[Shake n Bake]

Hi, anyone in the UK with an F11 have roofbars? Interested in knowing your experience; quality, price etc.

Thx

[Shake n Bake]

Have bought and fitted Thule roofbars. If anyone else is interested let me know and I will post a review after using them for a camping trip this weekend.

[northernmonkey]

definitely be interested. post a few pics if you can of what they look like fitted.

[The Mewster]

I've got the Thule roof bars and bike rack for my F11, works great. Only issue is that it fits with eight alan bolts, so not easy to take on and off, which means it lives on the car all the time.

Took some pics a while ago on the following thread.

http://f10.5post.com/forums/showthre...ighlight=Thule

Having it on all the time means a bit more wind noise and dropping a couple of mpg, but I use it pretty much every weekend for a bike or canoe, and I do think a bike rack on an estate looks cool, and makes it look a bit less like an old dad's car (says the dad of three....).

[Shake n Bake]

Having a set of Thule roofbars from my previous car (Audi A4) which I was very happy with I decided to go with the same for my F11.

The Thule system comes in three parts:
1) The bars
2) Foot pack
3) Fixing kit

I already had the bars so I needed a new foot pack and a new fixing kit. I cannot find the receipt now but I believe the prices were £65 and £25 from my local Halfords. Because the F11 is still a fairly new model they had to order these direct from Thule which they quotes 2 days, but actually took 6 days.

Fitting the pieces together was very easy - I definately would not advocate spending the £20 or £25 Halfords charge to do this (though with my last set I asked nicely and they did it free, so that is worth a try.

I couldn't find any advice in the BMW manual about where on the rails I should fit the bars so I opted to follow the generic diagram within the fixing kit instructions. The rear bars was thus positioned just above where the rear door meets the body (so directly behind where the F11 rail flattens briefly. The front bar was then positioned 700mm furthet forward which is roughly where the front door and body meet. The overall effect being that the bars fairly central on the roof but when the car is viewed in profile they sit distinctly rearward.

Fitting to the rail was pretty easy though a bit of a faff the first time through. You have 8 bolts to tighten with an alan key and you need to measure the spacing between the bars yourself to ensure they are even each side. I'm pretty sure next time would be quicker. The feet come with a key lock that goes over the bolts to hamper the Tea-Leaves. I struggled a bit with some of the locks. 2 locked in smoothly. 2 I had a real game with. I'm sure this was down to my inadequate fixing rather than the product.

They clamped on to the bars very securely and I felt confident they were well fixed.

I did all this the night before a camping trip so it was one less job to do when I got back from work the next day. I did not fit the roodbox at this time.

The next morning I had forgotton they were there until I got above 40mph and the wind noise started. I thought the rear windows were open and as I climbed in speed it got worse. I realised what it was and was very surprised. It really sounded like a gale was blowing outside. The fittings on my Audi were under the door rubber seals which meant that the seals were distorted when fitted so wind came inside but it was nowhere near as bad as this.

When parked, as I looked at the car from the front I could see that my positioning of the bars and the curvature of the roof meant that the front bar was sitting about 2cm lower than the other. I'm no aerodynamicist (sp?) but I would imagine the air was being disrupted by the front and then slammed into the rear to disrupt it further. Probably repositioning would solve this and I will try that next time.

With the roof box fitted the noise reduced significantly.

The fitting kit comes with end caps for the bars which are opened ended as some other fitting kits (such as my Audi) come with an adjuster/tightener that goes into the bar. this is not needed on the BMW.

These end caps fit fairly snugly but I have lost one of them already after I failed to secure part of my load correctly. This failure was my own and nothing to do with the bars, but as my folding chairs and windbreaks broke free, the strap I had tied them on with pulled the end cap off and I couldn't find it.

Overall I am pretty happy with them but dont have anything to compare them with.

[terasjarmo]

Hello!

I have a BMW 520d touring F11 (2014) but there are no roof railings on the roof at all, nor the mounting points for the roof racks. Do you have idea, which roof racks (eg Thule) could fit to my car? I've been watching the Evo Clamp, but dont know the right fitting kit. Can you help me?

[Cyrulik]

Hi, has anybody found a solution for the case of terasjarmo?

[Ian_D]

Does anyone know what the maximum weight rating is for the F11 roof bars?