Matching the Whispbar roof system, the WBT31 rack is a premium product – at £630 RRP in its four-bike configuration it is the most expensive way to carry four bikes on the market, beating in price the top-end four-bike towball offerings from Atera and Thule. Not everyone wants or needs the ability to carry four bikes, and if you stick with just three your make and model options broaden considerably. But for three or four bikes, the quality and expandability of the Whispbar product is a good investment, and the online price is almost always below £500, a 10% discount on RRP.

The WBT31 comes fully built and ready to use. Optional extras include a wall storage hook (£10) if you want to keep it off the floor, a dust/rain cover (£20), good for storing in a hostile environment, and a ramp (£35) for loading heavy bikes or if you aren't happy lifting them vertically onto the rack. The ramp fits all four bike positions on either side and stows securely in a holder on the rack, ready to use at your destination. I always used the ramp for getting our 30kg (plus whatever's in the panniers) Workcycles FR8 Dutch bike on and off the rack – it's fast to use and minimises the risk of slipping and dropping a very heavy bike.

Finally, there's the fourth-bike adapter (£80), which clicks on securely in one movement, with a green indicator to show it's locked in. You need to fit the fourth holder before mounting the third bike as it needs to install vertically at first, therefore you can't remove the 4th bike adapter if the unit is folded, and you can't hang it on the wall in place either, so you need to remember to remove it while on the car and before storing on a wall.

The fourth bike adapter comes with a short support arm that attaches to the third bike to hold the fourth one upright, and it can be keyed alike to the other locks.

The total weight allowed is 60kg, so no, you won't be carrying a family's worth of e-bikes. Car towball ratings vary across model of car and towball, so if you want to put 60kg of bikes onto the 20kg rack you'll need a towball rated for 80kg. The electrical wiring is European 13-pin including fog lights, and a 7-pin adapter is included for older vehicles. The electrical plug is stored tidily by clipping into a metal bracket inside the rack's frame when not in use.

Click and clamp

The headline feature of the WBT31 is the 'Just Click' ease of mounting on and removal from the towball. You lift it into place and drop onto the towball folded up – it's impossible to open if it's not sat correctly on the towball, so storage and transport are easy, including the ability to wheel it short distances on the built-in trolley wheels or push into a corner. Lifting and carrying the WBT31 short distances is easy using the curved arm loop.

Once lifted onto the towball you push down on the part closest to you with the three bike mounts. Once pushed down horizontal this locks into place with a satisfying click, the indicator on the towball mechanism changing from red to green signifying a safe lock with the correct tension for your diameter of towball. You can then use one of the three supplied keys to lock the mechanism to prevent theft; the same keys also lock the bike arms. As the rack is 20kg and requires lifting above the towball vertically, people of short stature or slight upper body strength might be challenged. With two people the job is do-able by children.

A word of warning regarding towball types: I had to swap my bolt-on flange towball for a slightly taller version, as the bottom of the towball locking mechanism hit the flange before being far enough down to provide a safe lock. This was only a tenner to change towballs, just be aware that flange towballs present possible issues here if you are looking to swap between vehicles or lend to a friend (swan-neck towballs aren't a problem). A reputable reseller will be able to offer good advice here on your model of car and towball, the manufacturer data sheet stating a minimum of 80mm clearance is needed between the top of the towball and any flange below.

Below the numberplate holder is a broad plastic bar with handholds that operates the tilt mechanism with a push of the foot, and also then serves to fold and remove the rack by lifting to unlock the folded-down section. The tilt is very generous, moving the bikes well out of the way of opening tailgates (but as always, check with your retailer that there's a good fit for your model of car).

It being foot-operated means you can remain standing and brace the bikes as they swing towards you. On flat ground with the fourth bike holder fitted, the frame swings down almost to the ground. I'd recommend facing the fourth bike with derailleur inwards, or at least shifting it onto the largest cog and making sure the outer pedal is at its uppermost position, to avoid either contacting the ground. As with other aspects of mounting bikes on cars, care and attention is required to avoid expensive errors.

Bike fit

The bike wheel channels can slide in and out, accommodating bikes for children of 20in diameter wheels up to long-wheelbase 29er mountain bikes and canalboat-length Dutch bikes. The tail-light modules on either side slide out as well. In practice I often didn't bother sliding the wheel channels out when carrying a road bike with a relatively short wheelbase.

The straps securing your wheels use a ratcheting lever, easy to get nice and tight once you've pushed through the slack and they work well one-handed in the confined space between bikes.

Another key feature increasingly seen across premium racks are easy-to-remove bracing arms. Anyone familiar with racks from a decade or so ago will know the frustration of loading up a few bikes, largest/heaviest first, to find you forgot to feed the second and third arms through the frame triangle of the first one or two bikes to clamp the third. Or, having done so, you find a waterbottle cage or shaped tube makes clamping impossible. Cue a bit of colourful language and removal of bikes for repositioning of the arms, possibly with a spouse looking on while the kids kick off in the back of the car.

The Whispbar solution is to make the three arms removable – you simply unwind the locking knob fully then push the knob while holding the arm. The 'claw' at the other end opens, allowing it to be removed completely and repositioned to fit at any point inside or outside the vertical hoop, feeding through or around already mounted bikes. The clamp jaws are soft rubber, safe for carbon and nice paint finishes. The knobs all lock and are keyed alike; no, I didn't conduct destructive testing to ascertain the level of security on offer, but this sort of lock is to slow down the opportunist motorway services thief, not a master criminal.

Stacking drop-bar road bikes presents the most testing challenge for a rack – with bars often protruding 20cm or more each side of the bike, yet with bikes sitting just 20cm apart on the rack, there's always a great deal of overlap. Drop bars present a much larger side area to foul neighbouring bikes than do flat bars – if your mountain bikes clash, shifting one or the other a few cm usually sorts it, but this is often not the case with road bikes. Having the ability to easily adjust clamping arm locations is a huge benefit, as is having the third position elevated to lift that bike slightly clear.

> Beginner's guide to transporting your bike by car

After many months of family and race use, including several trips the length of the UK, sometimes removing and reinstalling bikes several times a day, I'm highly impressed with the Whispbar WBT31. It's fast to fit, highly secure and easy to adjust. It quickly folds up small enough (100cm width) to store by the back door or in your car's boot if needed, and it's simple enough that a partner or friend could fit it with minimal, possibly telephoned instructions for a rescue mission.

With a five-year warranty and corrosion-resistant steel/alloy parts, this is a rack that should do you right for decades. Yes, there's no avoiding it's expensive, but features, good design, light-ish weight and longevity cost. The alternative is going for a cheaper rack that's more of a faff to use every single time you load or unload bikes. What price decades of secure, flexible, bike-transporting happiness?

Verdict

An excellent choice for frequent carriers of three – or four – bikes of any shape or size