teacherlady

I thought I'd just be able to get new q-clips to fit my existing rack to my new car, but apparently Yakima no longer supports the rack and towers I bought 15 years ago.
I have a choice of new towers and new style aero cross bars with new bicycle attachments, OR new towers and adapters to fit my old round bars with my old bike attachments. The cost difference is substantial, about $500. However, my local rack store says the new aero cross bars are substantially quieter. Has anyone driven with both styles of cross bars? Are the aero cross bars really substantially quieter? The old bars were noisy enough that we took them off for long trips without bikes. Can anyone tell me whether the new style towers are easy to put on and off?

Thank you. Sorry if this is the wrong forum. I wasn't sure which forum to post this in.

mattleegee

I bought Thule Aero Blades for my car since was offered by the dealer, it was about $300 with feet, locks and bars (not edge to edge style)

They are not loud with sunroof closed
But with sunroof open over 35mph is annoying, maybe wind deflector would help

I use yakima bike attachment to carry bike

Greenhil

I can’t offer the comparison you’re looking for, but I have a 3 year old Yakima roof rack with aero bars and they were noisier than I’d like them to be. I’ve reduced the noise a fair amount by experimenting with the placement of small pieces of foam on the leading bar. You can find a lot of ideas online for cutting the noise.

2cam16

I don't have a newer Yakima rack but since my car already came with oem "aero" crossbars, all I needed were the trays and mounts. I always add a wind deflector to all my roof racks just to decrease the wind noise.
You can sometimes find them for cheap or free on Craigslist, specially since you're in the Bay Area.

LS1BadBird

This doesn't answer your question and I don't know what you drive, but I was in a similar situation where I was going to need to spend a lot to upgrade roof storage and instead added a hitch and rear rack to my car. No roof noice, way more convenient and I don't have to worry I'll forget about my bike when I pull in the garage.

fietsbob

IDK about there, but https://www.rerack.com/locations-contact-us/
in Seattle & Portland buys and resells used car racks, mounts , etc..

And I assume will ship to you.. Cal & WA have sales taxes, Oregon does not..

JanMM

Haven't used aero bars - still using round yakima crossbars but using them with yakima landing pads on two Mazda's. Both cars came with threaded holes in the roof for mounting roof racks. Landing Pads allow for very quick attachment of the crossbars to the roof. https://www.yakima.com/landing-pad-22-set-of-four
The crossbars go back and forth between two cars, as needed. Don't usually stay on the roof of either for very long. Probably would if the round crossbars were quieter.

Bill in VA

I used Yakima round bars on my truck cap to haul sea kayaks for years and never heard them (even with the kayaks mounted). Then again they were behind me on the back of the truck. I did however notice a fuel penalty and began removing them when not in use. I also saw a person I knew from work come into the parking garage and take his rack and front bike wheel off on an overhead sign. Good thing the frame was in the back of the car.

I see lots of Yakima racks and parts of racks on local social media and Craigslist for sale, though, and many are in near new condition and cheap enough that you can buy the whole setup and keep what you need.

Ironfish653

The bare crossbars will be quieter than bare round bars. How much quieter depends a lot on what kind / number of attachments are on it, and where the towers sit on the roof in relation to the door seals, and your ears.

I can say that the last setup i had was an aero-profile bar, that was noticeable, but not obtrusive; although it was on a car with some not-insignificant wind noise to begin with.
I didn't realise how much noise the racks contributed, until i mounted the deflector from my old Thule setup. That made a big difference.

volosong

Nails it pretty accurately. I've had round bars for ages and recently went with aero bars. Sans attachments, the aero bars are much quieter. It is the attachments that create most of the noise.

88Keys

I had the aero bars and towers with locks on my Honda Element. I never noticed any noise. I am going to try and sell it, since I bought a pickup and this setup nolonger will work for me. I'm brand new on here, so not even sure if there is a way to sell my Yakima...But its perfect. Its also got Kayak cradles.

Hikebikerun

I got the Yakima aero bars 2 months ago, and I cannot even tell they are there going down the freeway at 80mph on road trips. I don’t plan on ever removing them.

Edit: adding that the used Inno rack I got is also very quiet. This lives on the bars and I don’t notice any noise. Not sure the model as I bought it used on the cheap from the rack store.

fietsbob

You add Down Force or Lift with those?