Just wondering what folks in the know can recommend for a roof mounted bicycle rack. Mine is a 2000 VW Jetta (sedan obviously) and I’ll be transporting my road bike (with quick release) as well as my kids’ bikes (which are just the typical street bikes without the convenient quick release wheels).
What brands do you like, why and where is a good place to shop for them?
Thanks much.
Post a picture when you find one. I wnat to be the first to tell you, “Hey! Nice rack!”
You should lose the VW and get a truck. The bikes ride better in the bed of a truck.
First off, with any roof rack, expect to lose about 2-3 MPG off your fuel economy just by having the rack there, causing drag, mount a bike (or two) on it and fuel economy plummets
my '02 Neon gets around 30-35 City MPG with no rack, 27-32 with my Yakima rack on, and with bikes on, i’m lucky to get 20 MPG…
my rack is a basic Yakima rack, with the gutterless C-clips, both bike carriers are the “wheels-on” variety, one’s a clunky old Barrecrafters for my steel-frame Fila Taos singlespeed, the other is a Yakima “Claw” style for my Trek 4500
the only flaws with the rack (aside from the fuel-economy drop) are the plastic endcaps typically only last one season before cracking off, pick up some tennis balls, cut an “X” shaped hole in one side and jam one on each end of the bars and be done with it, you’ll end up doing that anyway…
the other problem is the silicone cushion feet can fall off the rack when it’s off the car in storage, neccecitating the purchase of another set of C-clips (as that’s the only way to get new cushions)
aside from that, it’s rock solid, and the round bars cause less wind turbulence and whistling than square-bar racks (my old rack was a Barrecrafters square-tube rack, the thing had an incredibly irritating whistle at speed…)