Car Roof Bars, anyone tried Thule Wingbar or WhispBars?

Just about to buy a set for my S-Max, spotted the WhispBars at the Roofbox co and the new Thule Wingbar. Sounds like a no brainer if they really are much quieter and better economy. Can’t tell the dimensions on the website though to judge whether the U-bolts on the roofbox or the loop fastening in the bike carrier will fit. Anyone got a set of these, or seen them in real life?

My roofbox has connectors that fit into the groove along the top of the whispbars. You might need to get new fittings.

I looked at roof bars (non-Thule) and they only came with u bolts that would not fit my whispbars.

I would have expected a decent make to come with the right connectors tho. What make are yours wooobob?

Seen them last week here[/url] – you’ll need to buy the t-bolts to go into the groove but they are stupidly cheap and available in the “spare parts” section here on roofracks.co.uk (the importer).
They’ve actually stopped doing the aerobars now as these have replaced them.
The new slide bars look bloody good too! Here[/url]

Molgrips – do you mean you looked at roof boxes? The whispbars are the roof bars innit? I think that the box came with the t-bolt fitting and also some u-clips. It’s a Kamei one. Bought it all in a one-er from roofbox.co.uk so not sure whether the fittings are standard when buying them individually.

Yes, sorry – well spotted there 🙂 I did mean I looked at roof boxes, the bars were already bought.

Just done 1100 miles with the wing bars and 2 bikes on top.

Didn’t notice any noise and the bikes seemed perfectly stable. But then again I wasn’t listen for noise and the radio was on.

What I can tell you is they look nice and the service from roofbox.co.uk is second to none.

Cheers guys, Wingbars it is then.

Had a set of “whispbars” for about 18 months now, and have to say i am impressed, they are on a Honda Crv (company car) which is driven 100+ miles daily, and at no point have i ever found them noisy, i have got 3 thule racks on them and really cant complain. My only gripe was getting them in the first place, it took about 8 weeks, and when they did turn up, 1 bar was missing from the box! Really easy to fit and good quality…

Looking a the Thule wingbar myself. Just wondering if you fit bike carriers to the wingbar using the t-track method, do you have to take the rubber insert out?

Just bought Cruz roof bars off roofbox.co.uk
Normal square steel bars.

Not quite as neat as Thule, but only £60 versus £160 for Thule Wingbars!
Be a long while before the aerodynamics of the Wingbars come close to saving me that in petrol.

gabbo – I use the T bolts on my Thule aero bars. What I did was make holes in the rubber strips in the appropriate places, then push it in place with the bolts poking through. Alternatively you could just cut it into 3 sections.

TBH if I have roofbars on my car then I am likely to have a roofbox or something else on the roof so it is a bit pointless buying quiet roofbars unless you are going to drive around a lot with the roofbars on but not actually using them

I was going to start a thread, but thought I’d add to this instead.

Has anyone tried Green Valley bars? Their aero style ones are something like £80, which seems pretty reasonable.

I just got some Wingbars and yes it looks like the rubber strip will need to be cut in the right places to fit the T-track adaptors