Yakima Roof Rack with (2) Bike Racks <SOLD!>
 

Yakama Roof Rack System

<SOLD!>

* Complete Yakima Roof Rack System, setup and ready to be attached to the roof of a Mazda RX-8, of course could be installed on other vehicles (but this is an RX-8 forum after all).
* Comes with 2 bike racks and 2 bike tire forks as well as locks.

System has seen 2 summers of very light duty use. (No Winter Use)

List Price $927
Asking $465 (50% of MSRP)

I live in Southern NH and Work in MA. I would prefer to deal locally and not ship.

For Full Details, see the attached PDF from Yakima's Fit Center

New Price: $465 (50% of MSRP)

Picture of Rack on Car
 

I was asked if I had any picture of the rack on my 8... and it seems I have very few, but here is one I found.

Sorry it is not a cleaner pic.

Just sharing to get a better idea of how it looks.

http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos...54970910_n.jpg

Thanks Grace! I can't believe I don't seem to have any better pics of my 8 with the rack on!

I like the way your black hood goes with the black cargo rack!

Mine has the top end bike racks from Yakima on it, which are silver, unlike most of the other bike racks which I believe are black. The silver bike racks with black cross bars looked really nice on my Green 8 with the stock silver rims. Of course the black cross bars would look good on most anything.

The request for a pic came from someone with black rims (I believe) on a an SS RX-8... I have a feeling the black crossbars and the silver bike rack would look amazing on a car with that combo!

Thank you, I hope the picture could help, my car is Sunlight Silver and the hood is a ViS FRP-CF hood. I have a suntoof and use the basket now quite often. I do have a pair of silver bike trays and ski/smowboard mounts laying around in the garage.

Looks like this is still available!

Happy 4th of July!

How does it mount, and honestly, is it paint friendly?

The rack consists of 4 feet that sit on the surface of the roof just above the doors, between the rain gutter and the doors top. The feet have a silcon like pad that helps to both protect the paint as well as keep the rack from sliding/moving around on the roof.

Each foot has a "clip" that extends down to the lip of the roof where the door closes and uses that lip to secure the rack to the car.

As for the paint, I always waxed my car and usually applied a second coat to the roof section that ran betwen the door tops and the rain gutter. This seemed to protect the cars roof very well. The silicon pad that goes between the roof and the racks feet is about 1/4 of an inch thick and does a great job making sure the roof does not get scratched (obviously you want to make sure the roof is clean and the silicon pad as well before you stick the rack on the roof). Usually I found that road scum would form a line around each foot where the silicon pad touched the roof, I also found that the silicon pad (as is its nature) would just slightly stick to the waxed surface but came right off if I picked up each foot gentally. Obviously the road slime left a ring around where the foot had been, so work lightly buffing the wax coating was required when cleaning the car after the rack was removed. However the rack never actually did any damage to the roofs painted surface, that I'm aware of. The clear coat on the 8 is incredibly hard so as long as you don't sandwich any dirt between the roof and the silicon pad, I don't think it is likely you could really do any damage to the paint of the roof with the feet.

The clips that hook on to the door also come with little "paint protectors". The clips protectors are more like thick vinal stickers. They seem to work well enough, though I suppose if you were going to replace them you might try to find something that was more like the silicon pad. On my 8 I was very careful to make sure the clips were positionted flat to the door frame before clamping so they would not slide side ways. I also made sure the surfaces were clean and well waxed. I had one spot on one door frame where there was a little "rub" mark, however I have a feeling that was really more a wax build up issue than a scratch in the paint. I meant to try buffing it out lightly the next time I went to wash and apply wax but didn't have the chance before I sold the car.

On the whole, the rack was very gental on the paint. And I can tell you (having done some body work on my 8) that the clear coat is very thick and hard... if somehow you did get a small scratch, it would be very hard to get that scratch to go down through the clear coat.

Hope that helps.

I was pretty careful about how my 8 looked (though not to the degree of some one taking it to car shows every week) and I was happy with the way the rack looked. I tended to leave my rack on for most of the summer (other than washing the car periodically throughout the summer). I did find that the road grime would leave streaks behind the feet on the wind deflector, in particular but it always cleaned up really well when I took the rack off and used a normal car wash soap, bucket and spong.

I just find that amusing, as my Rx8's always seemed to have a very thin layer of clear coat, even with as often as I wax it for that extra protection. It's always taken nothing for it to get any type of nick, and I try to keep mine clean and detailed enough to where it could go to shows. I however, don't have any orbital polishers yet though, unfortunately.

But that's why I was curious, because of my experiences.

I've got a mountain bike myself, as does a friend of mine, and I'm trying to figure out a good way to transport them. Relying on borrowing my dad's truck to throw them in the bed isn't always ideal, but they don't fit in the trunk of the Rx8 either, lol.

For now, I'm interested, because of this.

Interesting. Is it just scratching the clear coat lightly or actaully going down to the paint?

Grace_Excel was kind enough to post a pick, but I'm not sure he is still following the thread. He might be able to add a second opinion on how his paint has held up under his rack. I'm going to assume from the CF hood that he perhaps shows and might be more critical about even the smallest of scratches.

I know the options I looked at were...

1) Roof rack
2) Import the bike rack they made for the 8 in the UK (why didn't they offer this in the US???)
3) Put a trailer hitch on and use a trailer hitch bike rack
4) Go with a trunk mounted bike rack

Frankly, after waying the options... the Roof Rack won out big time for me.

#2 Was way to expensive :eek:
#3 Looked to be turning into a disaster for the people who tried it (hitches ripping out trunks and other wonderful things, only one person seemed to make it work and he did his own complete custom fab job, very impressive! He planned to make more and sell them but unfortunately he got spooked by law suits or something and decided not to fabricate any more of them). It also seemed it would make getting in the trunk more difficult and with our small trunk openings, that was not ideal.
#4 My family has had a few of these over the years and they always end up doing damage to the trunk lid and rear end of the car, no matter how careful you are. Also they are hard to secure so that someone can't simply walk up with a knife, cut the straps and walk off with your bike and bike rack!

So on the roof I went. lol.

Still available if anyone is interested! :)

Varying levels, some just the clear coat, but many through the paint it's self. I do a lot of interstate driving though, but hell, any time I turn around there's another scratch, or half a dozen on the car..

My other idea has been going the hitch route, as I think when done absolutely right it could be a good alternative. It'd be either that, or this that you've got here.

Unfortunately, I must say that I don't believe I'll be able to afford it any time soon. So many things I want otherwise, and plenty I'm still paying for..

Probably ought to get more protection anyway. Getting used to clipless pedals, and I can for-see injuries in the learning curve.

I am very interested in using this on my other car and possibly my 8 too if you will consider shipping. I just have to order the clips to fit my Kia Optima. (Q5 and Q35)

Let me know if you change your mind on shipping.

Clips are awesome! But there is a learning curve :D I would recommend clipping in and practicing unclipping in a field or somewhere with a softer landing than asphalt! lol

On the whole, as long as you are paying attention, you won't have a problem... its that car that cuts you off and you hit the brakes hard.... that will get you (got me once). But on the whole, unless you are really unlucky, all you will need are a few band aids ;)

It has been a while since I researched trailer hitches. I know when I looked, they were not looking like the way to go. But a bunch of people have tried them, I'd do a search and see if someone has found a good way to do it.

As for the paint... that sucks! I was so impressed with how hard my clear coat was.

Hi Nuke0907

I can ship, though you will have to reassemble on your side ;). Not sure how much it will cost. It origionally came in several boxes, which I still have, but I think it would probably be cheaper to ship in one box with each peice rapped in bubble wrap.

Send me a PM with your address and I will stop by FedEx and request a shipping estimate as well as their recommendation of how best to ship for you.

Look like this is still available! Unless Nuke0907's circumstances change.

It can be shipped as well, though it gets a bit pricey and of course requries some re-assembly if shipped :)

GLWS. I wish it would have been just bolt-on with my other car but i would have had to buy too many extra parts. This really is a great deal if i was only using it on my 8.

what happens if you have a sunroof ??

No more sunroof :( ?

I had a Sunroof, you can still open it in the vent position, but you would not want to try and fully open it where I have the bike racks mounted today. And of course it does not really block your view of the sky at all. In fact you can barly see the rack when you look up through the middle of the sunroof.

The actual cross bars do not get in the way of the sun roof only the bike racks themselves. I have the bike racks inside the towers that hold the cross bars. This is recommended if you are concerned about theft of the bike racks themselves as the towers are locking and the bike rack is then "trapped" inside of the towers where it cannot be removed. You can also mount the bike racks on the outside of the towers if you were not as concerned about theft of the bike rack, in which case the sun roof would be clear and wide open to being opened however you like.

I think, you might also be able to keep the bike racks inside the towers but push them tight to the towers and get enough room to safely open the sunroof fully. However, you would have to remove the front Fairing, or relocate the outside supports of the fairing in a bit as they currently are in the way of where the racks would go if you were to move them further out. (though I never tried this and without an 8 handy to test that theory, I'm working from memory here... however the sunroof was only barely blocked around by the rack were I currently have it positioned... basically the racks sat half above the dark edge of the glass of the sunroof and half above the metal roof itself).

It appears this is sold... If anything changes, i'll post back up!