factory roof mount bike rack question.

[roy63]

Is the factory bike rack worth buying? Does anyone know who makes the rack for Honda? I do not have a hitch so I was looking into the roof top accessory and found one thats new fairly cheap and was wandering if it was a quality piece or not? Do any of you folks know any one with the roof top bike mount? Any help would be greatful.
Thanks

[dewijaro]

I looked at my wife's uncle's pilot with the crossbars and I personally liked the look of the aftermarket bars. I bought the Thule crossroad kit (see link) and I love it. I can move it between my Pilot and V. It's very quick and easy to remove. As far as bike attachments, my wife's uncle had the "Honda" attachments which were just a Thule Big Mouth XT with the Honda logo stamped on it. I also got my Thule Big Mouth from rackoutfitters. It's very easy for me to get my bike up there (I'm 6') if I were any shoter it might be harder. The only down fall I've noticed is with the bike fully upright the handle bars top out at 10', so they do catch some tree branches. But I haven't had to many major problems with that.

http://www.rackoutfitters.com/car-ra...ks-45p1752.htm

[skyline377]

I had the factory crossbar and two factory bike rack install in my pilot at one time but I didn't like it. I switched to yakima and it works better for me and with the added fairing it cuts alot of wind noise on the highway. Sold the crossbar and now I have the 2 bikerack siting at home gonna try to buy the adapters for it to fit on my yakima one day.

[ExiledinIN]

Stupid question. Is it easy to get the bikes to the top of the pilot? I thought about getting the hitch as I'm not sure how to safely get 2 bikes up there...

[dewijaro]

Originally posted by ExiledinIN
Stupid question. Is it easy to get the bikes to the top of the pilot? I thought about getting the hitch as I'm not sure how to safely get 2 bikes up there...

If you open the back doors, and use the back tire to stand on it's not too bad. I get the bike up there and stand it up from the ground and then I stand (one foot on the floor in the back seat and one on the back tire) to fasten them up. It's not bad. I'm 6'0", if you were alot shorter it might be a pretty big stretch to get the bikes up there. I use a Thule BigMouth which is basically the same as the "Honda" bike mount. Over all the Bike handle bars are at 10' from the road.

Hope this helps.

[Jman]

I've had a Thule rack since '93 and has been on every car/suv I've owned.
Each new car I had to buy new footings which wasn't cheap. Thankfully they came up with the crossroad kit which is so easy to transfer from anything with roof rails.

As far as ease of use on the rooftop - I have no problem climbing up and down using the open doors or back tire but I wouldn't expect my wife to have an easy time with it. We had a grand cherokee prior and it wasn't easy for her.

[oreomike]

FYI, the end caps for the Thule 599xtr Big Mouth rack is part number 7533236 from Thule and costs $2. ($6 shipping)

I have a lightweight (20 lbs) road bike, and it is difficult to put it up there. If I'm only going a short distance, I'll just toss the bike into the back. I also am 6' tall.

I recently purchased the Hitch package from Honda so that I can get a hitch mounted rack instead. Perhaps a 4 or 5 bike rack is in my future...


Another note about the roof mounted bike attachment, if you neglect to reinsert the rubber into the crossbars after adding the rack, you will get a highly annoying whistle at most speeds. Simple cut the removed rubber back to size, restore it to its mounting location, and enjoy. Only took me 6 months to get annoyed enough to do it. :-)