General roof bars & bike racks

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General roof bars & bike racks

philsparks

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Jul 7, 2006
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got a 1 year old Ulysse with the roof bars that sit at the back of the roof like a spoiler. Want to buy bike racks but the Fiat garage can't tell me anything about the Fiat options except they cost approx £80 each (e.g. are they lockable, how do they fit to the bars, etc) if I order one I have to have it, I can't give it back, so I'm a bit reluctant to go this route.

However for the Thule or Mont Blanc alternatives, the suppliers I've spoken to can't guarantee that the racks will fit my existing bars (wide and oval shaped rather than square section) so recommend adding the proper Thule roof rails which makes my existing bars rather redundant. Also none of them have a rapid fit system, so I'd have to get out my allen key to bolt their roof bars to the tracks in the roof, so taking the bikes out for a quick ride on Wimbledon common would be long job.

Wonder if anyone has any experience of either-
- the Fiat bike holders that fit to my existing roof bars
- fitting other (Thule/Mont Blanc) bike racks to the Fiat bars
- going with third party bars and racks on the Ulysse.

Be grateful for any help

Phil
 
This has cropped up before, I attach my roof box to the fiat bars by sliding out the black inserts on top of the bars and sliding in some t-bolts (bolts with a thin flat square head) I got them from fiat but I had to grind the heads down as they were a bit to big.

The roof bars are not as strong as the type bolted to the roof, I dont know if anyone has tried to attach a bike rack to them?
 
interesting, how do the inserts come out? There's nothing in the instruction book about doing that. Presumably you have to remove the whole roof bar and foot thing from the roof?

Phil
 
No, the black plastic inserts can be removed by just carefully levering up one end and sliding it off. you will find that the slot has a small square opening at one end, this is where you insert the bolt and slide it along. I think it is on the drivers side. I leave out the inserts until I have finished with the roof box, but you could trim the inserts to fit round the bolts if you are using the bars regularly.
 
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