Thule roof racks , help
Discussion
I have tried a few variations over the years. Favour the current aero style whispbars that certainly reduce wind noise but don’t eliminate it. Unsure of your cars fixing point, but I have the clamps. Basically buy the smart foot fitting kit relevant to the car which are obviously interchangeable should you change vehicles in the future. You may not need the feet if you have fixing points installed.
Head to roofbox and select your vehicle. Like you I initially thought the various options confusing but their system is straight forward and recommends everything required to get you up and running out of the box.
Edited to add.....straight forward installation for me. Always take them off when not in use as I have my bike racks attached. If I had a car with fixing points or side rails though I’d probably just leave them on.
Head to roofbox and select your vehicle. Like you I initially thought the various options confusing but their system is straight forward and recommends everything required to get you up and running out of the box.
Edited to add.....straight forward installation for me. Always take them off when not in use as I have my bike racks attached. If I had a car with fixing points or side rails though I’d probably just leave them on.
Edited by RLE on Thursday 4th April 15:39
You want Wingbars (not the Edge version). The square steel bars don't save you much money and it means most things you attach need U-bolts to fix to them. Wingbar Edge looks slick but reduces the width of what you can carry and you need to remove a cover to even get to the T-track. Slidebars I've never seen the point of, and Probars are just stronger ones for commercial use - but the regular ones will take more weight than your roof is rated for anyway.
Looks like the Swift has proper fixpoints - makes it a little more of a faff to get on and off but won't affect your door seals. When I had a BMW with fixpoints I just left the wingbars on, they barely affect fuel economy and don't make any noise when the bars are empty and the rubber strips are in place. Meant putting a bike carrier on only took seconds - the T-track feet on the carrier just slide into the rail, do up the levers and stick the bike on.
Looks like the Swift has proper fixpoints - makes it a little more of a faff to get on and off but won't affect your door seals. When I had a BMW with fixpoints I just left the wingbars on, they barely affect fuel economy and don't make any noise when the bars are empty and the rubber strips are in place. Meant putting a bike carrier on only took seconds - the T-track feet on the carrier just slide into the rail, do up the levers and stick the bike on.
I've got the Wingbar Edge, the covers that lock which stop access to the T-track are I think quite good - adds to the security of the rack and therefore the racks when you for e.g. stop at services with the bikes up top.
I have three bike carriers, two of which are front wheel off jobs, one of which has the grabbing arm thing that clamps the downtube so I can take my mates bike that has a Lefty. The front wheel off carriers are extremely effective - and have been given a fairly thorough testing by the 5.4 litre V8 in the car they're attached too.
I leave the Wingbars on the roof all the time, but remove the carriers (takes, literally, seconds) after each use, then put whatever I need back on when I need it.
The bars, with the T-track filled with the rubber strip that Thule provide, are very quite (but not silent). Leave the rubber strip out and they whistle.
I have three bike carriers, two of which are front wheel off jobs, one of which has the grabbing arm thing that clamps the downtube so I can take my mates bike that has a Lefty. The front wheel off carriers are extremely effective - and have been given a fairly thorough testing by the 5.4 litre V8 in the car they're attached too.
I leave the Wingbars on the roof all the time, but remove the carriers (takes, literally, seconds) after each use, then put whatever I need back on when I need it.
The bars, with the T-track filled with the rubber strip that Thule provide, are very quite (but not silent). Leave the rubber strip out and they whistle.
I have the same issue as the OP. I’ve just bought the wing bars and mounting kit. I now need to choose a bike rack.
I’m unsure as to what to go for.
Bikes: mountain bike, hybrid and road bike.
The hybrid is the wife’s so I will need to mount the mtb and hybrid together when we go together or just the road bike on its own when I go out on my own.
I’m thinking upride (591) and thruride as well.
Anyone got any advice. I’m worried about the road bike tyre wobbling around in the upride
I’m unsure as to what to go for.
Bikes: mountain bike, hybrid and road bike.
The hybrid is the wife’s so I will need to mount the mtb and hybrid together when we go together or just the road bike on its own when I go out on my own.
I’m thinking upride (591) and thruride as well.
Anyone got any advice. I’m worried about the road bike tyre wobbling around in the upride
MB140 said:
I have the same issue as the OP. I’ve just bought the wing bars and mounting kit. I now need to choose a bike rack.
I’m unsure as to what to go for.
Bikes: mountain bike, hybrid and road bike.
The hybrid is the wife’s so I will need to mount the mtb and hybrid together when we go together or just the road bike on its own when I go out on my own.
I’m thinking upride (591) and thruride as well.
Anyone got any advice. I’m worried about the road bike tyre wobbling around in the upride
Go for the Thule 598, they are perfect, my MTB and my road bike sit in them perfectly. The clamp has a safety setting so you can't over torque and damage the frame. The jaws are a bit deeper than the old model of which there are videos of people just grabbing the bikes and wrenching them off the rack and stealing them. I’m unsure as to what to go for.
Bikes: mountain bike, hybrid and road bike.
The hybrid is the wife’s so I will need to mount the mtb and hybrid together when we go together or just the road bike on its own when I go out on my own.
I’m thinking upride (591) and thruride as well.
Anyone got any advice. I’m worried about the road bike tyre wobbling around in the upride
Whatever you go with I would carry a thick cable lock and padlock and lock the bike to the carrier I'd leaving it parked up somewhere for a long time.
MB140 said:
I have the same issue as the OP. I’ve just bought the wing bars and mounting kit. I now need to choose a bike rack.
Anyone got any advice. I’m worried about the road bike tyre wobbling around in the upride
I went with two Inno Tyre holder racks. More expensive but no part of the frame is clamped and loading and unloading the bikes takes seconds. Houses my road and mtb bikes with ease which are various tyre sizes (uses an adjustment bracket to accommodate different tyre sizes).Anyone got any advice. I’m worried about the road bike tyre wobbling around in the upride
I bought a Thule 598 in order to be able to carry my friends bike that has a Lefty front fork (or strut, as it should really be called):
You need to reverse the parts, otherwise you are trying to pick a bike from the right hand side, where of course (if it has a Lefty) there's nothing to hold.
Swapping its 'handing' is thankfully very easy.
I, personally, don't like using this rack for my own bikes, so I've got two Thule 561:
One of which is in the picture I posted. These hold the bike extremely securely without clamping any part of the frame, using only the fork to clamp, with a strap that secures the rear tyre.
It's the work of seconds to swap between 9mm QR, 15mm thru-axle, 15mm boost thru-axle, 20mm etc etc.
My tip of the day - pull the rack off the roof, then you'll have changed the fork mount in under 30 seconds and will have the unit back on the roof in under 60, if you do it with the carrier on the roof it'll take 5 minutes of swearing.
You need to reverse the parts, otherwise you are trying to pick a bike from the right hand side, where of course (if it has a Lefty) there's nothing to hold.
Swapping its 'handing' is thankfully very easy.
I, personally, don't like using this rack for my own bikes, so I've got two Thule 561:
One of which is in the picture I posted. These hold the bike extremely securely without clamping any part of the frame, using only the fork to clamp, with a strap that secures the rear tyre.
It's the work of seconds to swap between 9mm QR, 15mm thru-axle, 15mm boost thru-axle, 20mm etc etc.
My tip of the day - pull the rack off the roof, then you'll have changed the fork mount in under 30 seconds and will have the unit back on the roof in under 60, if you do it with the carrier on the roof it'll take 5 minutes of swearing.
R1gtr said:
MB140 said:
I have the same issue as the OP. I’ve just bought the wing bars and mounting kit. I now need to choose a bike rack.
I’m unsure as to what to go for.
Bikes: mountain bike, hybrid and road bike.
The hybrid is the wife’s so I will need to mount the mtb and hybrid together when we go together or just the road bike on its own when I go out on my own.
I’m thinking upride (591) and thruride as well.
Anyone got any advice. I’m worried about the road bike tyre wobbling around in the upride
Go for the Thule 598, they are perfect, my MTB and my road bike sit in them perfectly. The clamp has a safety setting so you can't over torque and damage the frame. The jaws are a bit deeper than the old model of which there are videos of people just grabbing the bikes and wrenching them off the rack and stealing them. I’m unsure as to what to go for.
Bikes: mountain bike, hybrid and road bike.
The hybrid is the wife’s so I will need to mount the mtb and hybrid together when we go together or just the road bike on its own when I go out on my own.
I’m thinking upride (591) and thruride as well.
Anyone got any advice. I’m worried about the road bike tyre wobbling around in the upride
Whatever you go with I would carry a thick cable lock and padlock and lock the bike to the carrier I'd leaving it parked up somewhere for a long time.
Dammit said:
I bought a Thule 598 in order to be able to carry my friends bike that has a Lefty front fork (or strut, as it should really be called):
You need to reverse the parts, otherwise you are trying to pick a bike from the right hand side, where of course (if it has a Lefty) there's nothing to hold.
Swapping its 'handing' is thankfully very easy.
I, personally, don't like using this rack for my own bikes, so I've got two Thule 561:
One of which is in the picture I posted. These hold the bike extremely securely without clamping any part of the frame, using only the fork to clamp, with a strap that secures the rear tyre.
It's the work of seconds to swap between 9mm QR, 15mm thru-axle, 15mm boost thru-axle, 20mm etc etc.
My tip of the day - pull the rack off the roof, then you'll have changed the fork mount in under 30 seconds and will have the unit back on the roof in under 60, if you do it with the carrier on the roof it'll take 5 minutes of swearing.
Thanks dammit. I might go fork mounted to be honest. It removes the problem of scrotes just pulling the bike off the rack and riding off if the front wheel is in a bag in the boot. Would be nice to be able to see some of these setup so you could go and try them out. You need to reverse the parts, otherwise you are trying to pick a bike from the right hand side, where of course (if it has a Lefty) there's nothing to hold.
Swapping its 'handing' is thankfully very easy.
I, personally, don't like using this rack for my own bikes, so I've got two Thule 561:
One of which is in the picture I posted. These hold the bike extremely securely without clamping any part of the frame, using only the fork to clamp, with a strap that secures the rear tyre.
It's the work of seconds to swap between 9mm QR, 15mm thru-axle, 15mm boost thru-axle, 20mm etc etc.
My tip of the day - pull the rack off the roof, then you'll have changed the fork mount in under 30 seconds and will have the unit back on the roof in under 60, if you do it with the carrier on the roof it'll take 5 minutes of swearing.
Appologies OP I appear to have derailed your thread.
R1gtr said:
MB140 said:
. But at about £170 per rack it’s not cheap.
Halfords have them at £87 each Prices from amazon not including any adapters
561 - outride (clamps the actual fork) - £95
565 -thruride (clamps on to the thruaxle - £144
591 - upride (clamps frame) - £72
598 - upride (clamps frame, upgraded 591) - £87
I have a mixture of 9mm qr on hybrid, 15mm on mtb and I’m not sure on the giant defy advance 2 (2010) is just open ended fork (not sure if it’s 9mm. To be honest I don’t ride it much anymore after someone nearly knocked me off I’ve chosen not to ride on the road anymore but I would like the rack to be able to carry it.
Decisions decisions.
Edited by MB140 on Sunday 7th April 20:20
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