Bike Carrier Options / Experiences

[ahappychappie]

Hi,

Previous setup on my old Passat was as follows:

Mont Blanc Easyfit Roof Bars (fitted onto Roof Rails)

Halfords Advanced Cycle carriers attached to above

I have a 2010 Avensis Tourer. As it does not have 'raised' roof rails my existing Mont Blanc roof bars will not fit :-( There is a Toyota roof bar system available, price seems circa £150, are there any non Toyota options available - if you could confirm rough price and ease of use.

I assume Halfords Advanced Cycle carriers (actually Thule non branded) will fit to any roof bars?

Alternative option is fit a towbar and get a towbar carrier. Slight complication is I had a Toyota Reverse Parking Sensors fitted - not factory fitted but fitted by dealer, thus assume detatchable towbat is required. Again any experiences, ballpark costs welcomed

Thanks in advance.

[Twot]

Hi,

Previous setup on my old Passat was as follows:

Mont Blanc Easyfit Roof Bars (fitted onto Roof Rails)

Halfords Advanced Cycle carriers attached to above

I have a 2010 Avensis Tourer. As it does not have 'raised' roof rails my existing Mont Blanc roof bars will not fit :-( There is a Toyota roof bar system available, price seems circa £150, are there any non Toyota options available - if you could confirm rough price and ease of use.

I assume Halfords Advanced Cycle carriers (actually Thule non branded) will fit to any roof bars?

Alternative option is fit a towbar and get a towbar carrier. Slight complication is I had a Toyota Reverse Parking Sensors fitted - not factory fitted but fitted by dealer, thus assume detatchable towbat is required. Again any experiences, ballpark costs welcomed

Thanks in advance.

Hi Ahappychappie,

I have used in the past a roof mounted carrier (Halfords) but moved to a tow bar mounted one (Pendle-Bike) and never looked back. The move was actuly, when the Mrs tried to put the bicycle on the roof, bike fell and scratched car... all forgotten...

My carrier is mounted on a 'flange' type, so there is a bracket mounted permanently to the car, and fitting the carrier now takes all of 5 seconds, and since I use it a lot, but does not like drive with the roof bars, I find it more comfortable.

As for the sensors, when you have the bike on you will not be able to use them, but I thought you can 'teach' the sensors of the existance of the tow bar (there is a method of fitting it to the ball, but I did not like it).

As for prices - did it quite a few yers back, the carrier itself was ~£100 (4 cycle carrier), plus the tow bar.

TwoT

[Mstock3]

Hi,

The parking sensors on my 2010 Avensis can be switched off, I have a switch mounted on the left hand (near side) side panel of the load area. So if you went for the detatable tow bar option - tow ball fitted sensors off, but would check that the detacthable tow bar can be fitted with a cycle carrier as most of these dont have flange mounted tow balls so you might not be able to mount a "flange" type cycle carrier

Regards