Roof bike carriers if the is the right forum :)

[fossyant]

Check picture <<< 4 big trail bikes, or can take a mix of road, hybrid and kids bikes. I'd rather have the bikes out of the way up top and not at the rear.

 

[Deleted member 23692]

I owned Thule carriers in the past and I now Atera ones. They are just better all round IMO

 

[si_c]

I'm sure the are excellent, but they give me the horrors. I think of the toothbrush mug in my bathroom, which uses a sucker... and falls off the wall with a clatter in the middle of the night.

Irrational I know.

Fair enough, but there is a huge difference between the bathroom sucker things and these, not least because these actively generate a vacuum between the car roof and the carrier.

 

[neil_merseyside]

Fair enough, but there is a huge difference between the bathroom sucker things and these, not least because these actively generate a vacuum between the car roof and the carrier.

They have a vacuum pump? Blimey that is flash!

 

[CanucksTraveller]

I'm sure the are excellent, but they give me the horrors. I think of the toothbrush mug in my bathroom, which uses a sucker... and falls off the wall with a clatter in the middle of the night.

Irrational I know.

Not irrational at all, you only have to Google "Seasucker bike rack failure" to see and read many real accounts where the toothbrush mug came off the wall at 70mph making for a very expensive mess. I'd always prefer my rack to be bolted on.

 

[Drago]

Take it from someone who probably attended half a dozen of these every summer - do not rely on anything that uses straps, suckers, glue, velcro, knicker elastic, voodoo or willpower to attach your bike to the exterior of a car.

If the device isn't bolted or clamped in place then you may as well just throw your bike down some stairs now and save a bit of time.

 

[figbat]

Roof is my preference - the fact you can leave it installed for little detriment means you can use it quickly and often. Yes, you may suffer some wind noise and/or increased fuel consumption but for the driving we do we haven’t really noticed much of either. If we’re off on a long journey with no bikes then it’s easy enough to take off.

For special journeys with multiple bikes then we’ll deploy the towbar carrier - assuming we’re not towing anything, in which case it’s the roof.

As above - bolts and clamps for me.

 

[Gunk]

I owned Thule carriers in the past and I now Atera ones. They are just better all round IMO

I agree, the Atera stuff is very good, they make a lot of the OEM roof bars

 

[figbat]

I agree, the Atera stuff is very good, they make a lot of the OEM roof bars

...as do Thule.

 

[Gunk]

...as do Thule.

true, my BMW bike carriers are made by Thule

 

[Scaleyback]

I own and have always used a Thule ( tow bar) mounted bike carrier that even pivots down to allow the hatchback to open. Excellent piece of kit. I have recently changed my car and it has the VW front/rear 'park assist' which I am reading complicates things ? Apparently I now require a detachable tow bar to allow use of the rear park assistance when bike rack not mounted. Looks like this tow bar is going to cost 'north' of £600.00 ! Now I might change to roof bars and roof mounted cycle carrier, which I can get for around £300.00.
Anyone have experience of tow bar mounted carriers with Park Assist systems ?

 

[TheDoctor]

Racks of any kind make me nervous.
In 1994 three of us drove to the Rhone valley with three bikes on a tailgate strap-on rack. Maybe 40 kg, about a grands worth of bikes., There and back with no problems.
The following year, someone was learning to drive. Stuck the obligatory magnetic L plate onto the tailgate. It fell off, and that's when I realised the tailgate was plastic. And we'd cheerfully driven about 600 motorway miles...
I always put the bikes in the car now.

 

[stoatsngroats]

I own and have always used a Thule ( tow bar) mounted bike carrier that even pivots down to allow the hatchback to open. Excellent piece of kit. I have recently changed my car and it has the VW front/rear 'park assist' which I am reading complicates things ? Apparently I now require a detachable tow bar to allow use of the rear park assistance when bike rack not mounted. Looks like this tow bar is going to cost 'north' of £600.00 ! Now I might change to roof bars and roof mounted cycle carrier, which I can get for around £300.00.
Anyone have experience of tow bar mounted carriers with Park Assist systems ?

I thought when you plug the light board in it would be detected by the car and include a trailer function?
I’m sure this happens with mine, but I don’t have such a modern car as you!

 

[Scaleyback]

I thought when you plug the light board in it would be detected by the car and include a trailer function?
I’m sure this happens with mine, but I don’t have such a modern car as you!

Yes, with the tow bar mounted carrier you have full onboard lighting and indicators. The problem with the Park Assist (as I understand it) is that it will see the tow bar (even without the carrier mounted) as an obstacle whenever you put the car into reverse gear ?

 

[stoatsngroats]

@Scaleyback ah, Ok, but ,y point was that with the light board connected, the park assist should ignore the towbar?
Apologies if I misunderstood!