Roof Rack Bike Carrying Recommendation for 2019 Subaru Forester

Question:

I have a 2019 Subaru Forester for which I am looking for cross bars and trays to carry gravel bikes long distances we have a two bike capacity hitch for our mountain bikes , but want the option to car pool with others with various bikes / tire sizes. Is there an adapter to accept wider tire widths in the rear of the TH535 rack?

asked by: Diana A

Expert Reply:

For a roof rack, what you'll need will depend on what's currently on your roof. If you have the rails along the edges or the roof running from front to back, your crossbars would attach directly to those. Rhino Rack offers a crossbar system that would have much higher quality than the entry level stuff, at a more reasonable cost than the more well-known names like Yakima or Thule. To construct this rack, you'd need the # RRVA126B-2 crossbars and the # RRSX100 feet.

If your Forester doesn't have the rails on the roof, you'll need a rack that will attach to the existing mounting points such as a Yakima JetStream system, which would be made up of the # Y00425 crossbars, the # Y53TR Skyline Towers, and the # Y00248 vehicle specific mounts.

Thule doesn't offer any sort of adapter that would allow the ThruRide TH535 to accommodate a wider tire but Kuat offers something that might work perfectly for you. The Kuat Trio, part # RU01 will accommodate tires up to 4 inches wide. The rack shares many features with the Thule rack you'd looked at, such as being compatible with 15 or 20mm thru axles, and being compatible with disc brakes. The Trio even offers a cable lock to secure the bike to the rack.