Motorcycle rack for vehicles

Claim 1

A motorcycle rack for attachment to the frame members of a supporting vehicle in a load distributing manner, said rack comprising in combination, a base frame including a pair of spaced parallel rails supported at fore and aft spaced apart points by the vehicle frame to impart loads to the frame at points therealong, said rails including upwardly directed projections for frame attachment purposes, upper and lower pairs of arms located at each side of the base frame each of said arms pivotally mounted at its innermost end to said base frame below the vehicle frame and adapted for travel along a vertical path to constitute a parallelogram linkage, each upper and lower pair of arms at each side of the base frame terminating outwardly in pivotal attachment to a plate member with a transverse face, a motorcycle support structure located forwardly adjacent a vehicle bumper in its raised travel position and including elongate means for the reception of motorcycle wheels, means for imparting a lifting force to the motorcycle support structure, and said motorcycle support structure including a pair of transverse plate members each in juxtaposition with the first mentioned plate members, means readily detachably mounting the plate members of the motorcycle support structure to the first mentioned plate members whereby said motorcycle support structure may be easily attached to and detached from said first mentioned plate members, such that when the rack is not being used to support a motorcycle, the resulting combined length of the vehicle and motorcycle rack with the motorcycle support structure removed, is only slightly greater than the vehicle length alone.