Why was the SideRide Developed?

I developed the SideRide after not being satisfied with the options for carrying a bike on my Tacoma. I started off by using a tailgate pad.  The issue was having bikes over the tailgate pretty much took up all the bed space, not to mention that having a swing-out rear bumper makes tailgate pads impossible to use. 

So I moved onto using a hitch rack. This made the truck's departure angle atrocious while at the same time adding several feet to an already long rear end. I also didn't like the fact that a hitch rack blocked my tailgate for easy bed access.

After ruling out a tailgate pad and hitch rack, I experimented by transferring my roof mounted bike trays from my car to my truck's roof rack.  That was a great spot for bikes except that the overall height of my truck was very tall, and that lifting your bike up over your head after a long ride wasn't always fun. 

So after all the experience using existing methods I decided to develop a new place to put bikes.  I decided the sides of the bed were perfect, as it wasn't too tall to lift a bike up to, and it wasn't going to take up any bed space.  After some measuring I knew I wanted to keep these as close to the side as possible, so they didn't protrude too far when a bike is not mounted. I had to balance mounting them too close to the bedside that a pedal would hit my Softopper or other accessories. After a lot of time measuring, developing, and testing, the SideRide was born!