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View Full Version : Question Bike carrying options on A4 Avant S-Line?



interbear
04-07-2009, 05:33 PM
Hi all,

Looking for some advice please. I have a 58 plate A4 Avant S-Line. Loving the car, it's been great so far.

I need to be able to carry 3-4 bikes (2 adult, 2 kids) and have spent the last couple of hours trying to find the answer at Halfords, with no success. To be fair, the Halfords staff were extremely helpful, it seems though that the car is presenting some challenges.

Option 1 was rear mounted bike carriers, but none of these would work with the Avant. The S-Line spoiler proving to be the limiting factor it seemed.

Option 2 was roof bars. Should be straightforward I thought as the Avant S-Line has roof rails. Apparently however, they are not the type of roof rails that can take the "footpacks" however, I need another non-standard fitting kit first. Which poses the question - what use are roof rails unless they can accommodate standard roof bar kits (from Thule or Halfords for example)?

Option 3 is towbar fitted bike carrier, which would mean I need to get a towbar fitted (my technical knowledge extends this far :Blush:). I have no idea how much this would cost though.

So, any ideas, guidance, experience of trying to carry bikes with a A4 Avant S-Line would be very much appreciated.

interbear
04-07-2009, 07:34 PM
So, having educated myself further on the subject of roof bars, it would appear that there are some reasonable options......

For anyone else interested, in my search for info I came across a superb web site on all matters roof bars, boxes, bike carriers, that presents exactly which solutions are available for specific car models in an easy to use website...............roofbox.co.uk.......

ScottyUK
04-07-2009, 07:44 PM
I got my OEM roof bars from a guy on ebay. He used them once and was selling as they didn't carry as many bikes as he wanted.

He bought a tow bar kit for his A4 Avant but he didn't have the S-line body work. You do know you can get a towbar fitted by Audi? It's far from cheap though. :(

Since you want 2 + 2 kids bikes you may be ok.

Oh and Thule bars do fit the A4 Avant. See here :

http://forums.audiworld.com/showthread.php?t=2755904

You'll also notice my comments in that thread about the Audi bars noise. Mine howl between 40mph and 60mph. I didn't expect silence but I'm not impressed. I'm not sure how they are faster as I've only used them in town once. Perhaps a roof box would also change this.

jakerade
05-07-2009, 11:26 AM
i presume in theory you could change the roof bars to the ones fitted on the all-road (similar the raised one on the B7). That would give you a few more options but no doubt would be an expensive exercise!

Two Audi family
05-07-2009, 07:23 PM
Interbear,

I have a 2002 A4 2.5TDi Quattro avant sport, and I have a roof bar system that I bought from roofbox. I only carry 2 adult bikes, but I know you can fit 4 of them with no weight problem. It is a Thule system with the "different" feet, and is fantastic. It was expensive, but is rock solid and to me worth every penny. You will need the streamlined crossbars if you want the silent version.

PM me for details and I will dig out my invoice details with the part numbers etc.

TAF

awtaylor
06-07-2009, 04:47 PM
Been there, done that! See here:

http://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/showpost.php?p=352146&postcount=8

jakerade
06-07-2009, 04:52 PM
you sure the A4 is designed to have a roof rack and doesnt need a £3000 cooling fan modification?

interbear
06-07-2009, 06:43 PM
Been there, done that! See here:

http://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/showpost.php?p=352146&postcount=8

Good stuff.....and exactly the option I'll be going for, the web site is excellent and the Altera bars seem the best option - less messing around with fitting kits etc......

Thanks for posting.

interbear
06-07-2009, 06:45 PM
Interbear,

I have a 2002 A4 2.5TDi Quattro avant sport, and I have a roof bar system that I bought from roofbox. I only carry 2 adult bikes, but I know you can fit 4 of them with no weight problem. It is a Thule system with the "different" feet, and is fantastic. It was expensive, but is rock solid and to me worth every penny. You will need the streamlined crossbars if you want the silent version.

PM me for details and I will dig out my invoice details with the part numbers etc.

TAF

Thanks, appreciate the offer of help. However I've decided that the Altera bars via roofbox.co.uk are the best answer for me, so will likely go down that route.

Still, it's kind of frustrating that the cheaper rear mount carrier options are not a feasible option on the new Avant.....they were fine on the previous B7 model. That would saved a fair few pennies........

BMWBig6
06-07-2009, 09:50 PM
Been there, done that! See here:

http://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/showpost.php?p=352146&postcount=8

[I posted these questions in the other Thule thread too, but I'm not sure you're subscribed.]

Approximately how tall are the black feet, and how many cm is the bar above the centerline of the car (at the shortest clearance distance)?

Does it make much noise at highway speeds?

avant_adam
08-07-2009, 11:02 PM
I have the Thule 753 foot pack / 4007 fitting kit / 861 aero bars combination and it works brilliantly and is very quiet (so long as you have the rubber in fill in the aero bars).

I drove up Oban the other weekend with three adult mountain bikes fitted and they were safe and secure at usual motorway speeds :Blush:. The economy wasn't hurt too bad either - averaged 33 mpg which I thought compared favourably to a more usual 37 mpg.

Highly recommended once you work out how they attach and get confidence that it will stay put.

I paid £80 from a local Thule dealer for the 753 / 4007 packs. I had the aero bars already. I use the Thule aluminium bike carriers (I think they are code 571). Three fitted easily. I guess four would fit. You'll need to turn the handlebars to get the bikes side by side.

awtaylor
09-07-2009, 09:14 AM
I guess four would fit. You'll need to turn the handlebars to get the bikes side by side.

I have 4 side by side but alternate the way that they face, i.e. bike 1 pointing forward, bike 2 facing rear, bike 3 facing forward and bike 4 pointing towards the back of the car. I also don't need to turn handle bars.

You won't be able to escape the wind noise that they will generate and will also take a 20% hit in fuel consumption.

BMWBig6
09-07-2009, 02:25 PM
You won't be able to escape the wind noise that they will generate and will also take a 20% hit in fuel consumption.

Is that wind noise with the bike tracks installed too? Or just the bare bars? (And how bad is the noise, does it compete with the stereo or just barely audible?)

Also, have you had a chance to measure the feet height and clearance between the centerline of the roof and the bottom of your roof bar?

avant_adam
10-07-2009, 09:45 AM
Kind of difficult to quantify just how loud it was. Not ridiculous. I was really impressed at how much quieter it was than I expected.

I think that a lot of the noise comes from the bars "whistling". The bikes obviously add to the noise but they are relatively far away from your ears. It is easily overcome by the stereo and is not so loud that you have to shout to be heard. It was pretty easy to have a conversation with rear seat passengers.

I would recommend either cutting the rubber aero bar in fill material to make sure that you don't have areas of open channel acting like a penny whistle or use some duct tape or similar.

In short - it was fine. No worse than carrying bikes on any other car.

The rack is very low profile to the roof - so much so I wondered if the glass roof would still open - fortunately all clear!

awtaylor
10-07-2009, 03:18 PM
Approximately how tall are the black feet, and how many cm is the bar above the centerline of the car (at the shortest clearance distance)?


Sorry, bars not on car at the moment and I am not planning to put them on this weekend however I can tell you that the bottom of the bars are 3" (7.5cm) higher than the top of the roof rails which should give you your answer.

BMWBig6
10-07-2009, 03:38 PM
Thanks to both of you (avant_adam, and awtaylor)!