I am looking at roof mounted bike racks and wonder if anyone had any recommendations? I want something fast and very secure. I drive a Xterra, so if there is anything special I need to know about fitting, please advise.
Kevin
I have an Xterra and a roof mounted bike rack…the Anklebitter. This bike rack is terrible…do not buy. First, the Xterra is tall so you’ll have to carry a step stool to get the bike on or off. (Unless your 7ft tall). Also, this particular model holds your bike by the crank arm so if you have a carbon crank arm that’s oversized it won’t fit very well. The rack is unstable in high winds and the bike leans over. Not safe of stable. The dealer that did the installation says that’s normal and would not do anything for me. I don’t ever use the rack anymore as a result. If you want to go with a roof rack I would recommend a fork mounted system, but that requires additional components that make the rook rack even higher. Best bet is a hitch bike rack or interior…but most tri bikes won’t fit inside because of the aerobars.
-Steve
I also have an Xterra, and I decided against a roof mounted rack because of how tall it would be. The Yakima interior rack is only for mountain bikes, the aero bars wont let it fit. I don’t know if it will work with a road bike. This is the solution I came up with:
I built my own interior rack using the Delta Hitch Pro, it is basically a skewer that you bolt down. I bought a 2x4 and cut it to the width of one of the back seats. Got to wood screws and screwed the skewer thing into the 2x4. All you have to do is lay the seat down and take the front wheel off. You mount the fork to the skewer and thats it, just put the bike in with the fork first and the rear wheel towards the back. Depending on how tall you are you might have to lower the seat to get it in. Here is a link to the skewer http://www.nashbar.com/profile.cfm?category=71&subcategory=1178&brand=&sku=6650&storetype=&estoreid=&pagename=
Total cost was like 18 for the skewer with the shipping and about 6 dollars for the screws and wood. Make sure you cut the wood as wide as the seat that way the bike doesn’t tip over when you turn. Hope that explains it, if not I might be able to get some pics.
I’ll agree that it’s tight to have a tri bike in the Xterra. I have my bar-end shifters reversed and it just fits. If my shifters were pointed towards the front of the bike, it wouldn’t fit.
That said, I love that I can keep my bike relatively protected inside the car instead of on top/on the back.
How are all of you guys able to carry your bike on the interior? I am 6’2", which isn’t all that tall, and my seat is way to high for the bike to stand up. I would much rather take my bike on the inside for long trips, but for my regular mountain bike trips, the roof would be much better. Any more suggestions on brands?
I have an Xterra and tried a roof rack and it was simply too tall. Espeically with a road bike, Iwa salways worried about hitting tree branches and overpasses. I have a nice Yakima hitch rack that holds 4 bikes very securely so I can drive my buddies to the race or to the woods if we’re mountain biking, and it frees up the back of my ride for wet gear and bags.
If you’re not dead-set on a roof rack, check out draftmaster.com It’s a hitch-mounted rack, and you can get it in 3- and 4-bike models, as well as tandem attachments. I love it - the bikes ride vertically behind the vehicle, keeping them somewhat protected on the road, and it’s easy to load/unload bikes. Plus, the whole rig swings out and away from the vehicle, allowing you to open the tailgate without unracking all your bikes. Mine used to ride behind a 4-Runner - I never considered a roof rack, as it would have been a real pain to get up there to rack/unrack. The only drawback with the draftmaster is that they don’t (or at least didn’t used to) offer locking skewers - no sweat, since Performance does. Mine’s about 6 years old and it’s still going strong - I highly recommend it.
I had an Xterra and used both the interiour rack and a roof rack. I prefered using the roof rack and even though it was a bit high it was easy enough to acess. I basically used my Thule bike trays and bought a set of Might Mounts from Yakima. I connected the Thule trays to the factory rack using them and it was very secure.
I have an Xterra and love the convenience of being able to keep my bike protected inside. I have aerobars on mine and have not trouble at all fitting the bike in. I put it in back wheel in first, front wheel off. I tie it down to the tiedown hooks inside and it rides just great. The back hatch closes with just enough room to spare. I have the grip shifters, not the bar end shifters, so that may be an issue, but like I said, I have no trouble with mine at all.