One of our top priorities with the van was the ability to store as many bikes as possible inside the van to protect them from theft and the elements. The bike storage method has evolved over the years that we’ve had the van from DIY Sprinter Van – bed and bike storage to DIY Sprinter Van – Bike Mounts to DIY Sprinter Van – Bike Slider Storage Trays and finally one more iteration that is currently under way and will be posted soon.

Each of these iterations has either improved the ease for loading and unloading the bikes or improved the storage efficiency.

Unaka Gear Co thru-axle fork mount

I recently came across a new fork mount that offers significantly better storage efficiency than we’ve had to this point. The new Unaka Gear Co thru-axle fork mount is a clamp style mount that is as low profile as you can get. Until now, the Rockymounts Driveshaft fork mount was the best clamp style fork mount but has the drawback that it is unnecessarily tall. I had considered getting a metal fabricator to modify it for me to shorten it, but now I don’t have to do this.

When I received the Unaka fork mount, I was impressed with the quality of the manufacturing and the anodized finish. My first thought was that this is almost too nice to use. The fork mount is compatible with all the current standard axle diameters; 12mm for road & gravel bikes, 15mm for MTBs and 20mm for downhill bikes. This adjustability is established by using the white nylon inserts for 12mm, grey nylon inserts for 15mm and no insert for 20mm downhill bikes. The length of your axle is not a concern as the mount is narrower than the shortest 100mm non-boost axles but wide enough to hold even the longest axles in place, which is for fat bikes in my case.

Additionally, the fork mount comes with 2 spacers, or risers. They are 1/4″ and 1/2″ thick and can be use together to raise the mount anywhere from 1/4″ to 3/4″ inch.

Fork mount installation

I was excited to install the new fork mount in the van and I quickly realized that the method I used to install the previous fork mounts would not work with this one. I had used L-Track and L-Track stud fittings for the fork mounts and this mount did not have a platform to do the same.

To get around this, I took a piece of aluminum flatbar and cut it a couple inches longer than the width of the mount. I tapped threads into three 10-24 holes that lined up with the 3 screw holes in the mount, attached the fork mount to that flat bar and then mounted the flatbar to the stud fittings in the L-Track.

I spoke with Eric, one of the owners of Unaka Gear Co and also a really nice guy, he explained how he expected the fork mount to be installed. Three of the 5 holes in the bottom portion of the fork mount are sized and countersunk for #10 flathead screws. These could be either wood screws or machine screws. With the wood screws, it can be mounted directly into the wood floor or wood base of a sliding tray. The machine screws could mount to a flatbar adapter like I made or into 8020 using 8020 T-nuts. 8020 makes T-nuts with 10-32 threads that work well with the #10 flathead screws that fit the mounting holes in the fork mount.

After the conversation with Eric, several lightbulbs went on in my head, but it became clear that L-Track offered no benefit over 8020, where 8020 offered greater flexibility over L-Track.

Trial run

I had some 15-series 8020 laying around and I replaced the L-Track on one of the sliding storage trays with the 8020 to test out the fork mount using the flatbar adapter. It worked great, but I was frustrated that the design of my sliding tray was now the limiting factor on achieving the low profile space gain that the Unaka fork mount provides. I placed an order for some more 8020 materials as I rethink the tray design to optimize the vertical height of the bike storage.

In the meantime, I used the fork mount on a nearly daily basis with a variety of bikes and it works well. The bikes are held securely, regardless of the axle sizes. The bikes are easy to put in and take out. Initially, with the small size of the mount, I was concerned about the leverage necessary to clamp an axle that might not be perfectly aligned when loading the bike, but that turned out to not be an issue at all.

Low Profile Build

The materials came in for the new bike tray design. The 1050 series 8020 extrusions which are only 1/2″ high and 1″ wide are a key ingredient to making the new tray low profile. I’ll have another post describing that build soon. Building the new tray gave me the opportunity for pictures to demonstrate how the low profile property of the Unaka fork mount can be fully exploited. It turned out that I did not need either of the Unaka provided spacers for any of our bikes, bonus!

Maybe you are convinced that this is a great fork mount but you still have bikes with quick-release forks and you wonder how that could work. There are adapters available that you can use to get your quick release fork to work with the clamp style thru-axle fork mount. This is a great option especially if you have both thru-axle and quick release bikes.

Other fork mount options

Back when the only fork mount option was quick release, these mounts worked well. However, if you have any thru-axle bikes, there is not much versatility with this.

As you get your first thru-axle bike, you might consider one of these Fork Up adapters. Well, don’t because they break if you try to use them in cool weather. They are just plain garbage.

The next generation and first true thru-axle specific fork mount was mounts like the Kuat Dirtbag pictured below. They worked well enough, but there is no versatility for different size axles. If your fork did not line up perfectly with the mount, it could be difficult to thread the axle through the fork and the mount.

Next came along the fork mount where the manufacturer understood that people own bikes with different size axles. This mount comes with different inserts for different axle sizes and they sell additional inserts. The drawback here is that it can be difficult to line the fork up with the mount to thread the axle through the fork and the mount. I was generally satisfied with this style of mount, until the next generation.

Next, the clamp style fork mount came long. This is the most versatile and easiest to use fork mount. Unfortunately, there is a design flaw in that it is very tall for what it is and consumes more space than I would like for a van build.

Finally, Unaka Gear Co stepped up and solved the last problem by creating the clamp style thru-axle mount that is optimized for use in the van. It has all the positive aspects of other clamp style fork mounts with the low profile that is desired in a van build.

Bottom Line

I do own and have owned almost every bike fork mount style on the market over many years. The Unaka Gear Co fork mount is the best yet and until bike axle designs change, I don’t see anything better coming along to dethrone it. The van currently has 6 fork mounts installed for various different bikes. I plan to replace them all with the Unaka fork mount.

Support our site by shopping on Amazon with this link at no cost to you