yam

But you don't have the factory roof rails. Crossbar is probably different.

mk42

is further forward on spazpop's setup, i'm guessing. with the roofrails, there is a specific location the crossbars HAVE go. that's what killing this thing for me...

cyclingman

Well, yes, of course you could install the fork mounts facing backwards. In truth, that never occurred to me! Duh.

On the other hand, just thinking about it makes me queasy, in a world-is-out-of-balance kind of way! And it presents the same problems with the fairing that I have now with my Sidearm mounts (which, incidentally, seem to work fine - do fork mounts perform better or mainly look better?).

BTW, I don't have Open Sky. Just factory rails.

cyclingman

At the risk of being obvious: as I recall, there's a little hole drilled near the end of the V2 wheel tray (in the center bottom), and part of the end cap seats in that hole. If you haven't recreated that with your shorter tray, maybe that would help keep things together.

RobBob

What do you mean by, "" I have the 50" aero bars (purchased from the UK) -- they fit the A3 fine.

As for ordering just the bars from roofrackshop.co.uk, my quotation (albeit, from April 2006) was ?35.00 for shipping. Pretty expensive compared to the cost of the bars themselves, but considering the fact that you can't get them from anywhere else, a good price to pay.

I don't have opensky, so I can't really say anything about clearance, but I can tell you that you can fit a thule atlantis 1600 box on top without any clearance problems related to the sat antenna. The silver of the box also matches my silver paint :-) The atlantis box was purchased in the US, all of the feet and bars from the UK.

RobBob

Never mind my previous question, I understand what you meant.

Just remember that in the end you'll have one sexy looking A3 + bars + rack =)

That makes it all worth it, right?

Granite-Granny

I'm such a dope.

Question: Why do your bikes need to face forward?
Answer:They don't.

Mount them facing rearward and you don't have a problem with clearances from the hatch.

Great I feel much better now.

Thanks Yam.

Steve

yam

Fork mounts are better IMO. Held in place much more securely.

mk42

any help in all this is appreciated. i did measure and drill the hole. the end cap fit beautifully and securely - until i jammed the wheel down onto it. how does that go? measure once, cut twice? cut, then measure? crap.

mk42

i'm worried that that puts much more stress on both the tray and back wheel strap than they are designed for. facing the "normal" way, the strap really just keeps the tire from hopping out of the tray; facing backwards, the strap now has to actively hold the back of the bike down to resist wind loading. when it does this, now you are loading up the cantilvered trays with those same forces, as well as subjecting them to greater side-to-side stress. seems like a good answer, but i'd like to hear back from yam after quite a few miles of trouble-free driving.