R56 3rd Party Fork Mount for OEM Roof Rack
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Joined: May 2009
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3rd Party Fork Mount for OEM Roof Rack
Hello All!
This is my first post so bear with me, in case someone has already written on this, though I don't think anyone has, because I have been searching for some info on this for a while.
I recently purchased the oem roof rack for my 09 mini, and I have been scrounging all over the place trying to find a fork mount for my bikes, road and mountain, that will attach to it.
The cross bars of the rack itself are very similar to thule's rapid aero bar, however the channel that runs across the top of the rack, for actually attaching things like fork mounts, is conveniently just a little bit wider than thule's. Thus, any thule rapid aero mount that one would like to put on the factory rack is going to require a little bit of creativity.
Yakima has virtually nothing in terms of a fork mount, as far as I am aware, that will work. Yak does make what they call a forklift, which for all intensive purposes will fit the rack, however the skewer of the mount is gigantic, and will rattle on the cross bar or foot of the rack system depending on where you place the attachment. The slightest bump will make it bang on the rack, and the thing is huge, so you can hear it over your music in your car. I could honestly envision some sort of viking warrior carrying the forklift skewer in to battle and bludgeoning some poor villager with it.
The attachment is also quite long, so unless you place it very close to the side of your mini, you will always need to be very careful when opening your hatch, which may or may not be practical if you ever motor with anyone else and they are storing things in the back of your vehicle.
Also for the record, I have not been successful in locating any sort of fork mount that mini makes for this rack system. I do not want the bike rack that mini has advertised on their actual site because some of my rigs have very awkward geometry. So... even though the oem bike rack might fit, it will not necessarily be stable. This is not an option, considering the price of some upper end bicycles, not to mention some upper end bicycles which could belong to your friend.
Given the amount of dead ends that I have run in to, trying to find a suitable fork mount, it is also beginning to feel like this factory rack is partly engineered into convincing a customer to just up and purchase mini's rack as a result of how inflexible it is with 3rd party attachments, but that is a rant that I do not wish to spend much time on.
I have found a possible solution however...
RockyMounts makes a fork mount that will fit european vehicle factory racks. This is really the only thing that I have found, and I have been looking for a while, that will for sure fit a mini cooper factory rack, that is not to say there are not other options, but this seems like the best one for me, and hopefully this will help others that are having similar experiences. The model is called the EuroLariat SL, and you can even get it in a color that will be similar to your car. In terms of expenses, if you want to put a fork mount on your mini, this is probably one of the cheaper ways to go as well.
Check em' out:
http://www.rockymounts.com/eurolariat
Financial run down:
MINI OEM Rack+RockyMount EuroLariat=320~
(If you mount the oem rack yourself, which is a royal pain by the way the first time you do it. Expect a partially mangled rain gutter and a large amount of profanity.
)
Yak or Thule Kit=700+
(Not including install costs from wherever you purchase it, though these are likely notably easier to do by yourself than mini's oem rack.)
Anyways, I hope this helps.
Cheers
This is my first post so bear with me, in case someone has already written on this, though I don't think anyone has, because I have been searching for some info on this for a while.
I recently purchased the oem roof rack for my 09 mini, and I have been scrounging all over the place trying to find a fork mount for my bikes, road and mountain, that will attach to it.
The cross bars of the rack itself are very similar to thule's rapid aero bar, however the channel that runs across the top of the rack, for actually attaching things like fork mounts, is conveniently just a little bit wider than thule's. Thus, any thule rapid aero mount that one would like to put on the factory rack is going to require a little bit of creativity.
Yakima has virtually nothing in terms of a fork mount, as far as I am aware, that will work. Yak does make what they call a forklift, which for all intensive purposes will fit the rack, however the skewer of the mount is gigantic, and will rattle on the cross bar or foot of the rack system depending on where you place the attachment. The slightest bump will make it bang on the rack, and the thing is huge, so you can hear it over your music in your car. I could honestly envision some sort of viking warrior carrying the forklift skewer in to battle and bludgeoning some poor villager with it.
The attachment is also quite long, so unless you place it very close to the side of your mini, you will always need to be very careful when opening your hatch, which may or may not be practical if you ever motor with anyone else and they are storing things in the back of your vehicle.
Also for the record, I have not been successful in locating any sort of fork mount that mini makes for this rack system. I do not want the bike rack that mini has advertised on their actual site because some of my rigs have very awkward geometry. So... even though the oem bike rack might fit, it will not necessarily be stable. This is not an option, considering the price of some upper end bicycles, not to mention some upper end bicycles which could belong to your friend.
Given the amount of dead ends that I have run in to, trying to find a suitable fork mount, it is also beginning to feel like this factory rack is partly engineered into convincing a customer to just up and purchase mini's rack as a result of how inflexible it is with 3rd party attachments, but that is a rant that I do not wish to spend much time on.
I have found a possible solution however...
RockyMounts makes a fork mount that will fit european vehicle factory racks. This is really the only thing that I have found, and I have been looking for a while, that will for sure fit a mini cooper factory rack, that is not to say there are not other options, but this seems like the best one for me, and hopefully this will help others that are having similar experiences. The model is called the EuroLariat SL, and you can even get it in a color that will be similar to your car. In terms of expenses, if you want to put a fork mount on your mini, this is probably one of the cheaper ways to go as well.
Check em' out:
http://www.rockymounts.com/eurolariat
Financial run down:
MINI OEM Rack+RockyMount EuroLariat=320~
(If you mount the oem rack yourself, which is a royal pain by the way the first time you do it. Expect a partially mangled rain gutter and a large amount of profanity.
)Yak or Thule Kit=700+
(Not including install costs from wherever you purchase it, though these are likely notably easier to do by yourself than mini's oem rack.)
Anyways, I hope this helps.
Cheers
2nd Gear
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 124
Likes: 0
I have the Thule Echelon fork mount without any problems. This is with the oem roof rack
QUOTE=Quintessence;2774635]Hello All!
This is my first post so bear with me, in case someone has already written on this, though I don't think anyone has, because I have been searching for some info on this for a while.
I recently purchased the oem roof rack for my 09 mini, and I have been scrounging all over the place trying to find a fork mount for my bikes, road and mountain, that will attach to it.
The cross bars of the rack itself are very similar to thule's rapid aero bar, however the channel that runs across the top of the rack, for actually attaching things like fork mounts, is conveniently just a little bit wider than thule's. Thus, any thule rapid aero mount that one would like to put on the factory rack is going to require a little bit of creativity.
Yakima has virtually nothing in terms of a fork mount, as far as I am aware, that will work. Yak does make what they call a forklift, which for all intensive purposes will fit the rack, however the skewer of the mount is gigantic, and will rattle on the cross bar or foot of the rack system depending on where you place the attachment. The slightest bump will make it bang on the rack, and the thing is huge, so you can hear it over your music in your car. I could honestly envision some sort of viking warrior carrying the forklift skewer in to battle and bludgeoning some poor villager with it.
The attachment is also quite long, so unless you place it very close to the side of your mini, you will always need to be very careful when opening your hatch, which may or may not be practical if you ever motor with anyone else and they are storing things in the back of your vehicle.
Also for the record, I have not been successful in locating any sort of fork mount that mini makes for this rack system. I do not want the bike rack that mini has advertised on their actual site because some of my rigs have very awkward geometry. So... even though the oem bike rack might fit, it will not necessarily be stable. This is not an option, considering the price of some upper end bicycles, not to mention some upper end bicycles which could belong to your friend.
Given the amount of dead ends that I have run in to, trying to find a suitable fork mount, it is also beginning to feel like this factory rack is partly engineered into convincing a customer to just up and purchase mini's rack as a result of how inflexible it is with 3rd party attachments, but that is a rant that I do not wish to spend much time on.
I have found a possible solution however...
RockyMounts makes a fork mount that will fit european vehicle factory racks. This is really the only thing that I have found, and I have been looking for a while, that will for sure fit a mini cooper factory rack, that is not to say there are not other options, but this seems like the best one for me, and hopefully this will help others that are having similar experiences. The model is called the EuroLariat SL, and you can even get it in a color that will be similar to your car. In terms of expenses, if you want to put a fork mount on your mini, this is probably one of the cheaper ways to go as well.
Check em' out:
http://www.rockymounts.com/eurolariat
Financial run down:
MINI OEM Rack+RockyMount EuroLariat=320~
(If you mount the oem rack yourself, which is a royal pain by the way the first time you do it. Expect a partially mangled rain gutter and a large amount of profanity.)
Yak or Thule Kit=700+
(Not including install costs from wherever you purchase it, though these are likely notably easier to do by yourself than mini's oem rack.)
Anyways, I hope this helps.
Cheers[/QUOTE]
QUOTE=Quintessence;2774635]Hello All!
This is my first post so bear with me, in case someone has already written on this, though I don't think anyone has, because I have been searching for some info on this for a while.
I recently purchased the oem roof rack for my 09 mini, and I have been scrounging all over the place trying to find a fork mount for my bikes, road and mountain, that will attach to it.
The cross bars of the rack itself are very similar to thule's rapid aero bar, however the channel that runs across the top of the rack, for actually attaching things like fork mounts, is conveniently just a little bit wider than thule's. Thus, any thule rapid aero mount that one would like to put on the factory rack is going to require a little bit of creativity.
Yakima has virtually nothing in terms of a fork mount, as far as I am aware, that will work. Yak does make what they call a forklift, which for all intensive purposes will fit the rack, however the skewer of the mount is gigantic, and will rattle on the cross bar or foot of the rack system depending on where you place the attachment. The slightest bump will make it bang on the rack, and the thing is huge, so you can hear it over your music in your car. I could honestly envision some sort of viking warrior carrying the forklift skewer in to battle and bludgeoning some poor villager with it.
The attachment is also quite long, so unless you place it very close to the side of your mini, you will always need to be very careful when opening your hatch, which may or may not be practical if you ever motor with anyone else and they are storing things in the back of your vehicle.
Also for the record, I have not been successful in locating any sort of fork mount that mini makes for this rack system. I do not want the bike rack that mini has advertised on their actual site because some of my rigs have very awkward geometry. So... even though the oem bike rack might fit, it will not necessarily be stable. This is not an option, considering the price of some upper end bicycles, not to mention some upper end bicycles which could belong to your friend.
Given the amount of dead ends that I have run in to, trying to find a suitable fork mount, it is also beginning to feel like this factory rack is partly engineered into convincing a customer to just up and purchase mini's rack as a result of how inflexible it is with 3rd party attachments, but that is a rant that I do not wish to spend much time on.
I have found a possible solution however...
RockyMounts makes a fork mount that will fit european vehicle factory racks. This is really the only thing that I have found, and I have been looking for a while, that will for sure fit a mini cooper factory rack, that is not to say there are not other options, but this seems like the best one for me, and hopefully this will help others that are having similar experiences. The model is called the EuroLariat SL, and you can even get it in a color that will be similar to your car. In terms of expenses, if you want to put a fork mount on your mini, this is probably one of the cheaper ways to go as well.
Check em' out:
http://www.rockymounts.com/eurolariat
Financial run down:
MINI OEM Rack+RockyMount EuroLariat=320~
(If you mount the oem rack yourself, which is a royal pain by the way the first time you do it. Expect a partially mangled rain gutter and a large amount of profanity.
)Yak or Thule Kit=700+
(Not including install costs from wherever you purchase it, though these are likely notably easier to do by yourself than mini's oem rack.)
Anyways, I hope this helps.
Cheers[/QUOTE]
Neutral
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 3
Likes: 0
Hey Quint,
I don't use fork mounts (I like to save room in the car) but the trick to getting Thule bike trays to work in the OEM rails is to put 1 inch washers on the aero bar adaptor bolts. As you noted, the slots on the Mini rails are just a little too wide but the washers make things very secure and give you the option of using any of the Thule racks. That being said, I've always heard great things about the RockyMounts. Search this site for factory rack threads and you will find excellent tutorials to help you out.
PS - Taking the rails off gets much easier after the first time. I can take the rails on and off in 5 minutes now.
I don't use fork mounts (I like to save room in the car) but the trick to getting Thule bike trays to work in the OEM rails is to put 1 inch washers on the aero bar adaptor bolts. As you noted, the slots on the Mini rails are just a little too wide but the washers make things very secure and give you the option of using any of the Thule racks. That being said, I've always heard great things about the RockyMounts. Search this site for factory rack threads and you will find excellent tutorials to help you out.
PS - Taking the rails off gets much easier after the first time. I can take the rails on and off in 5 minutes now.
Neutral
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 8
Likes: 0
From: Near Easton, PA
I have a 2007 S with the OEM roof rack and I had fork mount rails installed by ROCKY MOUNTS in Boulder Colorado. They have the equipment for you to do it yourself and you can order them online. They come in many colors, are extremely well made and are cheaper than Thule/Yakima etc. I purchased the Thule Wheel fork for the front wheel as well and it mounts with screw clamps. The Rocky Mount trays Bolt to the rack without drilling and are extremely sturdy. Check them out:
http://www.rockymounts.com/
I can't imagine having another fork mount on my rack.
http://www.rockymounts.com/
I can't imagine having another fork mount on my rack.
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Thanks for the input guys, I really appreciate it. Also thanks for the link to the oem fork mount. It looks like a good set up. I literally came home from ordering the RockyMount fork mount and found a picture of the mini oem rack
Oh well. I think I will enjoy the RockyMount. It looks a bit more similar to what I am used to in a fork mount. I also considered purchasing a thule petelon (?) and putting a washer inbetween the plate and the cross bar in order to secure it. I think I would have gone with that sort of set up, and still will, if for some weird reason this does not work. (Knock on wood.)
Anyways. Cheers everyone
Oh well. I think I will enjoy the RockyMount. It looks a bit more similar to what I am used to in a fork mount. I also considered purchasing a thule petelon (?) and putting a washer inbetween the plate and the cross bar in order to secure it. I think I would have gone with that sort of set up, and still will, if for some weird reason this does not work. (Knock on wood.)
Anyways. Cheers everyone
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