Thule 598002 Roof Bike Rack ProRide, Black

I bought this to replace an existing Thule Proride when I bought a new mountain bike with a fatter bottom bracket that wouldn’t fit in the jaws of the clamp. Fitting it was very easy because it slotted straight in where the old one came out on exactly the same mounting brackets. I remember fitting the old Proride was very fiddly because I had to adjust the position of the roof bars to get the brackets of the rack in just the right place so that the wheel straps didn’t conflict. However, this new rack would have been easier because there is only one wheel strap, and it is diagonal, so should be more flexible with positioning.Front mudguards are ok so long as they are short. The arms need to grip the tyre of the front wheel and if a mudguard is in the way won’t hold it without causing damage. The tiny mudguards that most mountain bikers use are fine. I have a mid-sized mudguard which is ok, but only just. If it had been a problem I would have cut an inch or two off the mudguard with a jigsaw and re-shaped the end with a heat gun.Once mounted on the rack the bike feels very secure, much more so than on the old proride where there was always a worry that the frame could slip out of the jaws, (this happened once whilst driving and I still have a deep scratch in the roof of my car where the pedal went into it).. The two swing arms are easily adjusted to the size of your wheel. It takes a couple of minutes to figure out which arm goes where; there’s a label on the rearmost one telling you to raise it first. Once you’ve made sense of that it’s easy to get the first arm in place, lift the bike up, raise the second arm, push it until it goes click, fasten the rear wheel strap and you are good to go. The two arms form a cross-shaped cage around the front wheel, so it can’t slip out. There is no feeling that the bike could come out of the rack. The bike is only going to come away if the forces through the brackets into the roof bars are excessive: that would require a combination of a very heavy bike with some violent driving. Thule recommend sticking to a maximum of 70mph. If you like to drive faster then probably you’d be better off putting the bike inside the car.It is rated up to a maximum of 20kg, which rules out many e-bikes. Anything over that weight would be a struggle to lift up and place on the rack anyway; my e-mountain bike is 18kg which is within my comfort zone, but anyone contemplating getting one of these will want to be sure they can lift and position the bike without risk of dropping it.Locking is interesting: the old proride had a lock on the swing arm which was part of the routine and so got used every time. This one doesn’t have that, instead providing a cable which pulls out of the tail end of the rack, loops around the back wheel and then can be locked. This is an extra thing to do and so far I haven’t bothered with it. This does make you vulnerable to an opportunist thief if you were to leave it unattended for a couple of minutes. The locks on this and the proride are flimsy and wouldn’t stop a determined thief with wire cutters but are better than nothing.In summary, it works well for me and my bike, and I would recommend it. The price is quite high, but it is a good quality product. My old proride was left in place exposed to the elements for years and never showed any sign of deterioration, so I would expect the same from this one.

I have never used these before and after a lot of research I too the plunge. They arrived the next day and I set about installing them. Very well made and actually very easy to install. Each one took me about ten minutes to put on to my roof rack. I then set about putting the bikes on, one adult and one child’s bike. The locks hold the frames in place and the straps held the wheels secure. The next day we drove 170 miles to Cornwall confident that the bikes would still be there when we arrived. Superb product.

These are really good bike carriers. What I like is:- it's easy to install (I fitted them on Thule Wing Edge bars)- it's got a built-in cable lock to help secure the bike- it's easy to mount the bike on - unless you've got a heavy mountain bike and a car with a high roof- It's easy to unmount the bike from - again, unless your bike is heavy and your car roof is high.- it doesn't put any pressure on the frame - great if you've got an expsneive carbon-frame bike- it copes with a wide range of wheel sizes for adult bikes - even the 29" x 2.3" on my MTB- once installed, the carrier itself is reasonably secure / difficult to get off without the required keysThe things that could be better are:- security - the supplied cable lock feels flimsy and probably wouldn't stand up to a pair of bolt cutters. Once that's cut it's a matter of 10 seconds to take the bike off. I don't think I'd want to leave an expensive bike alone on the carrier while I went to the motorway services.- dismounting - once you undoo the front wheel mechanism you've pretty much got to take the whole weight of the bike. On an SUV with a heavy bike this can be more than a bit awkward. If it's at the end of a long ride, it could be hard work putting it back on the carrier as well.- general wobbliness - like all wheels-on bike carriers, the bike wobbles like crazy. I'll never get used to it.

Bought as part of a full Thule set (parts ordered separately) of 753 feet, wing bar 961 and fitting kit.After fitting the bars, this part was easy albeit the instructions were still pretty cryptic (but not as bad as the other pieces).Only put bike on once to test but seemed rock solid and pretty easy considering first try. It's on an Audi Q3 which I thought would be high to lift the bike but it was easy. This was a road bike, my tourer would probably be heavier/harder.Some internet reading advises putting a sign in the dash to remind you your bikes sitting up high - so you don't end up hitting them. I saw pictures of bikes smashed against car park entrances and it made me a bit nervous - never thought about that aspect.Negatives were;bit fiddly to put together - no idea why Thule couldn't ship with the catches in place.The box was really bashed up as it's shipped without outer packaging and was all rated up, and this was after I ordered a replacement from Amazon as the first one was in a right state. To be honest it looked used but in fact once opened I think it had just been mishandled. No idea if it's their warehouse or Hermes, but anyway if you want a nice box go keep, don't get from Amazon - buy in a shop. I'm surprised there was no damage but it would be a matter of luck. Anyway I was out of time so had to accept the lesser bashed up one.Also note returns for large items have to be arranged at your own inconvenience and expense and reclaimed as Amazon don't do automatic returns for oversize packages. All in all a disappointing experience as one other part (the bars) also arrived all bashed up but Amazon did sort this one one.Don't let that put you off the products themselves, but it lost a star for it, and the poor instructions.