Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I consider the round Yakima bars to be the #1 downside of Yakima's roof rack design. The square Thule bars meant my Thule rack with 2 or 3 bike carriers made a single solid and stable unit that was easy to handle when I lifted it on or off the car. Not so with round bars. It's harder to focus on not scratching the car roof when I lift it into place because I also have to focus on keeping it from twisting and pivoting at each joint like some kind of giant geometric puzzle. This is true with either 2 or 3 bike carriers firmly attached (a Viper, a Copperhead and a King Cobra). I read round bars are even more of an issue if you get a canoe carrier, where the front and back canoe carriers are independent of each other and can pivot on the round bar as you try to load a kayak or canoe.
Also the Yakima end caps seem to be made of a much softer plastic than the Thule end caps. Very very minor issue, but my end caps already look beat up like crap after just one summer of use, just from setting the rack down and picking it up again off the concrete on my garage floor or my driveway a dozen times or so.
Keep in mind that if you leave the roof rack on your car all the time, the round bars may not be an issue for you. Because I care about saving gas, carbon emissions etc, I put the roof rack on my car when I'm going to haul bikes then take it off again when I'm done. This was not a big deal when I used a Thule rack. My car (a Camry hybrid) averages 35-39 mpg unless it's really cold out. When I've left the rack on for a whole tank of gas such as long out-of-state trips, an empty bike rack takes about 4 mpg off my gas mileage (figure 10-15%) while a fully loaded rack with one-to-three bikes driving on the interstate at 65-75mph can take off a good 6-8 mpg (figure 20-25% at highway/interstate speeds - the faster you drive, the more drag cuts into your gas mileage). Before I bought my new rack I looked long and hard online at other posts on how it affects gas mileage, and these % seem pretty consistent with other people's cars.
I used a Thule rack system to carry bikes on my cars from 1994 til 2007. After 14 years the Thule cross bars had lots of cracks in the plastic so you could see the steel underneath. When I bought a new car in 2007 I decided it was time to get a new bike rack. Any roof rack (that isn't permanently/factory mounted) inevitably ends up scratching the finish on your car roof somewhat and I wanted to minimize this. I read lots of online reviews and went with Yakima this time, thinking it might fit my car better since more rounded roof designs on many newer cars means the front and back feet of the rack won't necessarily both be at 90
