Car bike rack advice?

adrenalinemunki

How do guys

I'd love a bit of advice on the best way to carry our bikes on the car? We have an Audi A4 Avant (so, an estate), therefore we have the roof rails which could be used if that was the way to go...

I'm dubious about how much it would cost to get kitted up fully for roof carrying, we'd need the bars themselves as well as the bike holders (of which we'd need 2, maybe 3).

Then we have rear mounted, we don't have a tow bar so we're limited to the strap on type which I have bad experiences of, they don't seem super secure and scratch and possibly damage the bikes when they clatter together...

So, roof or rear? and if so which brand/model would you recommend to best look after our bikes

Andy B

Roof

Thule Proride 591

you will not go wrong with that combo

nicklouse

tow or roof. Thule.

Stevo_666

My roofrack and Thule 591's work just fine.

Not used rear mounted carriers, but I prefer to stick the bikes on the car then have the tailgate open while I faff about deciding what to chuck in the boot - which you can't do with tail mounted carriers.

Pudseyp

The Thule Pro Rider 591 is excellent and Ford Direct were doing them for £120 pair (mine were delivered next day) .....I have a pair and they are excellent....though before this I had a pair of Mont Blanc Barracuda's also a great carrier but will only take a max tyre width of 2.2.



http://www.fordonlineparts.co.uk/produc ... fAodn3qzLQ

Review here

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... -11-35074/

adrenalinemunki

Ahh right that a cool deal...

Before I press the buy button, how do these type of roof carriers compare to the ones where you take the wheel off and mount from the forks?

dgstewart

I have an Audi A4 also and I use the following and would recommend them. I've not tried any others though.

Roof bars: Atera SIGNO ASS aluminium roof bars (£125 for pair)
Bike racks: Atera GIRO AF aluminium (£59 each).

I got mine from www.roofbox.co.uk a couple of years ago. Go to the website and you choose your roof bars based on car model, then you pick a suitable roofbox and/or bike racks. They were very helpful on the phone if you want to ask questions.

For a rear mounted you can't beat a Saris Bones 3 bike rack - excellent product and will fit almost any car you can think of (I mainly use it on my MX-5!). That said if you're carrying mountain bikes I'm not sure I would want three on the back - most I've done is two.

Overall I would go with the roof mounted option, then as someone else noted above you can get the boot open more easily.

adrenalinemunki

I had a good read about the GIRO AF vs the 591, and from what I could see the 591 comes out on top most of the time BUT its more expensive... that is until I saw the link from PudseyP which points to a site selling them for £58

I think they both look great tbh, but from what I've read the 591 has the edge... although I'm still curious how it would compare to the Atera GIRO Speed (the fork attached version)...

Any experience with this alternative way to lock the bike on?

Stevo_666

adrenalinemunki wrote:

Ahh right that a cool deal...

Before I press the buy button, how do these type of roof carriers compare to the ones where you take the wheel off and mount from the forks?

Less hassle if you don't need to remove the wheel - simples.

adrenalinemunki

I'm not bothered about the minor extra hassel if it means the bikes will be more stable and I don't have something clamping on the tubes that have gear cables running down them... is this not even a slight issue?

dgstewart

I've never tried the fork mounted approach. I'll be honest and say I don't get them - they look very fragile and like they could easily damage the dropouts, but they must work fine as many people use them. Also you then need to store your front wheel somewhere, so I can't see the point in the extra hassle there.

Minor point of advice - when clamping the downtube of any bike on the roof mounted carrier I always use a sock wrapped round the tube to give a little more protection from the clamp. I'm mainly talking about carbon road bikes here, so you might not bother with an aluminium mountain bike.

Never had any issues with clamping on/around gear/brake cables to be honest. They're not moving when the bike is stationary, so just take a bit of care not to catch them on anything.

adrenalinemunki

Righto... Thule 591 it is, thanks chaps

Now I've got to chose some roof bars, but I'm probably just going to go with the Atera Aluminium jobbies (the ones that look a bit like Thule Aerobars but for a bucket load less money )

Cheers

dgstewart

Before you buy, just double check that the Thule 591 carrier has the "T-bar" attachments that fit the "T-slot" in the Atera aluminium aero bars. I think it does, but worth double checking - phone the guys at roofbox.co.uk (or wherever you're buying from).

quattrojames

I also have an A4, I picked up a set of original Audi bars in very good condition from Ebay for £50. I then bought a Thule 532 for about £43 delivered, thats for a single but double's are available.

The whole lots fits together realy well and looks like original equipment

Personally I'd not bother with a front wheel off job as you need to find somewhere to stash the dirty wheels inside the car, rather defeats the object in my opinion.

adrenalinemunki

dgstewart wrote:

Before you buy, just double check that the Thule 591 carrier has the "T-bar" attachments that fit the "T-slot" in the Atera aluminium aero bars. I think it does, but worth double checking - phone the guys at roofbox.co.uk (or wherever you're buying from).

I just bought the one from the link above (the ford parts place)... it doesn't mention any T-Bar stuff so I'll have a look when it arrives and buy the bars that work with it accordingly...

gilesjuk

I have Thule on the roof with one carrier.

It is worth getting the aero bars too, not the cheaper square ones. In the long run you'll get back the extra you pay in fuel savings.

quattrojames

My 532 came with T-Bar attachments for the aero bars, so I'm sure the 591 will too.