Looking to install some bars for my 2008 GTI. Considering OEM, Yakima or Thule. Would like to add mounts for bikes and possibly a kayak down the road.

Any advice? My last car had a trunk bike rack but seeing as I no longer have a trunk and want something that looks a little more streamlined I'd like to look into roof racks.

Does anyone have a preference? Thule/Yakima? One wheel or two wheel for bikes? Downtube hook or wheel hook? Will be for both mountain and road bikes.

Thanks in advance!

8/22/2012 9:34:45 AM

hit up CL for a used set

Yakima, Thule or OEM are all fine, from what I've seen, you'll probably pay more for OEM

but, get your money out.. (you're probably looking at ~$400 - $800 for the entire setup)

the mounts and accessories add up quickly

I've got a fork-lock mount and front tire carrier for my tri bike

probably gonna get one with a downtube clamp for a mountain bike

8/22/2012 9:55:45 AM

Thanks!

http://www.golfmk6.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20958

There's a decent review comparing OEM to Whisper bars. I'll shop around and keep an eye on CL.

And Thule:

http://www.golfmk6.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18883

hmm.

[Edited on August 22, 2012 at 10:01 AM. Reason : d]

8/22/2012 9:59:52 AM

I have a yakima Q-tower system I have been pleased with. Go with the downtube hooks. If you are putting a mountain bike with disc brakes on it, it is a pain in the ass to use the fork mount and then have to readjust your brakes when you put the wheel back on.

8/22/2012 11:05:01 AM

I never once had an issue with my Yak rack and disc brakes on a mountainbike. And i've probably put 15 different disc equipped bikes on there. The wheel/disc slide back in perfectly each time. No adjustment needed.

If you're truly worried about it though, my Shimano disc brakes came with a little plastic insert for that very purpose.

8/22/2012 11:38:05 AM

...kill your fuel mileage. Do not modify your vehicle's outside shape in ANY way, not even a trailer hitch. Engineers make a lot of effort to design your car's air-foil unless you bought a notch-back or, gulp.. a fucking pick-up truck. Figure out a way to put your crap inside the car or mail it to yourself.

If you have an un-aerodynamic vehicle, do not go faster than 55mph.

8/22/2012 4:26:44 PM

GxB must have procreated. Welcome, GxB jr.

8/22/2012 4:30:17 PM

i got some yakima bars that i was trying to sell. I may have some towers as well.

not sure about clips or anything.

i took them off my subaru. and i may have sold the clips/towers. need to check

8/22/2012 5:48:02 PM

Fork mount only for me. Every downtube clamp I've ever used has left my eyes watching the bike shake and shimmy back and forth through the sunroof for twice as long as I have my eyes on the road.

Sometimes you can actually find a better deal on oem racks once your vehicle starts to age, and they are made by Thule anyway. I've never been a big fan of the round Yakima bars but there really isn't much of a difference.

8/22/2012 9:27:05 PM

my first set of yakima q towers, bars, and 2 raptor bike carriers were $125 from CL

i sold the towers/bars set (kept the raptors) 4 years later for $150 when i got a newer version of the q towers/bars PLUS a thule cargo carrier for $100

i didn't even look that hard...just set up an alert on http://www.adravage.com/ and got a deal after a couple of weeks

unless you're very lucky to find some on CL or a cheap seller on fleabay, though, those q-clips are a rape waiting to happen...it'll cost you something like $40 for 4 clips

the weight limit is something like 75lbs...though i've carried more than that on several occasions (including 2 canoes, which was closer to...150? 200lbs?)

of course, i now get pretty substantial leaking on my driver-side pillar when the rain is really hard and heavy (doesn't seem to happen unless it IS really hard and heavy, though)...i think carrying too much crap on the rack might have done it

[Edited on August 22, 2012 at 9:55 PM. Reason : .]

8/22/2012 9:52:44 PM

roof racks are awesome.

8/22/2012 11:41:40 PM

any F150 drivers had success transporting a 10' kayak in the bed or should I break down and buy a roof rack?

3/28/2014 10:19:46 PM

kinda depends on how long the bed is on your model. if you've got a full 8' bed, then you can add 1' with the tailgate, so you'd be just fine. if you've got a 6' bed, then you'll have 3' hanging off the back and you're probably still good. 6' bed with a toolbox? probably not gonna work.

3/29/2014 6:51:22 AM

yep, 6.5' bed. no toolbox. does have a BakFlip tri-fold tonneau cover though

[Edited on March 29, 2014 at 9:58 AM. Reason : d]

3/29/2014 9:57:36 AM

should be fine in the bed.

3/29/2014 10:08:51 AM

Just bought a whispbar system, its been pretty awesome, no noise and easy to install...

Haven't used it yet though.

3/30/2014 2:59:16 PM

Any roof rack suggestions for a Porsche Cayman? I know Ahmet has a lot of experience with Porsche racks. Looks like the Porsche Style cross bar system is $500, and the bike attachment is $150.

Yakima and Thule don't appear to be much (if at all) less expensive.

3/31/2014 8:22:18 AM

^ What are you carrying? For a bike, this is what I use on my BRZ:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBK8pUPWu2A

It's a suction mount but the nice thing is that it theoretically will work for any car. I've carried my bike around town up to speeds of around 60 mph and it's held up good.



[Edited on April 4, 2014 at 9:31 PM. Reason : http://www.seasucker.com/shop/1187]

4/4/2014 9:26:54 PM

nice thing about a yakima or a thule, is if (of course youll never sell it) but if you ever do, or some minvan crushes it, you still have the rack.

4/5/2014 8:33:17 AM

^^Yes, it's for a mtn bike. I've seen that rack on a BRZ before. However I'm too anal about my car and am not going to attach a suction cup mount to my paint unless it has just been freshly washed.

^I don't get your comment. Are you saying that it's unbreakable?

4/7/2014 8:52:01 AM

I think he is getting at that those companies use the same trays supports and tie downs on all their products. So when you get rid of the car you lose the vehicle specific part but you still have the parts that aren't vehicle specific

4/7/2014 8:58:53 AM

Ah okay. I'm pretty sure that's the case with Porsche rack accessories as well.

4/7/2014 9:12:03 AM

Porsche factory racks are good quality (manufactured by Thule of Sweden - separate line from “Thule”), they fit into factory receivers on the chassis and accept other European Thule accessories. In fact, I’ve had bike carrier attachments from Porsche, BMW, and VW. I’ve tried all of those on my M3s, 911s (I’ve not actually owned a VW nor their cross bars). I’ve settled on the Porsche bars with VW bike carriers. They’re basically the same as Porsche’s, but don’t say P O R S C H E in red letters across the rack. Currently I have the load bars on the 911 and the Mini.
On the Porsche;

In use (at Uwharrie! );

and, same carriers with the Mini factory load bars on the Mini;

4/7/2014 11:33:09 AM

when did you get a mini?

4/7/2014 12:45:37 PM

Day after I got the M3, about two weeks ago. It's fantastic, they both are!

4/7/2014 1:14:24 PM

Do you still have the porsche? So e36 M3 + cooper S? Mind providing a quick comparison or description? I've driven a few e36 M3s, and have a 00 M Coupe, and have always been interested in a cooper S.

4/7/2014 2:29:28 PM

Absolutely, and regardless of what I’m about to say, I do think we should meet and have this conversation in person. I’m happy to show you around my cars btw. Actually, I will make a new tread for this shortly.

4/7/2014 5:25:36 PM

wait, when did you get another ///? we should chat more.

4/7/2014 10:06:10 PM

Its not just the accessories.

For example my whispbar system on the CR-V.

The mounting kit was 80 bux, the bars were 320.

If I sell the cr-v tomorrow i can use the same bars on the next car (most cars seem to work fine with 48 inch bars).

so i can move that 320 dollar investment from car to car.

If i bought the 200 factory bars, I can't move them to a Subaru or the gto.

also the whispbars are of the "through" design (form a T at the mounting point), which lets me secure loads on a side to side basis, the factory ones would allow basic tied down loads to move side to side.

4/7/2014 10:14:54 PM

Google isn't helping, so either this is harder to find than I thought, or so obvious it's eluding me, but anyways

Is there a rack system I can get that can do both bikes and skis/snowboards?

I already have a factory rack system on my car with crossbar

7/11/2017 10:55:50 AM

If you have the crossbar then typically you would just purchase a separate ski and bike rack. However I prefer my bikes in a bucket style mount on my hitch. For skis/snowboards I have a Thule box as I don't like keeping skis/snowboards exposed. Plus the box doubles as additional storage.

7/11/2017 11:48:32 AM

So I would need to just switch the bike/ski mounts at the season changes instead of having one rack in place that can handle both?

7/11/2017 11:54:30 AM

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying...to my knowledge there's no rack that can handle both skis and bikes. They're two entirely separate systems. The only commonality is the crossbar (which it sounds like you already have).

I use my Thule box year round for Skiing (Nov - June) and luggage (travel, camping, etc). My Kuat bike rack stays on all the time as I bike year round as well.

But yes if you don't want to go the box route then I would just get separate ski and bike mounts for the roof. Depending on the number of each you could easily fit them on at the same time. I see people with both bikes and skis on their roofs at the same time quite often.

My setup:

7/11/2017 12:07:48 PM

That answers my question. Have you ever seen someone with multiple bikes and skis on their rack at the same time? Or I'm guessing if you want to have both you'd only have room for one bike?

I want to do it all on the roof because I live in NYC and park on the street. Adding any length to my car makes parking worse.

7/11/2017 12:23:08 PM

That makes sense. I live in a garage and have heard horror stories of people forgetting they have a bike on their roof.

It really depends on the size of the car. I've seen 2 bikes on the roof plus 2 skis. You can technically go wider than the width of the car slightly but probably not the best solution for you in a city.

With your typical ski rack that fits 2-4 skis you could easily put 1-2 bikes next to it.

But yeah the biggest factor is how big your car is. Obviously you're going to have a very different strategy if you've got a mini versus a truck/suv.

7/11/2017 12:41:42 PM

Quote :

"I live in a garage"

7/11/2017 3:17:15 PM

^sweeet

7/12/2017 8:10:38 AM

How much does that garage run ya neodata686?

7/12/2017 10:42:32 AM

$50/car for a reserved covered spot. Pretty sweet deal if I say so myself.

7/12/2017 10:59:10 AM