I'm after some thule carriers for road and MTB duties. In fact I thnk Mrs Mugsy has just bought a 561 secondhand. We just need another carrrier and a roof bar set up now.
Do the bike carriers have to be mounted on thule bars, or can they be mounted on any old roofbars?
Car is a Laguna estate with the roofrails. Any ideas, suggestions etc greatfully appreciated. I really miss having a van.
they don't have to be on thule bars - they'll have U loops that will fit any sort. thule ones are easier, though, as they have channels that fittings on the rack slide into and then you just clamp them down.
So long as you have both set of fittings, for aero bars (slots) or normal bar (which clamp around) they will go on both/pretty much any thing. Our regularly swop every week or two.
They come with a couple of sets of brackets so will fit any roofrack....
Ok thanks for all the rpelies. I hope the one we bought secondhand comes with all the brackets for the different options!
cheers all,
btw, any second hand kicking around?
Hey everyone, it seems the one we are looking at 2nd hand is an older Thule velo vise.
There seems some bad reviews of this version on mtbr reviews.com with locking mechanisms made out of plastic.
Does anyone have any experience of the velo vise, and are they as bad as they are made out to be? do they take a disc brake fitted fork as standard. Really worried now.
For new ones I've found the cheapest place to be [url=www.skidrive.co.uk]skidrive[/url] - I've got 3 racks + a set of bars from there, quick free delivery as well.
Yes, that's the cheapest price I can find them in UK.
We live in France and they are about 120 euros there..... current exchange rate is 1.16 ish euros to the £.
So although not free delivery from UK sites, better to buy in UK and pay extra postage.
Does anyone have ay views on whether the older velo vise or the 561 is best for carbon forks? SKidrive say 561 is not suitable for carbon forks, whereas Thule website says it fits carbon forks.
I used to use the old Velo Vise 511s quite a lot. There seems to be two worries people have with them (and any fork mount carrier I guess) - damaging the dropouts by clamping when they're not seated completely, or careless removal of the bike, and damage due to high lateral loads when in use.
Obviously the first risks are aleviated by just being careful when you load, clamp and unload the bike. Re the lateral load in use "risk" - I'm not convinced at all that this is a real risk.
511s have problems with some disk brakes, later ones are fine - and the latest ones come with 20mm converters as well I think? I'd have bought those if I hadn't been given a pair of the ProRode 591s. Bikes are so solid in fork mount carriers - very little wobbling etc. The only accident I had once was forgetting the strap the rear wheel down - which probably wouldn't have been an issue if the bike hadn't been facing backwards! Thankfully it stayed on with minor brake lever damage and a small scratch on the car.
Thanks,
anyone else got any views (on thule 561s and velovises.....!)?
I've got both velovise and 591s - I'd go for 591s everytime. Great bit of kit, ratchet system for tightening the grip to the down tube is good, quick release to undo it is kind of pleasing to use! V solid.
I've found some bikes don't fit my velovise due to brake positioning on forks. Also they can't handle maxxles at all, and the straps they issue for the back wheel are v small - difficult to fit on fat tyres.