Hi

Weighing up options of various bike carrying systems.
Explored tow bar route – safe to say that’s dead.
Saris Bones still has a say.

How considering roof bars – only concern is the dent it will put in my MPG.
Am I being a boring old git thinking of this?
For those of you who use this system regardless of brand, does it bother you, and just how much does it hit you in the pocket every time you hit the motorway?

Oh yeah – recommend me a good, non-hideously-priced route! 😀

Cheers

I have Whisper Bars on my Mitsubishi – they hardly have an impact on MPG. I don’t leave the carriers on all the time, just the cross bars!

Bought a roof rack and Thule 591 brand new for less than £100. Roof bars – 10mins to put on and 5 to take off.

Bike on and off in 1min.

Only use it for major travel i.e. with the missus and dog to Wales, otherwise just chuck my bike in the boot with seats down and a blanket over everything.

MPG didn’t seem to hit me too much either,maybe 2-3 less, but then I don’t normally drive at 100mph anyway!

Got some Thule (square) bars and a single bike carrier – not noticed any real impact on MPG. If anything, I get a slight increase with the bike on the car as it still makes me a bit nervous so the right foot is a bit lighter than normal 😉

2 litre diesel Focus fwiw.

Have tested this a wee bit but nothing scientifically! My car is a 1.2 Suzuki Swift – square profile Thule bars and footpacks, plus 2 591 racks on it…I do a daily mileage of about 20 miles – my average mpg is 51mpg. If I take the bars off, my average goes up to 52mpg.

I drove down to Leeds/York recently twice – with bars and without – I think I got about 53mpg with and 56mpg without…still not a huge difference over that distance.

That is without bikes on the roof…the bikes make a serious dent on mpg but as they are only there when needing to go somewhere it isn’t an issue.

So far, I’ve not noticed a big enough dent in my fuel consumption to bother about taking them off.

Its all about how fast you drive. Roof full on our zafira diesel, round the mountains on twisty roads, no perceivable impact, motorways at 70, -2 or 3 MPG, anything over that OUCH! Drinks fuel!!

You can pick up a Thule 591 on ebay (from a Ford dealer)for £63 inc p&p and a set of square roof bars from £39.00 form Larkspeed.

Best £100 quid I have spent on my bike.

I don’t tend drive like a heavy-footed dickhead.
I was interested in the difference between car as normal – ie no bars etc – and having 2 bikes up top (very occasionally 3).

If it’s a big difference I’ll have to consider carrying options – again.

Getting a tow bar fitted with rack is horrendous…even getting electrics for a lighting board into back of a Ceed is bloody robbery.

Calais to the Alps with 3 bikes on the roof took normal UK motorway MPG from 52 to 36 😯

And best part of an hour cleaning dead flies off my new Lyrik stanchions.

Towbar mount now fitted.

I’m with snaps on this.
Recently sold the FRV with roof rack (Thule Aero+591×1, 530×2). On our trip to the Alps we were down to 22mpg (3xAM bikes), until I realised! As petrieboy says, very much down to the high speed (85mph on motorway). Car usually did circa33mpg on similar drive. Discussed with passengers and dropped speed to 75mph (still happy to pay extra to get there earlier), back to 25mpg. Still a significant drop.

I’ve now bought a diesel civic and towbar mount. Short journeys with lighter bikes = no impact. Longer to put bikes on car though (have to mount rack as well), also I dont like leaving the rack sticking out – wish they folded up vertically, I can see someone tripping over it at night or reversing into it etc.

On my Golf with Roof bars and bike carriers, but no bikes, it took 2-3 mpg hit. With bikes it was more like 5-10mpg hit depending on speed. In the end I stopped using the roof rack at all and put the bikes on the back seat with the wheels in wheel bags. Car was much quieter at motorway speeds with a clean roof.

I put a set of loaned Thule roof bars on my last company car.

Before – 33mpg
After – 30mpg

Company fuel, so didn’t care – no idea of the impact with the bikes on the roof.

And when we went to the Alps had 2 bikes on the roof plus a box, 2 bikes on the towbar rack and driver + 3 passengers – 20mpg at 90mph…