General Cycling Discussion - Bicycle Racks

I'd like to apologize for some of these "newb" questions, as I've been away from biking for 22 years, so please excuse me. :)

My wife and I just got new bikes, and we need a bike rack for either my 2005 Subaru WRX STi or her 2009 Audi A3 Quattro. It really doesn't matter which car we mount this thing to. Neither of us have biked since we've gotten our driver licenses, so we don't know anything about bike racks.

Today I stopped by the Subaru dealership and they did have racks available. I asked some questions about how to get the bikes up on the racks, since wielding a bicycle 5 feet in the air by yourself and trying to tie the thing down sounds like it would be a real trick. I thought I've seen bike racks where a bar comes down, you attach the clamp around the frame of the bike, and then you crank it up into position on the roof. I can't imagine there's not another type of rack for a non-hatchback vehicle. I mean, there are plenty of women who are 5'2 and ride, but I'm pretty sure they aren't shoving a bike up on to the roof of a Chevy Tahoe.

I guess I'm looking for something easy to use that I'm not going to wind up tearing my car up while attaching bikes to a roof. There has to be something out there that's easy for one person to use. It seems like the ones Subaru are selling would take two people to operate.

Any help would be great!

Have you looked at a rack that mounts behind the trunk? They're easier to put bikes on, and don't ruin your aerodynamics. You may need to get a trailer hitch installed, though.

Would you consider either a trunk or hitch mount rather than roof mount?

We have used a Saris Bones 2 removable trunk rack on a sedan, and a Saris Cycle-On hitch rack on a sedan and a minivan.

The Saris Bones 2 ( http://www.saris.com/c-15-.aspx ) is an easily removable trunk mounted rack that would probably fit both of your cars. Check the Saris compatibility sheets. We have a Bones 2 that fit on both a sedan and a minivan. We've carried bikes several thousand miles with the Bones 2 with no problem. It has good sway protection to keep the bikes from bumping eachother or the car. It does take a few minutes to put the rack on the car and load the bikes. Also, I wouldn't leave the bikes on the rack overnight at a motel.

The easiest to use rack that we've ever had is the Saris Cycle-On hitch mounted rack ( http://www.saris.com/c-16-.aspx ). It comes in 2, 3 and 4 bike configurations. It takes just seconds to load the bikes and you only have to lift them 2 feet off the ground. Both of our cars now have hitches, and we move the 2 bike Cycle-On from one car to another in just a few minutes. It's even faster than changing the Bones 2. We've carried bikes cross country on the Cycle-On, too. The down side to a hitch rack is that, if the car doesn't already have a hitch, it will cost a couple hundred dollars to install one.

For those folks who are recommending trunk mount racks are likely not familiar with the Subaru WRX STi. It comes with a plastic bookshelf wing as part of the "rally look" for the Subaru Impreza. So using a trunk mount is not a good idea for this car. Maybe a hitch mount, however that means the A3 would need to have another hitch too.

http://images.automotive.com/cob/factory_automotive/images/features/auto_shows/2005_LAAS/2005_Subaru_Impreza_WRX%20STi_rear.jpg

I got the impression from your original post that you only needed a rack on one, not both?

For those folks who are recommending trunk mount racks are likely not familiar with the Subaru WRX STi. It comes with a plastic bookshelf wing as part of the "rally look" for the Subaru Impreza. So using a trunk mount is not a good idea for this car. Maybe a hitch mount, however that means the A3 would need to have another hitch too.

The Saris web site states that several of their trunk mounts fit the Subaru Impreza WRX Sedan.

The Saris web site states that several of their trunk mounts fit the Subaru Impreza WRX Sedan.

Okay, yes, that is correct, we only need a rack for one of the vehicles.

Yes, you are correct, a trunk mount will fit a WRX, but the WRX has an entirely different spoiler than the STi.

I basically want something that will be easy for one person to operate, whether it's myself or my wife. I can see my wife really racking herself while trying to mount a bike on the roof of a car...

The Saris web site states that several of their trunk mounts fit the Subaru Impreza WRX Sedan.

Double-posted, so just "deleted" this one...