when carrying my road bike!

Many thanks to Magdaddy who's our resident cycling/rack guru who pointed me in the right direction for setup. Its Thule 387 and 300 footpack's (you need the 300's in the front and 387's in the rear). If you buy a kit of either you'll receive 4 of the same foot pack. Try to find another rennlister who wants a rack and you both get to split the footpacks. You can install only the 300 footpacks but unlike my rack and Magdaddy's your bike will not be horizontal to the car and it looks odd. The 387 high mount foot pack brings the rear of the rack level with the roofline...

Parts req'd:

1. Thule LB50 Bars
2. Thule 300 and 387 footpacks
3. Thule or Yakima Fork Mount for the bike (I went Yakima -yes they are compatible)
4. Thule Locks


Pic:

 

sweet! and love the color. wheels work well too.

 

nice!

The only drawback is you can't really use the sunroof while driving at highway speeds with the rack on top...bike or not, just too much wind noise. I'm a windows down, roof open kinda guy.

You'll find yourself carrying other stuff up there too. I added the wheel holder to mine also, that frees up more room for gear bags or a fellow cyclist and his crap.

 

Looks badass. I'm going to miss my roof rack. It doesn't bother me when the rack is not horizontal; I preferred the equal-length mounts, but to each his own.

 

Thanks for the description and picture. Approximately how much did all that cost? How easy was it to install and how stable is the bike once on the rack? Did you get the low or high footpacks?

I need to get a similar set-up for my car so if anyone is interested in sharing the parts, send me a message.

 

dreamtripper 007 - I'll split a set of Thule 387 and 300s with you. Im in NYC too, so makes it even easier. I'll do some investigation as to where we can get bets price for the set. I think it should be about $160 per set. So would cost us each $160 for 2 -300s and 2 - 387s. Then you just need 2 crossbars which are relatively inexpensive.

 

What do you think the potential damage to the paint/rails are? I have not looked at Thule racks for years, so i am not sure how well protected the attach points are. They clamp on either side of the rails on each side of the roof right?

Cheers,

Mike

 

car racks... the biggest proprietary consumer scam since apple... allow me...

1) $81
2) $160 + $160
3) $120
4) $60
---------
$581

 

Zero. For the '92 C4, RSA #2, 4S, and even the faux RS with the rack/bikes mounted while it's been on the trailer.

Huh?

Anyway, if anyone has Yakima and wants to level out, I have the two extra long mounts from my kit available.

 

Price = cost less 25% from my brother-in-laws ski shop It worked out to half of what was posted above...

Mounting - Thule has these textured material on the base of the footpacks that will not scratch the paint. I doubled up my effort there with clear bra material

Stability - Rock stiff. I went with the Yakima fork mount for this very reason. In the package they warn about tightening the forks too much especially with carbon forks as I have. When the bike is on board its super stiff when trying to shake it. THE WHOLE CAR MOVES...LOL

Fit Point - yes Mike they clamp either side of the rain gutter. Trust me I wouldn't put it on if it was going to be questionable....my bike and cars paint job are expensive to replace. I'm 23.5" inside front bar to inside rear bar. Thule and Yakima recommend between 16" and 42" depending on roof profile.

Parts - I went with the normal height 300 footpack front and the 387 high mount on the rear to level it all out. Boman993 has the other half of my parts so he benefited greatly on price!

Install - its super easy. Just read the instructions once and you'll be set. I worked at said brother-in-laws ski shop when I was younger and installed many many of these racks.

Magdaddy - yup after I had the front wheel in the car today I decided to get the wheel holder for on top. Now I need to find one over here in Dubai...won't be easy!

 

i thought i was pretty clear.

i'll try again.
racks are a gigantic waste of money. but there are no other viable alternatives so your pretty much hosed when you need one. when parts break, and theyve discontinued your line, and you have to replace all the components for the same end result, you get boned again...

I have an extensive rack system on my other vehicle. it serves its purpose, but there's no doubt i was flushing money down the toilet and enriching Thule Execs....

only hope; craigs list, ebay and a prayer

 

I've had Thule racks on every vehicle that both my wife and I have owned for the last 20 years. The long tray fork mounts I have-quantity of four...are from the early 90's. Yes parts break, but some pieces from the newer styles still fit the old trays.

Expensive, yes....many alternatives, no.

Ebay is always full of used 300 footpacks. You should be able to get a good set of 4 for $60, thats where I got mine.. That will lower the cost some.

 

I concur with Magdaddy's comments.

When I was a teen I had a 400 footpack let go on the highway thus causing my snowboard, friends snowboard, and the entire rack to achieve lift and fly off the car. Trailer truck then drove over and crushed it all.

Thule asked for the remains and determined that they had incorrectly manufactured the rivet for the footpack. I received brand new boards, another rack and a ski weekend at a resort of my choice (I was out for 2 months mid-season).

Racks do occasionally break but mine was one of the few that I have seen in my years of selling racks. If properly installed, stored, etc. they shouldn't break.

 

Be careful when tightening the thule on your gutters.. my gutters were never straight again after that blasted rack..

 

They DO have ya by the short ones and price is ridiculous but.....ebay,craiglist,used gear store stores and they're dirt cheap. Just bought a set of feet,bars and 2 bike carriers(no need to remove front tire)all for 200 bucks