Broken Arrow Man Designs Bike Rack

By Rick Wells, The News On 6

BROKEN ARROW, OK -- Ralph Waldo Emerson said if you build a better mouse trap, the world will beat a path to your door.

A Broken Arrow man hopes to get the same result from what he says is a better rack for transporting bicycles.

Hundreds of people rode in the Townie Ride this past Tulsa Tough weekend. Those riders had to get their bikes to the start point somehow, probably a car-mounted bike rack.

"I didn't like that part of it," said Mike Farney with Raxter Racks.

Farney, a Broken Arrow mechanical engineer and bike enthusiast, was never able to find the perfect bike rack, so he designed his own.

"We wanted to come in at a lower cost, a simpler design and a lighter weight," he said.

He sat down with his laptop and over a couple of years did some three-dimensional designs of the rack he wanted. He had some prototypes made up, but they were either too heavy or cost too much.

So he went back to the computer.

"The real feature that allowed us to hit the cost and weight was the use of composite plastics for the swing arms and shoes," Farney said.

That's the part that fits on the wheel, holds the bike in place and makes it versatile enough to fit any bike. To prove that, he used a kid's bike.

"Pretty much any combination of bikes we should be able to load up without a problem," he said.

Farney says there's no need to take the bike apart to get the rack to work. Bikes are ready to ride when you get where you're going.

To paraphrase the old saying, build a better bike rack and people will beat a bike path to your door. The racks are sold in Tulsa-area bike shops.