looking for ski/bike roof rack help

So, I got this new WRX wagon a couple of weeks ago. I have a good idea
of what I want to do, but not how to do it. Yakima's website has a
cool selection tool, but I want to make sure I buy exactly what I need
and no more -- these parts are expensive!

I already have a Yakima big powderhound, which is a six-wide ski rack.
What I'd like to do is get extra-wide crossbars and put a steelhead bike
mount on either side of the ski rack. (To save money, I could possibly
steal the bike mounts from Eric's car.) And, of course, it all needs
lock cores.

The car came from the factory with standard-length crossbars already
attached to the rails.

So, here are my questions:

1) I've heard that the spoiler on the hatch door can interfere with the
rack when you lift the door. Anyone have experience/advice about that?
Will I be able to get into the back of my car with a rack on the top?
With stuff on the rack?

2) How long should my crossbars be to be roomy enough for the ski rack
and two bike mounts? Yakima lists 48", 58", 66", and 78" crossbars. I
seem to remember Eric saying something about how his fairing attachment
gets in the way of putting all three on the shortest bars; I don't know
yet if I'll want a fairing.

3) Should I mount the Yakima crossbars on top of the existing crossbars,
or should I remove the existing crossbars? It seems awfully kludgy to
have two layers of crossbars, but apparently some people use it that
way. I've been told the factory crossbars are pretty easy to remove.

4) (Related to three.) Yakima's site seems to indicate that all their
clips mount into the door frame, which I'd like to avoid if at all
possible. I mean, I already have the rails -- why should I have to
stick things in the door? Anyone have any arrangements that don't
require clipping into the door?

5) (Also related to three, I think.) I'd like an arrangement where the
rack is deep enough to accomodate ski bindings on the bottom as well as
the top. How do I best go about doing that?

6) Anything I haven't thought of?

I apologize for posting rather than going through the trial and error
myself. I know that these are awfully specific questions. I guess I'm
hoping that someone has had need for this exact setup and can share
their insight.

--
monique

Monique Y. Herman ran this through spell check: I apologize for posting
rather than going through the trial and error
myself. I know that these are awfully specific questions. I guess
I'm hoping that someone has had need for this exact setup and can
share their insight.


who's your local Yakima dealer? I go to the mgear.com store, and we look uup
the model and parts I have/need, and then we double check everyting out in
the parking lot.

penny

On 2004-03-13, Penny S penned:
Monique Y. Herman ran this through spell check: I apologize for
posting rather than going through the trial and error
myself. I know that these are awfully specific questions. I guess
I'm hoping that someone has had need for this exact setup and can
share their insight.


who's your local Yakima dealer? I go to the mgear.com store, and we
look uup the model and parts I have/need, and then we double check
everyting out in the parking lot.


I know the REI in Boulder carries Yakima, but I don't really think of
them as that kind of service. OTOH, I get the member's refund at the
end of the year ...

It looks like there are about 400,000 places in the area that sell
Yakima. One of them probably has the kind of service you're describing.

No mgear.com, though. Looks like you have the good luck to live near
their only bricks-n-mortar store.

--
monique

Monique Y. Herman wrote:
So, I got this new WRX wagon a couple of weeks ago. I have a good
idea of what I want to do, but not how to do it. Yakima's website
has a cool selection tool, but I want to make sure I buy exactly what
I need and no more -- these parts are expensive!

I already have a Yakima big powderhound, which is a six-wide ski rack.
What I'd like to do is get extra-wide crossbars and put a steelhead
bike mount on either side of the ski rack. (To save money, I could
possibly steal the bike mounts from Eric's car.) And, of course, it
all needs lock cores.

Why not just take the wheels off and chuck the bikes in the boot (trunk)?
Bike racks do very bad things to your cars aerodynamics, and it's not like
the back of a Subaru's small. I get my bike the back of a Ka, which is
unimaginably small for an American . The other option would be to get a
tow bar mounted bike rack. Obviously that'll get in the way of the hatch,
but you don't have the problem of getting a bike on top of the car.

Monique Y. Herman wrote:

So, I got this new WRX wagon a couple of weeks ago. I have a good idea
of what I want to do, but not how to do it. Yakima's website has a
cool selection tool, but I want to make sure I buy exactly what I need
and no more -- these parts are expensive!


snip


2) How long should my crossbars be to be roomy enough for the ski rack
and two bike mounts? Yakima lists 48", 58", 66", and 78" crossbars. I
seem to remember Eric saying something about how his fairing attachment
gets in the way of putting all three on the shortest bars; I don't know
yet if I'll want a fairing.

See if you can fit everything on the 48". You'll be banging your head
with the 58" or longer. May be worth it.


3) Should I mount the Yakima crossbars on top of the existing crossbars,
or should I remove the existing crossbars? It seems awfully kludgy to
have two layers of crossbars, but apparently some people use it that
way. I've been told the factory crossbars are pretty easy to remove.

I took the factory rack crossbars off of my Legacy. Looks better (boy
that's relative, considering its a maroon Legacy-I got it cheap) Easy
to do.

4) (Related to three.) Yakima's site seems to indicate that all their
clips mount into the door frame, which I'd like to avoid if at all
possible. I mean, I already have the rails -- why should I have to
stick things in the door? Anyone have any arrangements that don't
require clipping into the door?

Check if the "Lowrider" towers fit your factory rack-fits Legacys
(including 2004 I checked their site).

5) (Also related to three, I think.) I'd like an arrangement where the
rack is deep enough to accomodate ski bindings on the bottom as well as
the top. How do I best go about doing that?

Low rider plus factory rack still jacks things up a lot. I think Yak
makes lifters for their racks too.

6) Anything I haven't thought of?

Mightymounts hook directly to the factory rack.


I apologize for posting rather than going through the trial and error
myself. I know that these are awfully specific questions. I guess I'm
hoping that someone has had need for this exact setup and can share
their insight.

On 2004-03-13, Doki penned:


Why not just take the wheels off and chuck the bikes in the boot
(trunk)? Bike racks do very bad things to your cars aerodynamics, and
it's not like the back of a Subaru's small. I get my bike the back of
a Ka, which is unimaginably small for an American . The other option
would be to get a tow bar mounted bike rack. Obviously that'll get in
the way of the hatch, but you don't have the problem of getting a bike
on top of the car.

What's a Ka?

Sure, there's room in the trunk, but I'd rather not run the risk of
getting bike grease ground into a brand-new interior, and I also am not
sure about how to stack bikes such that the pedals, gears, chain, etc
don't interact in possibly unfortunate ways. I like being able to throw
the bike in the back, but I also like the option of *not* doing so. In
any case, I want a ski rack anyway so that I can take four people at
once, so I might as well do the bike mounts as well. Getting the bike
onto the roof won't be a problem -- I've been managing to get my bike
onto my s.o.'s Dodge Intrepid (talk about a huge American car!) without
too much trouble, once I figured out the proper grip.

I really don't like rear racks -- they get in the way of the
trunk/hatch, as you said. They also don't necessarily fit all bike
models (my s.o.'s Y-frame, for example, is problematic), and I've heard
it's a lot harder to lock the bikes down than it is to do so on a roof
rack.

--
monique

"Doki" wrote

I get my bike the back of a Ka, which is unimaginably small for an American .

Wow. Is it a folder? ;-)

I rented a Ka for a week in Scotland. I was amazed that the thing
could comfortably fit a 6'2" driver. The real comedy came from
distinguishing the difference between "Ka" and "car" when spoken in a
heavy Scot accent:

"So you drove a Ka here?"

"Um, of course. The little Ford out back."

"No, I mean a 'Ka' car"

"A ka ka?"

And so on. They quickly decided I was nice enough, but obviously
mildly retarded.

CC

Corvus Corvax wrote:
"Doki" wrote

I get my bike the back of a Ka, which is unimaginably small for an
American .

Wow. Is it a folder? ;-)

Fold the back seats of the car down, off with both wheels and because of the
mudguard, the seatpost. It's a bit of a job, but no more than setting up a
bike rack on the back of the car.

I rented a Ka for a week in Scotland. I was amazed that the thing
could comfortably fit a 6'2" driver. The real comedy came from
distinguishing the difference between "Ka" and "car" when spoken in a
heavy Scot accent:

They'll do 110 on the speedo if you try hard enough too. If you go round
corners quickly and keep up your momentum you can worry a BMW 330 .

"So you drove a Ka here?"

"Um, of course. The little Ford out back."

"No, I mean a 'Ka' car"

"A ka ka?"

And so on. They quickly decided I was nice enough, but obviously
mildly retarded.

Yep. Ford started out selling it as the Ka, but now they've decided it's
really pronounced K.A. .

Monique Y. Herman wrote:
On 2004-03-13, Doki penned:


Why not just take the wheels off and chuck the bikes in the boot
(trunk)? Bike racks do very bad things to your cars aerodynamics,
and it's not like the back of a Subaru's small. I get my bike the
back of a Ka, which is unimaginably small for an American . The
other option would be to get a tow bar mounted bike rack. Obviously
that'll get in the way of the hatch, but you don't have the problem
of getting a bike on top of the car.

What's a Ka?

A pretty small Ford. 1.3L engine (79 cubic inches :P), weighs less than a
tonne and it was the first "new edge" Ford, it's probably still pretty odd
looking even though you've got the Focus over there. Look here for a
pictu
www.zemancar.cz/images/ ford-ka.jpg.

Sure, there's room in the trunk, but I'd rather not run the risk of
getting bike grease ground into a brand-new interior, and I also am
not sure about how to stack bikes such that the pedals, gears, chain,
etc don't interact in possibly unfortunate ways.

If you can, get hold of a load box for the back, which will stop you ruining
the carpets etc.

I like being able
to throw the bike in the back, but I also like the option of *not*
doing so. In any case, I want a ski rack anyway so that I can take
four people at once, so I might as well do the bike mounts as well.
Getting the bike onto the roof won't be a problem -- I've been
managing to get my bike onto my s.o.'s Dodge Intrepid (talk about a
huge American car!) without too much trouble, once I figured out the
proper grip.

Fair enough. If you're driving a couple of hundred miles you'll save a
worthwhile amount of petrol or raise your top speed by 20 or 30mph. I'd go
for the extra speed .

I really don't like rear racks -- they get in the way of the
trunk/hatch, as you said. They also don't necessarily fit all bike
models (my s.o.'s Y-frame, for example, is problematic), and I've
heard it's a lot harder to lock the bikes down than it is to do so on
a roof rack.

I reckon they're a pain in the arse too.

Monique Y. Herman ran this through spell check:
On 2004-03-13, Doki penned:

I really don't like rear racks -- they get in the way of the
trunk/hatch, as you said. They also don't necessarily fit all bike
models (my s.o.'s Y-frame, for example, is problematic), and I've
heard it's a lot harder to lock the bikes down than it is to do so on
a roof rack.


I have both roof and rear racks.

I love the rear rack. I got it for $12 at a yard sale. I can have it on the
car, bikes loaded and bungeed in about 3 minutes, with no climbing and
lifting. For close to town rides, I think it's the answer.

Now, If I know I'm going to need to lock them, or I'm driving more thant 10
miles, I deal with the roof rack.

Another advantage of a rear rack is that you can pull into the garage
without worrying about tearing the rack off the car.

Penny