Any reason not to get an Atera Strada over a Thule EuroWay?

Bit of a toss up between the Atera Strada DL 2 and the Thule EuroWay G2 921. Atera a little more cash but it looks a little lighter and a bit more compact, and it can be extended to 3 bikes which I don’t think can be done with the Thule. Some nice design touches on the Atera too. Looks like there is one retailer for Atera in the UK though, which puts me off a little. Any experiences? Thanks.

I’ve got the 3 bike version of the Altera Strada (with an extension piece for a fourth bike, which I haven’t used). Can’t really fault it. Easy to fit single handed, slides out of the way nicely for getting the dog in and out of the back and has securely transported three bikes across the country on a number of occasions without any issues.

Of course, the Thule may be fantastic too.

Although not a tow bar carrier, my Atera Giro roof racks have been spot on. As they live on the roof of the car pretty much permanently they’ve been subject to a lot of use and lot of weather over the last 4+ years. When I decided to give them some tlc and replace a couple of bits this spring the roofbox company had access to every possible spare at very decent prices and it was really easy to strip and rebuild them. Quality kit.

When I decided to give them some tlc and replace a couple of bits this spring the roofbox company had access to every possible spare at very decent prices and it was really easy to strip and rebuild them

Thanks, good to know that about spares. I’ve heard some people having trouble with Thule on that front. I was a bit worried about Atera too, there being only one UK dealer.

I’ve got a Strada Sport 2 bike and happy with it – can be picked up on ebay direct from Germany for about £245

I also have the three bike version of the strada.
It’s been problem free in the four years i’ve had it.
Easy to use, light and folds down for storage.

Thanks everyone. Anyone had any problems with the mounting arms having to go through the frame triangle?

Recently got an Atera Strada DL 3 with extra bike rail for 4th bike.

Really pleased with it, awesome bit of kit. Roofbox were excellent to deal with too. They were out of stock when I ordered it but I needed one for a weekend away. They loaned me an alternative demo carrier for a week until the Strada arrived.

I’d been using a mates Thule Euro 3 bike carrier on long term loan before as he uses roof carriers now. It was well made, perhaps felt a bit sturdier than the Strada but the Atera is easier to mount to the towbar and easier to mount the bikes.

Managed to get 4 bikes on several times now with very little cursing or having to take them all on and off lol.

Thanks all. Shall take a punt on the Atera.

Another Strada DL3 with the extra bike rail here. Bought to replace an old Pendle Wheel-support rack. Can’t believe how much lighter it is and how straightforward the clamping mechanism is. The fact that it slides to allow access to the boot is genius.. No more clambering over the back seats to get at stuff in the boot!! Again, bought from Roofbox who are an excellent company to deal with. Getting the clamping arms in the right place can be a little fiddly at first, but once you’ve had a few trial and error goes it is very quick!

Another Strada fan

Ordered. Hopefully in good time for a drive up to Glentress. Thanks all 🙂

The one problem I had with the DL3 was that the arms can’t easily be removed and swapped around. The spacing between the bikes isn’t exactly generous, and by the time you’ve got the bikes loaded in such a way that they’re not touching each other, the options for where to put the arms can be pretty limited.

If you always carry the same bikes then you can probably sort it out once and live with it, but I ended up swapping the DL3 for the Evo as I could tell it was going to drive me nuts when trying to carry different combinations of bikes.

pdw, that is one thing I was slightly concerned about as I’m not always carrying the same set of bikes. Didn’t realise you couldn’t remove the arms easily like on the Thule. Hmm. Oh well, ordered now. They do the 90 day swap so if it looks like it’s going to be a pain I can always change it.

From what I remember you can remove them by dismantling the carrier. Alternatively, if you’re not concerned about having the bikes locked on, you can probably butcher the bolt that holds the arms on by removing the welded nut that prevents removal.

I think I’ve had the same experiences as pdw. Spacing between bikes not ideal (I keep a small pile of karrimat pieces handy for padding out bikes) and can be fiddly to set up with some bike combinations especially with the arms that need to be fed through the other bikes frames. I tend to fit the largest frame nearest the car and work down from there.

That said, we’ve been using ours regularly for 3 years now (3-4 bikes most times) for long trips up and down the country, so overall been happy with ours.

Only other point to note is that once you fit the extra rack for the 3rd or 4th bike, you limit where the wheel brackets can slide to. This might be an issue if you need to fit a smaller childs bike to the rack, and then a week or two later, want to fit a full-size adult bike.

Blimey it’s arrived, I only ordered it yesterday afternoon!

Looks like they’ve upgraded it a little as the arms are removable now which is a good thing.

Looks like they’ve upgraded it a little as the arms are removable now which is a good thing.

Hi, any further thoughts now that you’ve had it a month? I’m currently deciding between the Thule 9503 cheapie, the higher-end Thule Euroway G2 923, and the Atera Sport M3. I can’t see much difference between the Sport and DL apart from weight, or am I missinng something?

I think the big thing with the DL is that it slides away from the back of the car, rather than just tilting. Gives a bit more room to get in and out the boot. Works well with our estate car.

I’ve only used it on a couple of trips so far, am happy with it. It is quite a bit ligher than a thule and does looks like it shakes about more as a consequence, but then it is much easier to lug about. Fits easily in the boot too. I prefer the ratchet straps to the Thule clamps. And there are some nice little design touches too, like the holes to put the ends of the wheel straps into when you’re putting the bike on so they don’t flap about and get in the way.

Glad I spotted this, probably switching from roof carriers to a four bike tow bar carrier if we change the car next year.

Presumably no one could envisage a problem with MrsMC, who is only 4’10” and doesn’t have full use of her left hand/arm putting bikes on and off one of these carriers? Roof mounted carriers have proved to be beyond even her remarkable abilities, which has limited some of our cycling activities sometimes.

Can be a bit fiddly, but no different to any other bike carrier. The Thule clamp may be a bit easier. Worth finding someone who has one and giving it a go. You’re welcome to have a go on mine if you are in the west berks area. Reckon you could probably have a play with a Thule one in your local Halfords too.

I fractured my humerus a few months back and although I’m back to (tame) riding I’ve still got pretty restricted movement in my left arm (frozen shoulder). The roof rack is beyond me, but I didn’t have any trouble mounting the Altera rack on the car or loading it up with three bikes with my 1.5 arms the other week.

Thanks for that guys. Might ask for some Derbyshire owners nearer the time.

We have had a Strada DL (3 bikes version) for 3 1/2 years now. Its a great bit of kit which we have hammered

Issues for me as follows Note: it does look like the design keeps being updated so may not apply to you. Also note that I’m not kind to mechanical things – oil? what’s that? 🙂

1. the mechanism that holds the rack up can get into a state where it looks like its up, but isn’t locked fully. there’s a little green button that needs to be all the way up. Worst case is that the rack slides back when in transit and drags itself along the road. I have done this but have never damaged a bike. Its the only failure mode and they’ve designed for it, which is good.
As long as the green button is all the way up, its fine.

2. the plastic handles that lock the upright bike holder part have snapped off. still works fine, just a bit harder to secure. looks like the plastic has aged with UV and become brittle.

3. Its a bit harder to reset into the upright position that when new, take a few goes now. given its not almost no lubrication and has got stuck in roadsalt for its life its pretty good. If I actually looked after it a bit I’m sure this could be improved.

4. lifting the rack off the car is getting harder – getting it to release first time is slightly trickier. Again I think its just wear and salt making the mechanism a bit sticky.

5. the bits that touch the bike are fine – the buckles and straps are good quality. still so easy to fit bikes on.

6. one electrics issue resolved very promptly by roofbox.co.uk. my towhitch has electrics pins that get squashed over time and then make an intermittent connection

Top bit of kit. If you look after it should last many many years. I should get a good few years more out of mine

TM

In terms of getting it on the tow bar, I think the Altera is a lot easier, just because of the lighter weight.

Just moved from Strada DL to Strada Evo after six years. Slightly higher carrying capacity, but the big advantage for mountain bikers is that the carrying channels are 10mm further apart and longer, so it’s easier to avoid bike-to-bike rub.

I’m pretty happy with my Strada DL 3[/url]. Never made a problem and I bought it quiet cheap.

I’ve just bought my first 4 bike towbar carrier. I went for a buzzrack Quattro, which is very nice. I used it for a family run to Cornwall, from East Sussex, and it was perfect.

£230 from roof box with a 5% discount HERE

I’ve just bought an Atera Strada DL3 from the Roofbox Company. Guy I got my van from had one and said it was fantastic and reading the reviews (both from the company and from users) on the website, the Atera seems to edge the Thule. First test this coming weekend so we’ll see what the fuss is about.

Dave (long term Thule fan)

I’m the user of Atera Strada Vario 3 . My Atera was used just 3 times and during a few hundred kilometres voyage I have noticed broken brackets (see photo). The maker refused to carry out required repairs under terms of warranty as they couldn’t define what was the cause of the malfunction/cracks!!!
So in their opinion such an unrecognized cause of demage was the reason why I have to pay for repairs, but in my opinion this product is defective and I am afraid to use my Atera again.

I bought one of the most expensive tow bar carrier, counting on good quality and now taking into account all circumstances I am very disappointed. Most of my friends who owns thule have never experienced such problems and arrogance from the maker.

Just to redress the balance I’ve had a less than one year old Thule foot fitting shear that resulted in my bike, still attached to the Thule cycle carrier, bouncing along a dual carriageway.

It was all returned to Thule who didn’t want to know. There was damage to the bodywork of an almost new car plus damage to my bike. Insurance company said that we’d need to pay for an independent assessment before they would get involved.

In my opinion Thule ain’t that great and their customer service was shite.

Hello, i could not resist signing up to the forum just for this post. I did a lot of reasearch before buying my racks and this is my review. I found the roofbox comments to be too positive and lack any mountainbike use feedback.

I had a thule velocompact2 and now i use an atera strada DL3.
The strada is by no means perfect, but it has some serious advantages in my book.

So for sheer ease and foolproof use, any thule is a little better.
The wheel straps are better feeling, the bike rails distance is a little more, the bike rails themselves are much wider than strada’s which allow for un-centered placement (for mountainbikes which have long wheelbases) and the main advantage of thule is their attaching arms to the bike frame, much better in my opinion than the atera straps which can leave marks to your frame.

Now moving onto the atera, the sliding system is far more useable than any pivot system, be it of atera or thule. Locking it back is a little more tricky, but you get used to it. It requires a little more pressure on the left. The weight of the strada DL is the defining reason to buy also. It might wobble a tiny bit more, but it is light enough to use daily for just one bike. Also the horizontal piece is easier to lock into place than thule’s. And the towbar locking mechanism is superior to that of thule.

I got the DL3 for two main reasons, wheight and size. It has the same footprint as my previous thule velocompact2, so it still fits the boot of the evoque and i can put an extra bike if i want. You can actually put a 4th bike if you buy the extension.

The design of thule vs atera has one major difference besides the sliding mechanism: the bikes’ wheels secure diagonally in the atera, whereas in thule they secure horizontally. This allows the atera strada to be more narrow. And you will be surprised to know it fits my frame XL enduro bike just fine (120cm wheelbase). I reckon it can acommodate even 29′ XL framed bikes.

But the more compact size of the strada has the drawback that bikes are prone to rubbing against each other. If you put 3 mtb’s often, skip the strada, it’s a pain to setup or get it with an extension for a 4th bike. But if you mostly use for 2 or 1, this rack a better buy than any 2 bike rack in my mind.

Note there is a design flaw that has to do with the attaching arms: If you put a modern mountainbike with a steep top tube in position 1, right next to the horizontal tubes, the short frame attaching arm will secure the bike awkwardly and very tight. This results to your pedal and front chainrings to rub against the horizontal tube of the stada. There is two ways to solve this: you can pad one of the two horizontal tubes with a piece of rubber where it rubs against or you can rearrange the short frame bar in order to clasp the saddle or to your frame beneath the stem. This produces a 90 degree angle between the frame and horizontal tube and enough clearence to avoid rubbing against it.

Atera Strada User for 5 years now.

Like anything there’s pros and cons

Pros
Really well designed
Very easy to put bikes on and off
With a little bit of padding, 3 bikes quite straightforward.
Service support from roofbox.co.uk is excellent

Cons

The rack shows it is locked in place by a small green button being in the upright position. This can get into a state where the rack looks like its locked up, but its not and slides down when you’re moving. If you are a pillock and forget to check this means you can suddenly be scraping the rack along the road. the good news is all this does is remove some material from the bottom bar – I have in my incompetence done this twice and have had NO bike damage at all. This may have changed in later models

The handles holding the uprights in position can go brittle with age. All adjustable with an allen key, but something to look out for after 3 + years

The mechanism is exposed so gets all the road salt in it. I have carefully ignored doing anything with mine with the result that its a bit sticky now. The rack doesn’t slide as smoothly as it did (bear in mind its 5 years old and has been well used!). taking on and off the towbar can be fiddly now (blissfully easy when new). Regardless, its still working v well.

We are going to renew it at some point – looking something that can take a box as an alternative/additional to bikes but would definitely look at one again

TM