For those that have the Yakima roof rack on their MINI, how are your plastic gutter rails holding up?

Has anyone done a long trip with a bike on top of the rack yet? Was there any slipping?

BTW, I gather the Rocket Box isn't allowed because of the cross bar spacing - True?


Thanks in advance,
Dave

 

anyone?

 

Dave,

I'm interested in this too and have started a similar thread on MINI2.

 

Hello,

I have been using the yakima racks for quite a while now. I have not had a single problem with them or the plastic raingutters. The rack does not attach directly to the rain gutter. It uses a set up like cars without raingutters.

I have used it to carry my road and mountain bike. I got the part#'s and set up instructions from one of the boards on mini2. I plan on trying the surfboard rack sometime soon.

I think the factory racks look cleaner when they are installed on the car, but I refuse to drill holes in the roof of my car and install those plastic covers when they are off.

Hope this helps,

Coopersport

 

coopersport,

welcome to MCO :smile:

Have you done any extended trips with the bikes on that rack?

Thanks for your inputs.

Dave

 

Dave,
I have a Yakima rack. It works fine. No damage to the gutter as of yet.

The longest trip I have been on is to Fruita and back. I had only my mtn bike on but it worked great. If you want I can put it on and also put a bike on then you can look at it. I did not go with Yakima's set-up. It would not allow the sunroof to work. After I worked on it for a while I was able to find a better position that I felt more comfortable with and it allowed full use of the sunroof.

Let me know and I can send you some pictures. If I remember right you can goto the MOTR site and under member cars I have a couple of pictures with just the roof rack on.

Let me know if you want some pictures.

Later Brad

 

>>I did not go with Yakima's set-up.
>>
Yakima's set-up leaves only 18" between the cross-bars. How far apart are yours?

 

The MOTR server is sloooow so this may take a bit to load.


Brad's MINI with the rack.

 

I can not say that I have been on any really long trips with bikes on the racks. I did have them on the car for about 6 months without removing though.

I can say that I have driven some very high speeds with the racks on (of course I was not on public roads, we all know that no one here would ever break the posted speed limit) and I have taken corners at speed with bikes on the racks and had no probs at all.

When I first set up the racks I was a little bummed because I could not use the sunroof, but if you just push the bikerack attachments out towards the edge of the racks it gives you enough clearance to open the sunroof.

Motor on :smile:

 

i'm interested in roof racks primarily for surfboards and kayak. i've had good experiences with yakima before on my civic, so i was leaning toward yakima, but not so sure now with the current warnings for the mini model. 1) 75 lb weight limit, 2) may warp plastic raingutter trim, 3) advised not to leave on for prolonged periods of time, 4) can interfere with moonroof/sunroof, 5) only 18" of bar spacing which is especially difficult with long items, ie. longboards and kayaks.

currently looking at other brands including saris, mont-blanc. these are being discussed in other threads.

 

>>i'm interested in roof racks primarily for surfboards and kayak. i've had good experiences with yakima before on my civic, so i was leaning toward yakima, but not so sure now with the current warnings for the mini model. 1) 75 lb weight limit, 2) may warp plastic raingutter trim, 3) advised not to leave on for prolonged periods of time, 4) can interfere with moonroof/sunroof, 5) only 18" of bar spacing which is especially difficult with long items, ie. longboards and kayaks.
>>
>>currently looking at other brands including saris, mont-blanc. these are being discussed in other threads.
>>
>>

I think if you're interesting in carrying a kayak you would need to go with the official drilled rack which can support up to 165. I was reading up on this on Mini2.com last night and someone made that exact point. I'm with the non drilling people but if you kayak you might not have a choice.

Dave, think of the performance gains. Those plastic caps are probably much lighter than the metal they drilled out.