bike carrier for 2003 OBS

[Chicobiker]

After 7 years of owning this car, I'm finally deciding to put a couple
of bike carriers on the roof rack instead of filling up the interior
of the car with an exploded bike or two.

- i dusted off my factory crossbars and put them on. What are the
lock cores for on the ends of the bars? What key operates them?
There's nothing in the manual about them.

- stupid torx tool got rounded the last time I put them on 7 years
ago. It didn't magically restore itself while sitting in the box, so
I can't really tighten the bolts very much. I'm gonna replace the
bolts with something more conventional.

- Bought a couple of Yakima Forklifts. But they are too long to lift
the tailgate. I'm gonna have to put them on backwards. Anybody
figure out a trick, or is this car really too short for this? (roof
rails are just too far back on the car ...)

Any other tips I should know?

Chicobiker

 

[S]

Hi Chico!

After 7 years of owning this car, I'm finally deciding to put a couple
of bike carriers on the roof rack instead of filling up the interior
of the car with an exploded bike or two.

- i dusted off my factory crossbars and put them on. What are the
lock cores for on the ends of the bars? What key operates them?
There's nothing in the manual about them.

- stupid torx tool got rounded the last time I put them on 7 years
ago. It didn't magically restore itself while sitting in the box, so
I can't really tighten the bolts very much. I'm gonna replace the
bolts with something more conventional.

- Bought a couple of Yakima Forklifts. But they are too long to lift
the tailgate. I'm gonna have to put them on backwards. Anybody
figure out a trick, or is this car really too short for this? (roof
rails are just too far back on the car ...)

Any other tips I should know?

Chicobiker

I don't know about bicycles, but I used a Yakima rack to carry 2
(ultralight) canoes on my '02 WRX wagon. Pretty much the same roof
rack arrangement as your OBS, I think.
I didn't use the OEM cross bars, but bought "towers" that fit the
Subaru rails, and used Yakima cross bars. I use the same setup on my
'99 Forry these days.
Probably your best bet to quickly get the system sorted out will be to
hit Yakima's web site; seems like they had a decent "configurator"
application on-line. Sometimes you can find Yakima hardware used on
craigslist, FWIW.

ByeBye! S.

Steve Jernigan KG0MB
Laboratory Manager
Microelectronics Research
University of Colorado
(719) 262-3101