We are finally going to buy some bikes for when we are away on site, so we need a bike rack to fit our Kia Sorento. Halfords have one that looks good value (£58) but even though the Sorento does not appear on the list of cars it will not fit, it states in the blurb that the rack will not fit cars with a spoiler, as you may know the Sorento has a small spoiler on the top of the hatch. So does anyone have a bike rack on their Sorento and if so could you please give me an indication of where you got it and a rough guide to price. Sorry to go on so long!
I use a Witter towbar mounted bike rack on my Sorento. You have plenty of nose weight allowance, Not quite sure of the price but if you Google Witter Bike Rack you are bound to find it. It won't of course fit on a swan neck tow ball type.
David
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We have a Sorento with small roof spoiler.....and we had a Thule 973 bike rack from our previous car ( Zafira ) good news was that the same Thule Bike Rack fitted the Sorento bad news you cannot use it with the small rear spoiler on...spoke directly with Thule who stated that the roof spoiler was not of sufficient strength to take / support the bike rack so in our case we have removed the spoiler......however with the bike rack on it does make the boot somewhat heavy to lift and I am not totally comfortable with it.
We have thought about getting a towball rack but don't really know where to start....especially as we have 2 what I call Hybrid Bikes which don't have the crossbars as we know in the traditional places.
We have the same problem at the moment. Zipster, how easy was it to remove the spoiler and did it leave a mess!!. Don't really want a towbar mounted carrier when towing due to weight and manouvering and are concerned about how easy to load a roof mounted one (plus lower fuel economy on a 600mile trip!!).
Rear spoiler was fairly easy to remove however you will need some Rubber Grometts to block up holes onced removed, on my car you can see where the spolier was fixed with some markings.....
We are now thinking of putting the bikes in the Caravan but don't want to ruin or mark up the interior as our caravan in brand new.
Believe me there is quite a bit of weight when the Bikes are loaded onto the bike rack....would like to try the Thule roof System but how on earth do you get the bike high enough to fix to the bars etc..?
Believe me there is quite a bit of weight when the Bikes are loaded onto the bike rack....would like to try the Thule roof System but how on earth do you get the bike high enough to fix to the bars etc..?
agree we are thinking of buying the thule roof system for ours ( 757 feet and 761 bars ).we have the hyundai santa fe.as you say the height is a problem.i can not clean the roof now without standing on a stool,add the roof bars and the bike rack i think i will need a ladder.any good secondhand bars out there numbers as above.
------------- the only silly question is the one you do not ask.
Have just bought a Thule 9106 for my Sorento XE,with no spoiler. The upper fixings would appear to be able to cope with the small spoiler on the XS.
The carrier is above the lights and number plate so there is no need for additional lights. Also the bikes can be carried whilst towing the caravan.
The unit was complicated to build and depending on your physical ability, may require 2 persons to fix it to the car. I actually manage it on my own. The cycles have to be lifted to head height but affix quite easily.When all attched correctly it is solid as a rock. It also has a lock to prevent theft.
Like all mounted carriers, you have to be careful of the paintwork when attaching.
I purchased the carrier from skidrive.co.uk for £140.00 and was delivered in less than 24hrs.
I do have some photos of the the carrier attached to my Sorento with a bike on it,so I will need an e-mail address if you want to look at them, or maybe you can tell me how to attach them to this thread.
Hi zipster, bit of a strange question but what colour is your sorrie? the reason i'm asking is, i'm trying to get my hands on a spoiler, mines black and if your old spoiler is just gathering dust now maybe we could help each other out?
Quote: Originally posted by johnnyg56 on 26/4/2009
Hi Granty.
Have just bought a Thule 9106 for my Sorento XE,with no spoiler. The upper fixings would appear to be able to cope with the small spoiler on the XS.
The carrier is above the lights and number plate so there is no need for additional lights. Also the bikes can be carried whilst towing the caravan.
The unit was complicated to build and depending on your physical ability, may require 2 persons to fix it to the car. I actually manage it on my own. The cycles have to be lifted to head height but affix quite easily.When all attched correctly it is solid as a rock. It also has a lock to prevent theft.
Like all mounted carriers, you have to be careful of the paintwork when attaching.
I purchased the carrier from skidrive.co.uk for £140.00 and was delivered in less than 24hrs.
I do have some photos of the the carrier attached to my Sorento with a bike on it,so I will need an e-mail address if you want to look at them, or maybe you can tell me how to attach them to this thread.
My spoiler is Silver but to be honest I would not have sold or given it away as the Bike Rack has been removed and thinking of putting the spoiler back on......just not happy about the weight on the rear of the car especially when towing as well.......we carry 3 bikes ( 2 adult - 1 child ).
May have to bite the bullet and put bikes in the Caravan....any advice as to where and how to ensure they don't move whilst towing...
at the moment i use a bike rack that i have fitted feet with rubbers on it.the tubes the width of the centre isle go through the U fixings for the roof rack.this rack is placed over the axle and the bike fixed to it.the awning is put at one side and the poles the other side.this way the bike can go nowhere ether forward or back and is not able to go from side to side
------------- the only silly question is the one you do not ask.
We use a Witter towball carrier, as David K mentioned above. We have used this on several cars over the year including our current Sorento Titan. The Sorentoo's high towbar weight limit means that it can cope with the weight of both the bikes and the caravan. It is easily accessible and there is no risk of damaging the car paintwork or bodywork. The carrier and bikes can easilybe locked onto the towbar for added security as there's a metal loop on the bracket bolted to the towball. The main disadvantage is the danger of the bikess colliding with the front of the caravan or jockey wheel winding handle on tight maneouvres. This is only a problem when doing tight reverses and if necessary we remove the bikes first. We did once buckle a bike wheel on the winding handle when reversing onto a tight pitch. We learned that lesson the hard way!!