RE: roof rack carrier bars = wind noise?

[Terrence Murphy <terryjm@teleport.com>]

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> Yeah, you can almost pass off (to the untrained eye that is) as a Jetta
> Trek!  Seriously though, the biggest disadvantages are the noise, and
> increased fuel consumption, and depending which kind of rack you get,
> you could end up with slight scratches on your roof, but hey, it's the
> only way to ferry around a couple of bikes/pairs of skis/whatever.

Okay, here's my solution to the bike rack problem.  We did this 
to my wife's '95 Passat, but we could have done it to my '96 Jetta, 
as well.  We had a 1-1/4" eazy-lift trailer hitch reciever mounted 
at a local U-Haul hitch shop.  Very clean installation, you can 
hardly notice it when nothing is in the hitch.  Then we got a Yakima 
Getaway hitch-mount bike rack.  Then we took a vacation.  Carried 
two bikes at speeds in up to and exceeding of 100 mph through 
Montana.  Car handled great, hardly slowed us down at all.  
Try that with two bikes on a roof-mount rack!

Here's that advantages of a hitch-mount rack as I see it:

1) less wind resistance than roof-mount (no noticeable noise at all)
2) no worries about driving into the garage or drive-thru with it on
3) a little _cheaper_ than the Thule or Yakima roof racks (including the hitch)
4) no scratches, since it touches no painted surfaces at all
5) more easily installed and removed (both the bikes, and the rack)
6) I still have access to the trunk with bikes mounted (true for roof racks, too)

Hope this helps someone.

Terry

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