On 7/22/2015 1:06 PM, Bob wrote:
Hello,

Would appreciate any thoughts on.

Was about to get a Thule Rack for rear of my Outback.
But keep putting it off due my reluctance to drive with the major part,
if not all, of my rear visibility being blocked.

Re those roof mounted racks:

Any general thoughts on ?

*How popular are they ?

How hard, actually, to get the bikes on and off ?

Safe ?

Pros and cons ?

Thanks, appreciate the help,
Bob

I've used them for years and years. Funny you should ask today, because
today for the first time, my bike tipped over on the rack as I pulled
out of my driveway! :-/ I think it was because the front fork mount
had been re-adjusted to take our tandem adapter. Perhaps I hadn't
re-adjusted it properly to the different thickness of my fork dropouts.
Still, no damage, just some anxiety.

So: Decades of use with no other problems. Difficulty lifting depends
on the height of the car and the weight and size of the bike. Our
tandem takes two people to lift up there. My (heavy) touring bike is
more difficult than my wife's ten-pound-lighter bike. A friend has a
small SUV, and he carries a little ladder to get his bikes up there.
Our previous car (a tall little station wagon) was more difficult than
our current lower hatchback.

Gas mileage takes a hit with this thing, much more than with bikes on
the back. The bikes pick up more bugs, too. But the paint is treated
more kindly than with most back racks. Hanging the bike from its top
tube always seems a little kludgy to me, and with two bikes, it always
took some fussing to keep them from banging and scratching each other.

BTW, with some tall wagons and some SUVs, one can install fork mounts on
(perhaps) a wooden platform, and carry bikes upright inside the vehicle.
If that's possible with your car, I think it's the neatest solution.
I don't know if an Outback has that much vertical space, but our Pontiac
Vibe did if I took my seatpost out.

--
- Frank Krygowski