I’ve just got some Thule roof mounted bike racks. Problem I have is I can’t fit the u shaped mountings over my roof bars, the ones with them are kind of u shaped and I need more d shaped ones. They are really snug over the bars too (VW roof rack) so could do with being a couple of mm bigger too, does anybody know where I might track down such a thing?!

Try Roofbox.co.uk

You could try getting in touch with Thule but don’t expect much! Pretty much the worst customer service I’ve ever come accross . All I was trying to do was get hold of another bolt that I’d accidentally rounded out thanks to their ultra-cheap security Allen key.

Roofracks.co.uk have all the spares.

Can you not use the square headed bolts (t track)?

What are the square headed bolts? I should point out I got these second hand in great condition but they just came with the bracket type fixings.

Thule normally only have the U fittings for square bars or T bolts for the aero/wing bars. Are you sure your bars don’t have a T track in the top?

They do, just had a look! Think I’ll get some of the t track bolts, my slight OCD likes the neatness of them anyway.

Yeah.

Steel bars (square box-section) attachments clamp around the bars. Aluminium (oval or wing-shaped cross section) have a slot in the top instead, usually covered by a rubber strip.

before you buy any measure the width of the widest part of the slot to check that Thule bolts fit. I had some Thule style bars but the T slot was too narrow for Thule bolts.

I think Skidrive has plenty of spares but find the part number for the bolts you need and shop around as some of the bike shops do thule parts quite cheap. I think I used Petra cycles last time.

Also,

The bolts look like regular bolts with flat, square heads. Don’t be tempted to jury-rig it with any old bolt, the proper ones are specced to cope with the high tensile load.

they did a recall a few years back because of bolts that were failing if I remember correctly. I also wouldn’t modify them to make them fit a different set of bars.