Hello I wonder if anyone can advise me on the best maker of roof rails for my 08 Hatch. I want to fit roof bars and bike carriers. should I go for Skoda own, Thule or altera?

Thanks for reading.

Thule have my vote - A friend of mine runs them on a 2001 Octavia and another on a 2004 Ibiza. Only issue is wind noise, but this can be dealt with in some cases by adjusting the racks/bars forward or backward on the roof. Never had problems with bikes coming loose - some of the rack mounting bolts got loose after a few years on the Ibiza sports suspension, but they were easily spotted and tightened.

The bike rack will wear the paint off your frame where it clamps the downtube, but no matter what rack you get this will happen. I prefer to throw my bike into the boot of the car altogether though (Why I bought an Octavia in the first place - It'll carry 3 bikes and 3 people with the boot closed and the parcel shelf still in - and I'm talking about the hatchback here).

My bike is covered under house insurance provided its locked in a car but not covered while on a rack, so that sealed the decision for me. Avoid the strap on bike carriers whatever you do, they're a pain to use and almost always end up marking the car...

My vote goes to Thule too.

Currently using one on my wife's MINI to carry road bikes and they are held in place by a padded arm which clamps down on top of the front tyre and a strap for the rear wheel; abslutely no contact with the bike frame etc. so no worries about the paint wearing etc. If you get the eliptical-shaped aero bars (rather than the bog-standard rectangular cross-section ones) the noise is probably a little less intrusive too.

Plan on transferring the bike rack over to the Skoda; just need to buy a new set of footpads.

The bars sold by Skoda dealers are Thule anyway aren't they? Based on this, I'd buy Thule ones if I ever needed any

Steve

Haven't seen the rack you describe before. Have you any photos?

Some manufacturers have issues with holding bikes in racks by the wheels because the dropouts get side loaded in a way they're not designed for (Usually thanks to leaning the bike as you corner, the sideways loading seen by the fork dropouts where the wheel attaches is negligible), so if the dropouts crack they won't cover it on warranty.

Racks where you remove the front wheel and the bike is clamped in position by the fork dropouts are specifically excluded from warranty by a few of the fork manufacturers as they're even harsher in how they load the forks - I saw photos years ago of a Pace mountain bike fork that lost its dropouts at speed on a rack of that design. I don't think the fork was covered by warranty - the damage to the car wasn't anyway :(...

Skoda bars are provided by Atera. I have a set of Ateras Aeros (£60 less than the equivalent Skoda bar) on my Octy VRS Estate and am very happy with them. Very little wind noise

Ah, interesting. The Fabia Mk1 ones dealers sell are made by Thule.

Steve

Haven't seen the rack you describe before. Have you any photos?

Some manufacturers have issues with holding bikes in racks by the wheels because the dropouts get side loaded in a way they're not designed for (Usually thanks to leaning the bike as you corner, the sideways loading seen by the fork dropouts where the wheel attaches is negligible), so if the dropouts crack they won't cover it on warranty.

Racks where you remove the front wheel and the bike is clamped in position by the fork dropouts are specifically excluded from warranty by a few of the fork manufacturers as they're even harsher in how they load the forks - I saw photos years ago of a Pace mountain bike fork that lost its dropouts at speed on a rack of that design. I don't think the fork was covered by warranty - the damage to the car wasn't anyway :(...

Here's a link to the Thule cycle roofrack I described........

http://www.thuleracks.com/product.asp?dept_id=8&sku=594

Not sure whether this is available in Ireland, I bought mine in the States.

Cheers,

Bill.

Interesting design - never seen one like that before ...

I'm very pleased with my Atera ones - have a look at:

http://briskoda.net/octavia-ii/cycle-carrier-roofrack-estate/143481/

I have since replaced the steel bars with Atera aerobars, because I wanted more flexibility with the position of the bikes and roof box. With steel bars you can't connect the box or rack over the clamps to the car roof rails, whereas with aerobars the position is completely flexible.

I think the bike racks are brilliantly designed to make it easy to clamp the bike on, once in the rack,

Cheers,

Les.

Hello I wonder if anyone can advise me on the best maker of roof rails for my 08 Hatch. I want to fit roof bars and bike carriers. should I go for Skoda own, Thule or altera?

Thanks for reading.

I have a Halfords bike rack and it does not fit on Skoda or Altera bars. It only fits on Thule aero bars. These are available from skidrive.co.uk inc locks and p&p for £129.99