cohenfive

so what is your 'system' to remember that you have a bike on the roof? i have an e39 m5 with a thule factory specific fit rack that i love. the only system i've come up with to remember that i have a bike up there is to leave the box for the rack in the middle of the garage floor when i take the car to a mtn bike ride...that way when i open the garage the box is staring me in the face so it's pretty hard to forget that the bike is up there....

mitche2010s4

I made the mistake a few years ago. thankfully only a jetta and my old bike and a rented house. I thought about a mirror on the angle that I come from to get into the garage but then just went to staples and found these colorful plastic sticky folder tab things.wWhen I get out of the garage and put my bike on I put one on the homelink button. It covers the button and doesn't leave any residue behind when I take them off. seems like the easiest solution. My garage door is alarmed so sometimes I am in a hurry to get out of my car and disarm so I come in a little hot sometimes. It would be a disaster. So far so good.

BSW

i confess that i ran into the garage one time with my gti... i had been driving 3 hours in pouring rain and thought i could make it into my Mom's garage (it was very tall). The handlebars cleared with tons of room (i could see through the sunroof) but i forgot about the height of the seat... it caught the garage door on the back of the seat which ripped the roof rack up (surprisingly not doing any damage) It wasn't until i panicked and backed up that the roof rack came back down and put a nice dent in the roof where it had ripped up. Fortunately it wasn't a huge dent, and therefore not too expensive to fix, but the dent to my ego was pretty damned big.

kyee

I'm debating the Audi OEM system vs. the Thule one too. Cost seems to be similar. The Audi one appears to look more of a factory look, whereas the Thule looks more aftermarket.

zoomzoom8

What did the stealership charge you for the base rack mitche?

mitche2010s4

I don't remember the exact amount but something like $420 canadian.

zoomzoom8

Thanks. Sounds like many Thule accessories will work with the appropriate xadapt kit. I have Echelon fork mount bike racks, so I hope so!

mitche2010s4

yeah thats right with the adapt kit they work . I have ski and snowboard attachments from thule that work as well.

kyee

Still debating the OEM Audi rack of the Thule one. Is the Audi rack made by Thule?

tryengel

I looked at the OEM rack for the S4 and decided on a Thule. The OEM towers are nice in that they butt up to the ends of the aero cross-bars, but they are costly and the plastic end-caps don't look that nice. In Thule's reference guide for the available Thule rack for the A4/S4 they list a 53 inch bar. This doesn't look that good - the bars stick out beyond the towers too far. The 47 inch bar fits perfectly - it looks nice. The roof line is tapered toward the rear of the car so the same 47 inch bar sticks out a little more at the rear. My only issue is that with the sun-roof open the bars make a bit of noise. There is an open slot on the underside of the bars; I covered these with duct-tape and it made a noticable difference. You can't see the tape but I will look for a more permanent solution. I don't know if the OEM bars have these open areas in the bottom. For bicycle racks I don't like the Audi offerings - too big - too ugly. I went with two "Rocy Mounts" low-profile aero racks in black. If I didn't need the racks to begin with I wouldn't mount them as they butcher the lines of the sedan. If Audi had only brought the S4 Avant to the States.