C4 Roof Bars

[billynibbles]

I know the question of roof bars and the rusting of the concealed fixing bolt holes has come up before, so I thought I'd chuck my two penn'th in now that I've got some bars, in preparation for a roof-mounted bike rack that I've also bought via e-bay from a dealer in Norwich.

 

I just took delivery of a used-once pair of the official Citroen C4 roof bars (off e-bay too) and they seem very sleek, especially the locking cowls that hide the fixing bolts.

 

I know the question of rusty thread has reared its head on more than one occasion on this forum, and I found that the front bolt holes were more difficult to use than the rear especially with the short allen key they give you. Maybe rain gravitates into them better when standing still. Mind you, if they won't do up with the allen key supplied then maybe you shouldn't proceed, just in case you're 'cutting some new thread'.

 

On that subject, I noticed that Citroen had also seen fit to include a single thread-tapping bolt to aid the passage on any really badly rusted bolt holes

 

Keeping them 'Vaselined' in the first place seems to be a better solution though.

 

Incidentally, the bars fit 3 and 5 door versions.

 

Addition: I now have the bike rack fitted. There are definite advantages to sticking to one system, in this case, the official Citroen kit, as I didn't need to clamp it to the roof bars with the usual U-Bolts. The whole thing can be slide in sideways, using slots in the aluminium extrusion of the roof bars and tightened up once in position. Very neat. It's a good job that clamping the bike itself in place is a one-handed job, as it is quite nerve-wracking holding a bike with nasty sticky-out bits above your precious paintwork. You also need to allow at least 4 feet behind you to step back as you lift the bike down, otherwise you risk going perilously close to your door panels with the pedals!

 

All I've got to get used to now is remembering that I'm driving something as tall as a mobile home.