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not resolvedDoes anyone have experience with roof-mounted bike carriers (e.g. Cruz, Thule, Atera or similar brands)?
We're hiring a Toyota Auris estate over the Easter hols to go up to Strathyre, and would like to take a couple of bikes with us. If anyone has a roof-mounted carrier configuration could we check it out/try it?
Among other things, we want to make sure the rails won't leave marks on the hire car ... Thanks in advance.
Depends to a degree on what type of bike you're planning to take. I have one of the near-ubiquitous Thule ProRides. That takes my gravel bike no problem, and took my old Trek 3500 mountain bike similarly well. My newer mountain bikes which have the more modern 'relaxed' geometry were a much less satisfactory fit, having a wheelbase which was extremely marginal for the length of the rail. That's important because part of the retention system is based on strapping the wheels securely to the rail.
The racks that attach the bike via the front fork are more likely to work in that case. You do then need to be able to stash the wheel(s) inside the car (preferably in a wheel bag, especially if you're talking about mountain/gravel bikes), unless you also have a separate front wheel rack on the roof.
When you say you want to make sure that the rails won't leave marks on the hire car, do you mean the rails of the bike rack(s), or the roof bars on which the bike rack(s) are usually fitted? I'd be wary of taking my own roof bars to fit on to a hire car, particularly if it was a model I wasn't familiar with, since the mounting hardware for the bars might not be compatible with the longitudinal roof rails on the car. For example, my roof bars are specific to my model of car, since they fit to bolts which screw in to pre-installed mounting holes on the roof bars - a bit like bottle cage mounts on a bike frame. I've tried one or two types of the 'universal' roof bars and they were 'universally' unsuitable - mainly in my case because the roof rails on my car are pretty chunky (not that I watch the programme, but apparently Top Gear once tested one by landing a helicopter on it).
Can the hire company not supply roof bars? If they can then you should be able to fit pretty much any roof-bar fitting bike rack to them using the T-screws. If the roof bars don't have slots for T-screws then you'd need to have the adaptor kit for the rack as well, to be able to mount it to un-slotted roof bars.
Is there no bike hire available in Strathyre?
The hire agreement you're signing will almost certainly and explicitly not allow you to attach racks to the vehicle. At least that's been my experience over the years.
As a long time non-car owner, I've often thought it would be super useful if there was a standard for attaching bike/canoe/surfboard/piano (I only cycle) racks to all cars sold in the EU (OK, UK for now).
Thanks all.
Yes, first query is re 'what bars/rails/racks fit the car'
and then re 'fit to bikes'(less pressing)
The points Kenny makes are why we've not previously tried to do this, but google etc seems to suggest it's possible?
Obviously not being car owners, we have no idea how racks fit onto cars.
Some of them look like the clamp onto rails built into cars. Some look like they clamp into door frames.
Further clarification appreciated.
Hi, I’ve got Thule roof bars for my car (Seat Leon) and they clamp onto the door frame and the metal is rubber-coated to prevent scratches (the front door frame has a hole for a bolt to fit into). This style tends to be commonplace on hatchbacks and saloons. The other style which attached to pre-existing lengthwise rails are common on estates and SUVs. I’m not sure how generic the rails are unfortunately as I’ve tended to get them from the dealership with the car. The actual bike carrier attachments are common though as I retained mine from my previous car. They clamp round the bike tyres of course but the main load bearing is done with a clamp round the down tube. For my wife’s step-hru frame that required an additional bar but it was relatively cheap from Edinburgh Bike Coop. Hope this is useful info!
Thanks for all the advice and suggestions.
We can, indeed, hire bikes on site. But our experience in Aberfoyle (and it would seem likely to be the case in Strathyre) is that the bike rental cost more than the car hire.
two more questions:
Is it correct that if we have thule bars, we can get new mounting feet to fit a different roof? (or is this not as straightforward as it seems?).
Is this possible with other cheaper bar models? or are they more 'all one piece'?
and how standard is length? or does that make switching between vehicles even more complex?
[The Auris we are renting has flush roof rails, but we are aware that Toyota has discontinued this very nice, spacious vehicle).
The other part of the equation is will you definitely actually get The Auris, car hire companies have a habit of changing the actual car which makes this all much more tricky
Yes. That is another reason we haven’t done this before. This is a car club car. Enterprise now encourage long rentals instead of doing normal hire cars.
It is certainly possible we might not get it, but we’ve used it a lot recently and are hopeful.
The Thule website lets you check which roof rack components fit specific models of car. There are a mind boggling number of options. Looks like it could all get quite expensive, quite quickly if you were buying an entire roof rack system - even the "feet" for fitting bars to the roof range between £60 and £150+.
Yes. Seriously Pricey.
We could get a cheap one for same price as one holiday bike rental. So worth it in dollar terms if we were able to use it for 2-3.
But would rather have something more sustainable.
Yeah there seems to be about 5 different widths for Thule flush rail roof bars :( Given portability between cars is a requirement you might have to look at rear-mounted racks like this one:
https://www.halfords.com/cycling/bike-racks/rear-mounted-bike-racks/saris-bones-ex-3-bike-bike-rack-247222.html
Not cheap and having used both I far prefer roof-mounted however I had a bad experience with a cheap-ish Edinburgh Bike Co-op rear rack and a previous car's paintwork which resulted in a slightly unexpected outlay on a rear hatch respray :-(
Thanks @Mcairney I started having similar thoughts late last night too.
Had looked into these when we last rented, but was concerned about the need for duplicate plates.
Is your thinking that the Saris wouldn't need that? The pics suggest it would.
You see our problem.
maybe this is the solution?
"Is it correct that if we have thule bars, we can get new mounting feet to fit a different roof? (or is this not as straightforward as it seems?)."
Yip. Foot part bolts to holes in roof rails, bars attach to feet, bars come in different lengths. I have a set of bars of unknown lenfth and two spare sets of feet, one which came with the other set of bars and one which fitted the previous car. Also have two bike clamps which fit to the (square section) rails. I'll fish out the specs in case any are of use to you. Also have a Revolution Shuttle rear rack, which has six hooks for the edge of the boot flap and pads which sit on the rear window or elsewhere.
Does the Auris have a towball? I am pretty much a convert to towball mounted carriers because they are more aerodynamic than roof mounted racks and don't have the issues that tailgate mounted racks do (potential damage to bodywork, and increased weight of tailgate*.)
I might even be persuaded to lend out my two bike towball mount rack for the Easter weekend...
* I once managed to crush my thumb by closing a tailgate with a bike rack attached without realising how much faster it would slam down than usual. And that was without any bikes on it. Took two visits to A&E to sort that, including drilling a hole through the nail to drain the haematoma. Not fun, and stymied my weekend away :(
I've never seen a hire car / car club hire that has a tow bar attached.
So this is a Car Club car, not a commercial hire? With the Car Club, you know exactly what car you are going to get, so that's OK in terms of attaching roof bike racks - my understanding is the same as others' that you need exactly the right fitting.
I don't remember what the rules are about attaching bike racks to Car Club cars but I would check. Mr Fimm and I usually just put the seats down and chuck bikes and everything else in the back, but we don't have children to transport.
We used to have an old set of Thule roof bars that went on the car Mr Fimm got rid of over 10 years ago but I think he finally got rid of them.
@SRD @MrSRD I have a rear bike rack thingy (for two bikes) that @DaveC gave me a couple of years ago. You are welcome to borrow it (even if just to try fitting the bikes now to see how it goes). It worked fine on my Toyota Yaris.
Thanks @bill. will DM.
We've got the square thule roof bars and three bike carriers for it (two wheel-on and one wheel-off) if it's any help. You'd just need to find the correct feet for the car. DM me on twitter if you're interested.
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