Hi all. Brand new, first time Mini owner (09 Clubman S) and new forum member too. Spent much time spelunking thousands of posts here before diving in, and after just 3 weeks I can't imagine owning any other car. (Although I'm still dying to check out the Countryman.) Anyway...

As part of the negotiation, I convinced the dealer to throw in the OEM base roof rack, which got installed today (also free!). And he also gave me a used touring bike rack which was sitting around, but it's missing some mounting bolts. So the questions:

1) How do I find and/or get the missing mounting bolts?
Since I've never installed or even seen one of these, I'm not sure what there should be. I have two mounting plates, two nuts, and a small torx wrench. I imagine I need one more plate and nut and some bolts. Anyone have an idea? Can I get them from a hardware store? Can they be ordered?

2) I'm going to get another rack, and it seems like getting the same one makes the most sense. Anyone disagree?

3) Any chance that you can fit THREE racks on the Clubman? Maybe a forkmounted one in between the other two?

 

Not sure what kind of bike rack you are talking about with the missing parts, but I put two Yakima Forklift racks on the OEM cross bars mounted at the outside of the cross bars. I can fit two mountain bikes side-by-side with about 6 or so inches between the bar ends. I guess you could fit a third rack and bike in the middle facing backwards.

TH

 

Thanks ATL Clubman. I should have been more clear: everything is MINI OEM. The base roof rack system is from MINI and the Touring Bike Rack is also MINI (both wheels stay on the bike, not fork mounted).

 

First off, what type of mounting is it? Is it the old style that has the towers mounting to the slots in the driprails above the doors? Or is it the newer style that has the crossbars that mount to two rails that run above the roof from front to back?

If it is the early style, the bike attachment mounting sits inside the crossbars. If you un-lock and lift the tower cover, you should see a channel in the top of the crossbar. It is usually covered with a black rubber strip. Pull the strip out and save to put back when you are not running the attachments. Or cut the strip down to fill the spaces between the attachments.

For mounting our bike attachments, I used a piece of mild steel 1 x 1/2", cut to about 4-5" long, then drilled and tapped some 5mm holes. The head of the bolt sits in the end of the bike attachment(at least on my Thule ones), and the metal bar squeezes everything together when tightened. I used a small sheet of thin ABS inbetween the attachment and the crossbar to keep it from marring the finish. Just make sure the mounting bolts are not too long or things will not tighten down as the bolt bottoms out.

Now, If you have the newer crossbar style, I don't have any experience with those yet.

 

Thanks all for the thoughts!

@SteveJ: The mounting system I have is the Mini Base Roof Rack system. This gets mounted in the slots along the drip rail as you described. It is the system that would use if you do NOT have the factory-installed roofrails. (If you have the factory roof rails, then you just need the cross bars that attach to the rails.) I don't think it's so much old vs. new, as it is roof rails vs. not. Once you have the cross bars, though, I think they're functionally identical.

@Calz: Yup, just hardware. And over the weekend I was able to more or less figure it out.

The bike rack (and presumably any other attachment) gets mounted to the cross bars with a steel mounting plate. The plate is about 1" x 2" x 1/4" thick, and has a threaded hole in the middle. The plate slides into the channel of the cross bars, and then you just put a bolt and washer through the top of the rack into the mounting plate. There are three mounting holes in the bike rack (two on one end and one on the other), so I need to find or make a third mounting plate and then get some bolts and washers. Easy enough.

I've never had a bike rack or roof rack, so this is probably mundane and obvious for those more experienced.

One other comment on the MINI system is that most of the bolts I've seen so far use a Torx-style head on the bolts, and they give you a tiny L-shaped tool for installation. This is kind of dopey, as those bolts (at least on my used bike rack) are now immovably rusted in place. I'll be replacing them with a hex head so I can use a box or socket wrench on them

 

With Torx there is less chance of stripping out. You can buy Torx drivers nearly any hardware store now. Local bicycle shops will also have drivers in the most popular sizes. T15, T20, T25. If the bolt heads are obstructed at all, then I'd go with hex heads and use a ball-end (Bondhus) driver. A coating of anti-sieze compound on the bolt threads will help keep them from rusting.

I tried going to some of the "Thule Expert Shops" to get the attaching brackets. After they gave me a blank stare, I went to the hardware store and fab'd up my own brackets. The 1x1/2 bar stock slid right into the crossbar channel.

If you've never run a roof rack before, here are some basic tips to remember:
>Always double check the rack mount to your car is secure each time. You don't want anything coming off on the drive. If you transport often, just leave the rack on for the season.
>Test fit your bike on the attachment with the rack on the ground. If something doesn't fit or falls off I'd rather not have the bike hit the car roof.
>Remember that a bike on the roof will not fit into your garage. Hang a sign on a string from the garage ceiling as a reminder to not pull into the garage with the bike on top. (Anybody with a roof rack has done this at least once).

 

Dangerzone and Calz
here is a continuing question though. I have the same problem. bought the same base rack and touring bike holders. Lost a screw from the bike holder that holds the rack to the plates that slide into the base rack. Anyone know the measurements to the OEM screws: length, pitch, size???? Mini USA is of no #&^%@!#_)(**&& HELP!