tonyrama said:
If I'm not mistaken, the Subaru rack is made by Yakima, and would have round
bars. While I've heard that they make a good quality system, I also heard
that due to the round bars, accessories tend to rotate on the bars.
I know this line of thinking floats around, but I have the Yakima racks
on my Foresters and have never had a problem with that unless I didn't snug
the clamps down well enough. They can be torqued pretty hard with no
apparent loss of function or durability, and once done, they hold very
tightly. I also like the fact that the round bars allow me to rotate the
spare bike wheel to exactly the angle I want it to run, rather than just
straight upwards. These are not major issues to some people, so you have to
decide that yourself. And Thule and Yakima ARE both good rack systems.
I went
with the Thule rack because it has square bars. The prices were very similar
where I live, so it basically came down to round or square. To be fair,
though, I have heard that the round bars are a little stronger.
I've heard that too, but can't confirm or deny it. I've had no strength
concerns with my Yakima bars, and have hauled some pretty hefty lumber on
top on occasion.
As far as
how many bikes, that is mostly limited by bar length, and that by the width
of you car. I only carry one on mine, but I should be able to get four
fairly easily.
You can choose from several widths of bars, but be sure you consider how
much you want sticking out beyond the sides of your car if you choose
something long. Mine are 48" wide, and suit me fine. Should fit the WRX
fairly similarly as the Forester, I would guess.
I suggest getting locking fork mounts, but do check out how they work
with your forks, as some forks may put disc brakes so low on the fork that
they cannot fit into a fork mount because they hit the tray (if you use a
tray type.) I don't know if that is a non-factor now, but I have run across
it. Pretty dumb planning on the part of the fork maker and/or the rack
maker, I think. (I blame the fork maker mainly because fork mount racks have
been around much longer than these suspension fork designs.)
