Hi! I need a roof bike rack for my MINI. I have the OEM roof rack installed. I'm leaning towards a Thule Sidearm or Big Mouth. I contacted Thule and they are saying that none of their bike racks will fit on the MINI roof rack - even though I've read many posts here that they do fit. I thought I just need some different bolts or something. So I'm confused.

Can anyone confirm or deny this? I see many posts that say it will fit with longer bolts, but is that with one of their kits (XADAPT2?) or just some loose bolts from the hardware store?

For all this trouble, I am tempted to just get the OEM bike rack. (which certainly looks like a MINI-branded Thule item)

 

I have Thule kayak and bike racks and a Thule Box (old one) and all I did was head down to the hardware store and get some longer bolts cost me less that $5 for all of them combined in stainless steel no less.

Thule does make adapter kits but they are in they are int eh 19.99 to 39.99 range and why pay that much.

Or you can just buy the Thule Bike racks that fit the Thule Aero Bars the OEM bars for a cooper are the same as the Thule Aero Bars.

The only difference would be if you had a clubman and had the roof rails then I would recommend a different direction.

 

Thanks schatzy62. I'd heard that the Aero bars are the same as the OEM bars - and the Sidearm is supposed to fit the aero bars - which is why I don't understand why Thule would say they don't fit. I'd heard their customer service was top notch but so far to me they seem like they don't care or don't know their product very well.

I may just buy the rack from a local store rather than my usual place (Amazon.com) so that if all else fails I can easily return it.

Thanks!

 

Well, yes and No

the bike rack in itself will fit on the Mini roof rack. But the "slot" on the OEM roof rack is larger than the Thule one. So the Thule flat square end on the bolt (sliding in the rack slot) is not large enough to secure the bike rack correctly on it. So I went to my local rack store and bought blots with larger "heads"

 

Over the weekend I saw a Clubman with OEM crossbars and Thule bike racks. The rear was held on with longer straps and longer bolts. The front was held on with longer bolts that went into the crossbar. I prefer my OEM Mini rack assemblies... I used the Mini crossbars and the racks off my E65. I had to shorten the rack since the S spoiler would hit it when the boot was open.

 

I am confused now.

Thanks in advance for any helpful reply as usual.

So, I bought the Thule sidearm 594xt. The xt version is the newer version and "they say" that it doesn't need an adapter to fit with the Mini brand cross bars attached to the clubman factory roof rails. It does come with many screws in various lengths. I chose the longest ones as I was instructed to do in the instructions with the clubam etc...

All that said, I have mine attached BUT BUT BUT the front wheel mount area only attaches on one side of the mount and can be moved slightly upwards and away from the cross bar by simply pushing up on the mount with a finger on the opposite side of the attachment point and that can't be good. It seems that there should be a mount attachment point on both sides of the square mounting base or maybe in the middle of it.

Does what I just explained make since? Basically, once the bike is mounted, it moves side to side a little and naturally while you drive since it is top heavy up there and that causes the whole front wheel mount area to move as well due to it only being attached on one side of the 7 inch square mount.

Add to this, the Thule guy at Sports Chalet insists that the Clubman 2010 with the 594xt does in fact require the xadapt7 kit and can be used with the Mini cross bars. He showed it to me in his Thule catalog. However, on several web pages, "they say" the new version of the sidearm doesn't require the kit and that it is included in the packaging.

Any thoughts? Do I need the kit? I don't feel comfy with the whole bike only being held by 4 thin bolts at the very bottom of a top heavy bike on top of a moving car.

 

I might be able to help if i could see some pictures, I'm not sure i fully understand what you are asking about.