What do you reckon?  Be interested to hear what people think is the best rack for a Superb.

Thanks

I use Thule aero bars and Atera bike carriers. Work well together. I bought the bars well over 13 years ago and they still look as new and have used an assortment of carriers on them. I have then just bought new feet packs for any new cars I have. In fact the Superb using the same foot back as my Octy Mk2 Hatch I had over 8 years ago so there was no additional expense this change of cars.

I bought them from roofboxes.co.uk as they give good service and a cheap price.

Thule aluminium bars every time. I've seen the problems people have with cheaper bars and carriers, particularly old-style square bars and cheapo Halfords carriers, and it's just not worth the hassle, not to mention the additional noise.

 

I bought a set of secondhand Aerobars and Atera Giro carriers about 14 years ago and used them on six cars with just changes in feet. The Giros succumbed to minor niggle problems with straps and locks after 10+ years of sterling service, including being left on the car for months at a time when I was transporting bikes once or twice a week, but they were still usable and in time they were joined by a couple of Thule 591s as the family grew.

 

The whole ensemble was destroyed in a fire but replaced under insurance by Wingbars (which replaced Aerobars in Thule's range) and new 598 carriers. These are even better than the Aerobars and Giro/591s. Don't worry about changing cars, the feet are easily swapped out and have great secondhand value so the cost to change can be minimal.

 

The Skoda kit will be OK though I guess, and is probably something like Atera or Montblanc, but you have the issue that the bars and/or feet may be specific to the car in one or more ways. At the very least you'd have to do a bit of digging to find out if they could be converted for use with other cars. I doubt they're any cheaper than Wingbars and 598s though.

 

My carriers (four) are permanently mounted to the bars so is pretty rigid even even when not on the car and can be fitted or removed in a couple of minutes and the whole thing can be stored vertically in the garage when not being used. 

Thanks for the replies guys, much appreciated.

I have Thule square bars with Halfords bike carriers. 

 

I can't believe how noisy the square bars are compared with previous Halfords square bars which I used - unless it's because the bars are closer to the roof than on previous cars. 

 

I'm looking to change to Aero bars to see if they will be quieter. 

I used Thule Square bars with Thule cycle racks.

 

Not found the noise to be a problem (I have Glass sunroof) I do mount as far back from front of car as I can - from memory around 500mm from leading edge of car roof bar to mounting foot of roof rack.

Depends a lot on budget but I have the Thule SlideBars (they really do make loading much easier without having to stretch over the car), with Thule 598 bike racks (these are on offer on Halfords website at the moment I picked up an extra the other day). Avoid the 591 if you care about security at all - see youtube videos for why.

2 minutes ago, paul_7_7_7 said:

Depends a lot on budget but I have the Thule SlideBars (they really do make loading much easier without having to stretch over the car), with Thule 598 bike racks (these are on offer on Halfords website at the moment I picked up an extra the other day). Avoid the 591 if you care about security at all - see youtube videos for why.

Thanks Paul

Personally I prefer the fork-mounted type. Have been running thule wingbar edge and thule OutRide for some time now. Would probably go for the "new" Thule ThruRide if i was buying a new one today. (fork-mounted is normally recommended on carbon frames) 

Anyone got the Skoda roof bars? 

 

I've got a set thrown in on mine (collecting next week). As nobody has mentioned them yet I'm wondering if they're not all that.

 

I already have the Barracuda type racks which I rate really highly (although mine are getting very tatty now)

i use a Thule Towbar Bike Rack. I cannot fault it. i have the 4 bike version of this.

Bike sits behind the car so no noise, no danger of falling off or cracking rear screen, and best thing is it tilts so i can still access boot on long journeys. i only had the towbar fitted for this as i originally bought it when i ran a Volvo XC90 and it was too high to easily lift the bikes onto.

only downside - it makes the car a bit long to get into a normal parking space when stopping for breaks.