Is there a cheap roof bike rack?

Can I mount a roof bike rack on a two door car (camry solara)?

  • I have a two door Camry Solara and I would like to install a roof rack to transport my bike.. Is it possible? All pictures ad info I have seen are mounts in four door sedans.. I really would apreciate if you guys can tell me a) if it it possible? b) What system should I use? c) Where to buy thanks

  • Answer:

    I drive an 06 Solara as well. Saris, Thule, and Yakima all make kits that allow roof mounted racks to be installed. They are in the $400 range. That was pretty much out of my budget, so I bought a trunk mounted "bones" rack. http://www.saris.com/c-15-.aspx It worked great and was designed not to harm your car as some of the "wal mart cheapie types" can and was definitely an eye catcher. I ride road and mt bike, and the only problem with it was after serious mtn biking, it allowed all kinda mud and crap to get on the car. So I had a hitch mounted ($125) and bought a lower end hitch mount rack that holds the wheels instead of hanging. Nothing like a $2000 road bike getting beat up on your rack. http://www.sportrack.com/a30901 It was around $100 on e-bay and works great on both bikes. It holds my road bike behind the car out of the bugs and road hazards. And I can bury the mtn bike in mud clay and not get a bit on the car. Hope this helps.

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Other answers

a) most likely. I had a roof rack on a Subaru Justy (tiny tiny car, 2 door hatchback). Go to the websites of the systems and you can run a search to determine whether you can install one on your car. b) Thule or Yakima are best in my opinion. I have a Thule rack. If you go to their website, you can use their fit guide to determine exactly what you need for your car. You will need bars, towers (the bit that the bar goes through to attach to your car) and a fit kit. The bars come in different lengths. Try to get one that will roughly be the same width as your car. It will need to stick out beyond the towers a bit for safety, but not too much because you don't want to make your car too wide and they are often right at head height as you are getting out of the car...ouch. Depending on what kind of roof you have, the website will recommend the type of towers you need (my Subaru needed different ones than my Ford uses). Then there will be a fit kit specific to your car. All together, you are looking at at least $200-250. Once you have the bars fitted to your car, you need to decide what trays to get. You can get pretty much any brand. I have used Thule, Yakima and Rocky Mounts on my Thule bars. I think the Rocky Mount (Lariat) is probably the most secure, and it comes in nifty colors (mine is pink, and I plan to get a blue one), and it is relatively inexpensive (about $75 with the disk brake attachment and lock core, I think). But you have to take the front wheel off your bike...it attaches to the fork, which is also where it locks your bike onto the rack. I had the Yakima King Cobra, which I really liked because it does not touch the frame and you don't have to take the front wheel off, but one broke and another failed to go down all the way once and caused some pretty major roof damage to my car when I went into a parking garage (luckily my bike was not on it!!). It also did not work as well on road wheels, though it worked...it just want not as tight as with mt wheels. It also loosened if you were not careful about how you tightened it. ($130ish) I also have a couple of Thule big mouth. It also does not require removal of the front wheel, but it holds onto the downtube of the bike, so if your bike frame is unusual, it will not work (does not work on my boyfriend's full suspension bike) and an older one I have has scratched one of my bikes pretty badly because the plastic got kind of hard as it got older. ($100ish) Yakima and Thule both make racks similar to the Rocky Mount Lariat and they are probably similar priced. c) LL Bean sells Thule online. So does REI. You might even be able to buy from the Thule or Yakima website. I think REI also sells Yakima. Rackbarn sells a bunch of systems online as well. Many bike and ski shops sell them as well if you wanted to look at them in person.

triscuit121

A) Yes it should be possible B) I'm not shore and C) Wal-mart might have some

JackJack

Unfortunately, I can't add much more than the previous rather non-committal answer, but, yes, I'm sure you can find a suitable rack. I don't think the 2-door vs. 4-door issue is important at all. Go to a decent bike shop - certainly not a general place like a supermarket - and find out from them. I'm sure the first one you approach will be able to tell you exactly what's available.

Homeboy

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