Gear Report: Yakima Car Top Bike Rack

In this post: Yakima Car Top Bike Rack , Borrego Springs, CA, REI

We left Long Beach about 8:00 in the morning and arrived in Borrego Springs 3-hours later. Prior to this trip we had made a few local trips transporting our bicycles on top of the car, but this was our first out-of-town trip to put our Yakima rooftop bike rack to the test. The Yakima rack system is advertised to work on almost any vehicle and adapt to carry all kinds of fun outdoor toys. We bought ours on sale at our favorite outdoor adventure store, REI.

On the way to Borrego Springs - Montezuma Grade

The first step at REI was to find our year and model car on a chart that listed the specific Yakima components we would need to fit a basic rack to our roof. The second step was to pick the accessories we wanted to carry and secure our bikes. Since the list of options for both steps was fairly extensive, having the guidance of the REI staff sped things up for us.

The “options list” included built-in locks for securing the rack to the car and for securing the bikes to the rack. All the locks are the same type and Yakima offers them in keyed-alike sets with 2, 4, 6, 8 10 and 12 per set. I have a thing about keeping the number of keys I carry around to a minimum, so I recommend buying a set with more locks than you need to start with. Otherwise, if you need more locks in the future and want everything keyed alike, you’ll have to buy a whole new set and replace all of your original locks.

My other recommendation is to spring for a fairing. I was skeptical that a simple piece of plastic attached along the front edge of the rack could really cut down on wind noise at freeway speeds, but it made a remarkable difference on our car. With the fairing installed, wind noise went from “impossible to ignore” to “barely noticeable.”

In the past, whenever we wanted to take the bikes somewhere in the car, we had to remove both wheels from each bike and wedge everything into the trunk and backseat. That didn’t leave much room for anything else. Now, with the bikes on top of the car, we had plenty of room down below. By the time we arrived in Borrego Springs we we’re completely satisfied and convinced that a roof top rack was the way to go for us.

Tips for use
Before loading up the bikes, make sure the pedal arms are in a horizontal position so there is minimal chance of the pedals hitting (and scratching) the vehicle roof.

The rear wheel on one of our bikes was so skinny it rattled around even when the securing strap was synched down to the max. We stopped the rattling by wrapping an old sock around the tire and rim before strapping it down.

Considerations
A roof top bike rack (as opposed to carrying the bikes on the rear of a vehicle) keeps the bikes out of the way for easy access to the trunk, hatchback or rear door, but loading up the bikes on a tall vehicle could be awkward. Our impression is that the bikes are more secure from tampering on top of the car and - as long as we don’t forget the bikes are up there and pull into a low overhead clearance situation like a parking structure or garage - less likely to get smashed.