General bike roof racks

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General bike roof racks

rob_g_clarkson

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I know there's kinda been a bike rack thread, but does anyone have a bike roof rack running on EOM roof bars & rails?

i've seen thule ones, but will they fit on the OEM bars like below?!?:

3e43535a.jpg
 
I cant view your pic so cant see what bars you have. If you have the longitudinal bars then the thule kit will fit no problem.

But if you have the aftermarket fiat bars that go across the car then the Thule rack wont fit as the distance between the bars on the car is to big, ive looked into this myself.

Thule do another bike rack where you take the front wheel off to mount the bike, this should fit either Fiat or thule roof bars that go across the roof.
 
I have Mont Blanc and had a problem with the distance being too big for the Mont Blanc bike carriers. I found some identical size box section (well actually two pieces of channel welded together as the box section of the Mont Blanc bar was a weird size) and offset it from the back roof bar with bolts (and some SS pipe to set the distance and the bolts to go through), and sprayed it a matching black, worked great though I never used it much as finishing that project unfortunately coincided with me selling the car.. they just stand in my garage now :-(
 
I did look into the FIAT originals but you end up with two sets of bars so everything is 3-4" higher. Also the bike racks look poor compared to the competition, e.g. if you get the expensive mont blanc you get a big channel for the front bike wheel to sit in so you can place your bike on and then lock on the locking arm to the bike frame - this is very useful if you'll be doing it alone. The FIAT effort is also overpriced as it only compares to the cheap spec thule / mont blanc etc. But.. you do have to have two sets of bars with everything so high up just to get the distance between the bars right unless you want to modify them like I did.. if you don't then you're forced to FIAT as IIRC there aren't any aftermarket longitudinal bars. You may be lucky enough to find a long enough 3rd party bike carrier to fit the 3rd party bars without modification, but I didn't find any..this may be trial and error or measuring some in a bricks and mortar shop (you can also get non longitudinal FIAT bars if you want to stick to FIAT). If you end up getting the FIATs you may wish to look at shop4parts as even if they aren't listed he'll often order parts for you, and then you also may be eligible for the FIATForum discount.
 

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matthew, nice one mate.... i've read this a little too late and i've ordered the FIAT ones, i will be needding another one at some point so if it's up to the joib i'll give shop4parts a bell (y)
 
Hello there! This is my Thule bike rack, it’s very solid and ridged. God stuff.
 

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I have the fiat side-to-side bars and a Thule 591, been all over the country with it, no problems... get some funny looks, but hey! (y)

P1010667s.jpg

Thanks for this. Thule told me this bike rack would not fit the fiat bars as the space between them was to big. Looks like you have proved them wrong and saved us 100's of pounds as we dont need to spend nearly £300 on Longitudinal bars and another £125 for thule bars to go across the car. :)
 
that's the perfect solution tbf... i'm gonna see if i can cancel my FIAT jobbie now I know this is gonna work!

EDIT: how does it attach to the roof bars? Do you have any close up pictures?
 
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that's the perfect solution tbf... i'm gonna see if i can cancel my FIAT jobbie now I know this is gonna work!

EDIT: how does it attach to the roof bars? Do you have any close up pictures?


Yeah, I would like to see some close up pics on how the bike rack fits to the fiat bars as well. But now i know it works the only decision ive now got it wether to get the fiat bars or the Thule ones that go across the roof. But well happy i know i can now fit my bike to my car.
 
Looks like I know more than fiat then.... or maybe it was just a lucky guess :eek:

I don't have any close ups at present, but this is the image from the manual that show's how it clamps on....

591fitting.jpg


The front clamps/arm etc dont move but, the rear one slides back and forth to match the bars, then the wheel guides and straps move about too. All in all I'm very happy with it, only niggle is it sits a bit far forward on the car, but nothing too silly.
 
seems obvious now, but i've never seen one attached close up before.....

next silly question then;

do you think you'd be able to fit 2 bikes on the roof of a panda, ie is it wide enough?!?
 
I'd say you definatley could, depending on how the handlebars etc line up I guess one facing forwards and one backwards would be the likely solution.
 
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