I loved my SeaSucker rack,
but hated worrying about it

Kraken Rack Monitor started as a personal side project after I bought a vacuum-mounted bike rack. The rack worked great, but it took up too much mental space while driving. Once I could see the mounts were holding, the whole experience changed.

Built by a SeaSucker user

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How It Works

Built for the SeaSucker Talon 1-Bike rack · Handmade in small batches · Patent pending

Timothy holding his son next to his Mustang Bullitt with a mountain bike mounted on the roof.

The Story

From one nervous first drive to a real product

Last fall, I bought a vacuum-mounted SeaSucker bike rack so I could transport my bike without installing permanent racks on my Mustang. It worked great, but the uncertainty took the fun out of the drive: were the vacuum mounts still secure?

The first time I used it, I even had a friend drive behind me the entire trip, just in case. The rack itself was doing its job, but I had no way to see the vacuum indicators while driving.

So I built a small monitoring system for myself. It monitored the position of the vacuum plungers, showed their status on my phone, and alerted me if one moved past the alert threshold.

With that in place, the rack finally felt complete. I still installed and checked the rack properly, but now I had extra visibility while driving.

Reddit changed the plan

I shared the prototype. People told me to keep going.

I posted a video of the homemade prototype on Reddit expecting a few comments. Instead, it got almost 800 upvotes and more than 100 comments. A lot of people recognized the same feeling and encouraged me to protect the idea and make it real.

Read the original Reddit post ➞

Mustang Bullitt with mountain bike mounted on roof using a SeaSucker Talon.

Kraken Rack Monitor packaged inside a box with custom foam inserts.

Mountain bike mounted on Mustang using a SeaSucker rack mount.

The underside of the SeaSucker Talon 1-Bike rack with a prototype of Kraken Rack Monitor mounted.

From prototype to first batch

What happened after Reddit

Filed Patent Application

Protected the idea before turning it into a public product.

Icon of a rolled scroll or paper on a bright green circular background.

Redesigned For Production

Rebuilt the prototype into a refined, more reliable first version.

Green circular icon with black wrench symbol in the center.

Published The App

Finished and released the companion app for iPhone, iPad, and Android.

Green circle icon with a black upload arrow symbol in the center.

Built The First Batch

Hand-built the first 20 units in Sweden to keep risk low and support early customers closely.

Green circular icon with a black outline of a cardboard box and a check mark indicating approval or correctness.

I’m Timothy, the person behind Kraken

I’m Timothy Engqvist Johansson, a builder, coder, and entrepreneur from Lund, Sweden.

I started programming when I was 14 and got my first software engineering job at 18. Since then, I’ve worked as a software engineer for startups and larger companies, including Apple, but I’ve always been most excited about building products of my own.

Kraken Rack Monitor brings together a lot of the things I care about: software, hardware, cars, bikes, and solving a real problem I had myself.

When I’m not working on Kraken, I’m usually spending time with my wife and son, mountain biking, going to the gym, or driving my 2020 Mustang Bullitt. That car is exactly why I wanted a removable bike rack setup in the first place.

Built with care

Small batch,
Made in Sweden

Kraken Rack Monitor is currently made in a small first batch. Each unit is assembled, packed, and checked with the kind of attention you only get when the person who designed the product is also the person shipping it.