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I've got square bars at the moment and I normally use them for chucking my kayak on for short distances, but I'm aware that at speed on the motorway they are noisy.
At the moment I carry bikes on a Thule tow bar mounted rack, but with the introduction of a leased car with no tow ball I'm going to have to look at roof mounted bike carrying.
Are the wing bars or aero bars as quiet as claimed and worth the extra money? (I like a decent cruising speed on the motorway especially abroad).
Also, when carrying bikes on the roof does the wind noise from the bikes mean that whatever bars you get it's still noisy?
Also, when carrying bikes on the roof does the wind noise from the bikes mean that whatever bars you get it's still noisy?
Pretty much. I have Thule aero bars, but the wee plastic filler has gone missing from the T-track... Bloody noisy things now! It is a good speed limiter though, go much above 60mph and the whistling reaches truly horrific levels.
Had Thule and thought they were noisy.
I now have Whispbar, much better.
Got knock off aero ebay jobbies for cheap and theyre spot on, no noise at all, they stay on my car all the time and i do about 20,000 miles a year in it.
i've got aero bars and on their own they aren't too bad, add the bike rack and they become noisy.
Would agree with The Beard above. Very noisy without the rubber infil strip in the t-track. New wing slight improvement over aero and both a good deal quieter than the square one's. Wind noise not too intrusive from carrying bikes, windsurfs, kayaks or roof box (not all at the same time!), but miss off/lose the rubber infil and the noise is unbearable.
they are good but the moment bikes/holders are on, the noise rises massively. I was going to buy whispbars but they flex so much it is really alarming, and the mounts are plastic, so went with the wingbars instead. Lost about 5mpg moving from bikes in to bikes on roof.
Hmm. I have a tiny whistle from mine since I fitted a second carrier. Time to review the rubber situation, by the sounds.
Or drive a Jeep and then you wont notice any other noise!!
I've found bikes on the roof kills the MPG - but the car's hardly the most efficient in the first place...
Probably knocks off 5-6mpg.
I've got a set if whispbar on my Prius and they r pretty much silent !!! Even with a thule 591 which all stay on permanently , I do around 25k miles per year and mpg hasn't drastically fallen , if ur interested in some kind of swap of bike racks let me know , I've got a new company car coming in month or so and it will have a tow bar so could swap my 591 thule if interested , chambo82@hotmail.co.uk
Thanks for the info.
I think I'll go with the WingBars as I've already got the mounts therefore it'll be cheaper than buying the WhispBars from scratch.
Drop me a line if ur interested in selling / swapping bike carriers , got a thule 591 that's only 6 months old that need to shift as above
Cheers
Duct tape or insulating tape works a treat for replacing the missing filler.
I'm running Mont Blanc aero bars with 591 T-tracked in.
I do have the rubber filler in place.
I find that noise is only really present over 70 when not biked.
I'm sure motorway economy must be affected when not biked but its so small as to be unnoticeable vs wind/inclines/tyre pressure etc.
A bike on top seems to cost me about 5 mpg too.