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Recommend a roof rack Posted by Ari [Email] ![]() ![]() In Reply to: Bicycle rack recommendations, Mike E, Wed, 8 Aug 2007 20:42:33 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
My recommendation is to get a set of Thule or Yakama bars for the roof. I prefer the Thule setup because of the square bars, but it is personal preference. Once you have a set of bars, now you can carry anything, from bikes to kayaks to sheets of plywood, to the errant Christmas tree. Greatly extends the usefulness of the car. No, the bars don't snap on and off, but I can put mine on (or take them off) in about 5 minutes. No big deal. Just pick one manufacturer - Thule and Yakama aren't interchangeable.
For the bike, I take off the front wheel (fits easily in the car) and use a front fork clamp and a simple rail for the back wheel. Actually, I don't even use a rail for my back wheel - the bar spacing fits my wheel spacing, so the back wheel sits on the back bar. I use a mast holder fitting for a windsurfer to hold the back wheel. For the front clamp, you can buy a Thule/Yakama clamp. I picked up a fork clamp for a pick-up truck - just a metal block with a quick-release skewer on it. It's designed to be bolted to a truck bed. I drilled two holes in one of my Thule bars and mounted it. It cost me about $10.
I understand the appeal of rear-mounted or receiver-type bike racks. The bikes are nice and accessable. However, I would never own one. Some friends of mine were all loaded up to go on a nice bike vacation, and they stopped into a 7-11 to grab sodas. Some yo-yo in a pickup truck backed up and didn't know how big his truck was, or only saw the roof of their car. Either way, the bikes were crushed. I don't like leaving my favorite rolling stock hanging out there in the breeze. And if you do go with a rear rack, make sure it hangs up high enough to miss the exhaust system - I've seen folks arrive at bike rides with tires melted because they hit the exhaust system. Quite sad.
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