Greetings fellow Lexusians, new family member! Just bought a 2022 es 350! I bike ride and need to transport my bike at times and obviously don’t want to do anything to mark up the body, so any cyclists out there have a recommendation for bike racks to use?

 

I wish I had a better answer, but I haven't found a good one.

You can find an old thread on this board of a poster who cut into the underbody and even permanently removed their rear performance damper to fit the Curt brand rear-bumper hitch that's made for the Avalon. I talked personally to a Curt rep, who confirmed that they do not make a hitch that bolts up under the ES and probably never will.

All other hitch types, whether roof-mounted or trunklid-mounted, run the risk of permanent paint damage. I loathe this idea just as much as you do.

One other thought I've had is to simply pop the front tires off the bikes and see if I can successfully dangle them out of the trunk, with the clear plastic "rear bumper appliqué" to protect the paint just outside the trunk opening. But this requires the ability to tie or bungee down the trunklid, and I don't think Lexus provided the tie-down point on the trunklid to accomplish that either (I welcome somebody reading this and proving me wrong). Besides which, this approach would have a lot better chance of working if the ES had the trunk pass-through that the Avalon does. But I knew that wasn't happening when I bought it, so I have nobody but myself to blame.

 

I'm a cyclist as well... and I've asked the dealer if they had any options. i installed a hitch for my hitch rack on my previous sedan and was hoping to do the same but just looking at the rear bumper and the degree of squat the ES has i knew i had a problem.

I've contacted DrawTite a competitor of Curt who manufactured my last hitch for my other sedan. This is a link whereby you can submit your request for development like i just did. It simply takes more of us asking for the product for it to be developed. They stopped at the 2018 model year.. and im assuming not enough sold to justify making another one.. or it could very well be the low hanging design of the rear bumper cover. I think lexus should have had an option where the bumper cover had a removable insert and incorporated frame for at least a 1 1/4" hitch. As i type, i'm thinking all this was scrapped because of the accident avoidance sensors.. they will be blocked with a bike in the rear.

https://www.draw-tite.com/ContactUs

 

I was talking with the guy at the shop that I got my windows tinted at and theres a transparent film called Xpel for paint protection. You can customize where you want it at, so debating doing that and covering where my bike rack legs rest, only question will be if that rack will even work anymore with such a small bumper, but its something i'll look at.

 

Thanks for the link. I just used it to leave that message with Draw-Tite.