Howdy,

I painted and mounted a roof rack on my precious this past week thought y'all might be interested. Note: both the bicycle mount and roof rack come in silver, the color wouldn't match my scheme so I primed and painted it black. Also I did look at the rear mounted bicycle cage, not very well designed with regard to stability, taking off and on the vehicle, for myself I have used roof racks for years and I just prefer to leave the thing installed, the rear cage looks ugly on it's own, but then again perhaps a touch of black paint might fix it.

 

Nicely done! that looks really good!

So, those are the "racing" bike racks, right?

While I'm happy with the placement now, I - for the life of me - can't get the rear crossbar to go that far back on our Countryman. It's like the crossbar is too wide (as the spread between the rails narrows front-to-back).

 

Looks slick. Good call on the black paint job.
Does it create a lot of extra wind noise? I will get the cross bars when my CM comes in and re-use my BMW bike holder. That being said I am hoping I can take the front wheel off the bike, fold a seat down and stand the bike up in the back of the car. Have you tried that?

 

looks good. I was thinking of getting the rack for my CM. I race triathlon and was looking for something reliable. i can tell by that Cervelo that you must put good faith in the rack. were you able to get any deals on the setup?

 

I just picked up the new Thule AeroBlade 47 inch bars and mounts for the Countryman I have on order. Racks are here, should have the CM next week. The AeroBlades are supposed to be a quieter design, we'll see how that works out. I also got the Echelon bike rack. I'll post pictures once I get it set up. The AeroBlade bars sit on top of the mounts, not within them like the MINI rack, so there is some adjustability if the rail width does narrow the further aft you get.

 

Looks great. I did basically the same thing but with a Rocky Mounts Tie Rod bike carrier. It's low profile and seems to be all metal. I'm really happy with it.

I got the MINI cross bars powder coated matte black for $50 locally. It wasn't hard to disassemble after I figured it out.

Also, there is about 1/4 inch of adjustment on both ends of the MINI crossbars. The clamps may seem tight, but a little pushing and pulling and they should fit wherever you want on the roof rack.

 

Whoa, the black is awesome! Great idea!

 

That looks really good. Another local CM owner did that and it looks so nice with the all black up there. I am not sure how it would look with our red roof, but I might try it someday b.c I love how it looks.

 

I have the roof rack, but the manual gives very specific positions of where to position the cross bars. I can't remember the numbers, but the front ones are measured from the front edge of the roof rails. I'm not sure why they were so specific. It looks as though you mounted yours way further back. How does it work in terms of tilt of the bike carrier and also noise levels?

 

I like the Cervelo! I had a P3 that I miss, those bike haul a**!

 

That looks sweet man !! I may have to look into a color scheme for mine

I followed the specific measurement placement that Sirbikes mentioned on my placement. So far I have toted two Stump Jumpers around with no issues of fitment. I agree the back wheel place holder seems a bit cheap, but so far everything is held up very well.

What did you do with the rubber strips that fit into the base cross bars after installing the bike racks ?? I've been debating on cutting them up to fit around the bike racks....

 

The rubber strips are an interesting feature. They are meant to fill in the slot in the top of the cross bars when you don't have anything attached. Supposedly for reducing wind noise. However, I have found that they actually increase noise, including whistling noises. So I removed them. So yes, what to do with them is a good question.

 

Good to hear. I was lazy and did not get around cutting the rubber strips up to fit inside the bicycle mounts. Now I guess I will toss them. Really like the mini rack. I have the version that holds the frame and keeps the front wheel on. I like not having to pull off the front wheel. It's easy to use and holds firmly even at highway speeds. I also like how easy it is pull off the bicycle mounts when not using them. I just leave the crossbars on. It was a pain to put together though. The instructions sucked!

 

WorryNot....nice Cervelo. Full campy? SRAM? Shimano?

rack looks nice too.