Not been on the forum for a while but needed to look into what options were available for carrying bikes in/on the Yeti. I treated myself to a nice MTB last year and my brother-in-law and myself just stuck them in the back of the Yeti last year with the front wheels off. Worked fine but not ideal when you need to put muddy bikes back inside the cabin.

So decided on the standard Skoda bars as these look the best and they seem to be the option most people go for according to the survey on the subject. I went for the Atera Giro AF carriers which also seem to get a good write up as well so I'm now looking forward to the delivery and then fitting everything to the Yeti. Which I'm hoping will be straight forward enough.

Most of the pics I've seen on here and on google just show two carriers on the roof but my advice from Roofbox.co.uk was that three will be fine. So at a push I'll still be hopefully able to take three bikes on the roof and one in the car with the middle seat removed.

Roll on spring time and I'll be off to the seven stanes tracks!

There is no problem with the roof load--the limit for the Yeti is 80kg which is at least 5 half decent bikes.

Roof mounted aren't wildly secure from the barstewards though---so have some thought about that---lock the whole lot together with a long security cable maybe?

I personally like towbar mounted racks as more secure in both meanings of the word--but of course you need think about all the attendant costs associated with that

I was persuaded down this line when I had one of those hatch mounted bike racks which deposited 3 bikes onto the road at 70mph.

Apart from the cost of replacing about £2K worth of bikes, I used to wake up in a cold sweat for months afterwards at the thought of the injury I could have caused to some other road user

Not been on the forum for a while but needed to look into what options were available for carrying bikes in/on the Yeti. I treated myself to a nice MTB last year and my brother-in-law and myself just stuck them in the back of the Yeti last year with the front wheels off. Worked fine but not ideal when you need to put muddy bikes back inside the cabin.

So decided on the standard Skoda bars as these look the best and they seem to be the option most people go for according to the survey on the subject. I went for the Atera Giro AF carriers which also seem to get a good write up as well so I'm now looking forward to the delivery and then fitting everything to the Yeti. Which I'm hoping will be straight forward enough.

Most of the pics I've seen on here and on google just show two carriers on the roof but my advice from Roofbox.co.uk was that three will be fine. So at a push I'll still be hopefully able to take three bikes on the roof and one in the car with the middle seat removed.

Roll on spring time and I'll be off to the seven stanes tracks!

Nice bike..... I'm a fellow mtb'er hard tail fan also. I use combination of roof rack and a saris bones racks. It depends on if i have the windsurfer and mtb.

Br

JeZ

Hi Sprockutt - given that the Yeti is quite tall it's going to be quite a stretch to get them up there and down again isn't it? I've used as towbar mounted Thule for many years on my BMW 3 Touring and my bikes are very secure indeed. I'm getting a petrol Yeti next month and have yet(I) to decide if the internal bike holder is sufficient or I need a new rear mounted rack too. Happy riding :-)

For 4 years I used full-mount roof bike racks on my Subaru Outback. Before that I used fork mounts, and switched to full-mount simply because I couldn't be arsed taking the front wheel off (I was envious of my friend who'd just get out of their car, put on helmet, glasses/goggles, backpacks, then grab bike, jump on and ride off).

Never once did I manage to drive under something too low and damage the bike, though I nearly did once with my SC Nomad worth about AU$4K. It was right before a race down in the Otways (southern Victoria, Australia) and I had the cold sweats thinking about what could've been.

When it came time to get a new car (the Yeti), I swore I'd get a towbar at the same time, and a rear mounted carrier. Gone would be the worry of driving into a carpark/garage roof, and gone would be the wind noise, decreased fuel efficiency and total covering of dead bugs etc on the forks, bars, headtube, pedals etc.

Got one of these, which I'm soon upgrading to one of these. Takes 5min to put on or take off, and even though this negates the "cant' be arsed taking the front wheel off" time saving measures I mentioned earlier, it's worth it for the more recently mentioned benefits.

Least of which was proven in detail this weekend gone - same race weekend down in the Otways, we turn up about 10 minutes after our friends (whose bike I offered to carry in my spare spot, but he said "Nah, don't worry about it, I'll put it on the roof") and I notice the driveway is completely grown over with vegetation - native tea-tree & other Aussie bush scrub - and basically is groomed to fit a car and not much else. Once we navigate the 20 or so meters avoiding branches along the doors etc, there's my friend with his bike on the ground, shaking his head. His wife was driving, had asked him if he thought they'd make it, and he thought she meant the sides of the car. CREEEAAK and his Rockshox Reba's are twisted out of shape, and the front rotor is rubbing against the caliper and we can't fix it despite grabbing a fork lower each and pulling in opposite directions.

Anyway ... long story short, he finished the race minus a front rotor (which lead to some hairy descents) and I was even more happy with my rear carrier solution.

Oh, FWIW, occasionally I pop a full-mount carrier on the Yeti when we are 3 x riders, and I can lift a 18kg DH bike up and down with ease (I'm exactly 6ft tall). That 29er rigid looks like it weighs about 10kg max.

P.S. Nice bike - I was skeptical of the 29er phenomenon, but I just completed the race I was talking about on a Niner EMD9, and I found it to be a most excellent choice for nearly everything except bombing down hills.

Edited 19 February, 201313 yr by beej

Hi Sprockutt - given that the Yeti is quite tall it's going to be quite a stretch to get them up there and down again isn't it?

It sure is. But that is why I have one of these in the parcel shelf net:

I regularly have three racks on the roof and with the above step it is easy to reach all the bikes.

Nice bike..... I'm a fellow mtb'er hard tail fan also. I use combination of roof rack and a saris bones racks. It depends on if i have the windsurfer and mtb.

Br

JeZ

Hi Jez

Interested to see you mention the Saris Bones rear rack. A well known roofbox site only recommends the high level Pendle with glass adapter rear rack for the Yeti.

We've no towbar and might be struggling to get two roof carriers on with a large roofbox so would be in the market for a rear rack. How do you get on with the Saris? The bikes we have are just folders but at the cheaper end, so heavy.

Inside would have been another option but with the camping gear it would probably mean taking the rear seats out, hence the preference for a rear rack for holidays.

Hi,

The saris bones works really well on the yeti. The bottom feet fit perfectly on top of the rear bumper. The upper feet rest against the window fine no problem. The advantage with saris is that they can be adjusted easily for different boot shapes. I find it also great to fold away when not in use....I guess the only fault I can think of can be applied to any boot rack namely access to the contents of the boot

Br

JeZ

Sent from my ST26i using Tapatalk 2

Thanks Jez. Off to browse :-)

Hi,

The saris bones works really well on the yeti. The bottom feet fit perfectly on top of the rear bumper. The upper feet rest against the window fine no problem. The advantage with saris is that they can be adjusted easily for different boot shapes. I find it also great to fold away when not in use....I guess the only fault I can think of can be applied to any boot rack namely access to the contents of the boot

Br

JeZ

Sent from my ST26i using Tapatalk 2

We've recently bought a yeti urban and have a saris bones 3 bike carrier and I'm really struggling to get the rack to nudge up against the rear windscreen once fully laden with 3 mountain bikes (total weight is c.40kg).

How do you do its.