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Bike rack...

I know someone with a roof rack made for the contour. He might want to sell it too.
 
svttour said:
I know someone with a roof rack made for the contour. He might want to sell it too.
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yakama or how ever you sell it makes the roof rack that fits. I much prefer it over one that goes on the back of the car, less chance of scratching the paint etc imho
 
I was just talking about this last night since I'm going to be getting a new bike this summer for the trails- I wouldn't even consider putting them on the back, takes away style points :) lol jk
 
Don't waste any money on a roof rack for a Contour. 1) There is a reason that there are very few available for the car. With the rain channels in the roof, the feet don't have adequate material to bite into to hold the rack securely in place. 2) A good trunk rack will carry all the bikes you could ever ride in a day without any risk of damaging the paint. As long as you don't drag the bikes across the paint getting to the rack, the bikes will NEVER make contact with the car while it is in motion.

Spend the $60-$80 on a good rack and you will be very happy. See the thread that was linked earlier, but especially my post as I have pictures and descriptions of two trunk-mount racks that work great!

http://www.contour.org/ceg-vb/showpost.php?p=503692&postcount=12
 
B.Brattina said:
I was just talking about this last night since I'm going to be getting a new bike this summer for the trails- I wouldn't even consider putting them on the back, takes away style points :) lol jk
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Plus the bike sitting over the car just looks plain bad ass to me :laugh:
 
I have the Bones bike rack made by Saris. Works great! Even fits over my spoiler. It's fully adjustable and can even be used on the front of a van. Have used it on 3 different cars that I have had,worked well on all of them. Was large soft rubber feet where it makes contact on the bumper and trunk lid. Uses 6 straps with flat rubberized hooks to secure it to the car. I have never had any problems and it has never scratched any of my cars.
 
Snoskier16 said:
Don't waste any money on a roof rack for a Contour. 1) There is a reason that there are very few available for the car. With the rain channels in the roof, the feet don't have adequate material to bite into to hold the rack securely in place. 2) A good trunk rack will carry all the bikes you could ever ride in a day without any risk of damaging the paint. As long as you don't drag the bikes across the paint getting to the rack, the bikes will NEVER make contact with the car while it is in motion.

Spend the $60-$80 on a good rack and you will be very happy. See the thread that was linked earlier, but especially my post as I have pictures and descriptions of two trunk-mount racks that work great!

http://www.contour.org/ceg-vb/showpost.php?p=503692&postcount=12
Click to expand...

I must respectfully disagree here.

1) The reason "very few are available to the car" is because there are pretty much only 2 major, multi-use, roof rack manufacturers in N. America. Out of those 2, only 1 of them make a roof rack that fits the contour. I've had a Yakima roof rack for 7 years now and have had no problems. I actually sold my original rack to a CEGer in San Diego, but I ended up staying in cycling- so I bought another one 2 months later. The rack has been rock solid and has not shown any signs of slipping, bending, torquing, etc. I can safely haul 4 road bikes with no fear of them moving at all (true for the fork-mount style, not so much for the stand-up, front-wheel-stays-on style, IMO). Due to their greater weight, I've only ever tried 3 MTBs at once. Additionally, I can leave the bikes unattended for a moment and be fairly certain that they'll still be on my roof when I get back.

2) I figure my SVT can carry 4 passengers comfortably. Therefore, it would be reasonable to assume that, sometimes, it would be necessary to carry 4 bikes. I don't think many people out there would trust a strap-on, trunk mounted bike rack to safely hold 4 bikes (whose cumulative value likely exceeds the KBB value of the car they're mounted on) at hwy cruising speeds.

3) I gotta admit that at this point in my SVT's service life, I'm more concerned with my bike's paint than my car's. Stacking bikes together on a trunk mount inevitably leads to parts scraping and rubbing. Then you've gotta remember to secure the wheels from spinning- lest you get to your cycling destination and discover a chain that been dragging on the road or banging against your bumper for the last 30 miles.

4) The downside to a Yakima roof rack (Thule doesn't make a fit kit for the Contour) is price. A complete system can easily run $400+ :eek: Therein lies the beauty of craigslist.

Over a 2 week span, in the L.A. area, I managed to pick up a complete system (48" crossbars x2, Q-Towers x4) with a fairing, matching locks and 2 fork mount bike racks for $120 (for my nephews' car) and another complete system as above, but with only 1 bike rack for $150 (for the GF's car). The only additional cost for each system was the "Q-clips" which vary with each car model (Contours use Q40, BTW). You can find those, new, on ebay for $14/pair (you need 2 pair). Right now, I'm considering picking up another one (from CL), as above, but with 3 "standup-style" bike racks and two ski/snowboard racks, simply because she's selling it so cheap and chances are good that I'll know someone down the road who'll need one.

I think that for bike safety and security, a roof rack beats a trunk mount hands-down. Find a good deal on craigslist and it becomes a no-brainer.
 
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