Thule roof rack whistle

[Clinty]

Hi all hope you can help? I have just bought a thule aero roof rack and some pro ride bike racks which are great, except for a whistling kettle noise which occurs at about 40mph upwards. I knew that there would be some wind noise but this whistling is awful. Does anyone else have any experience of this and were you able to cure it? Many thanks

Clint

 

[Happy-Lappy]

Clint,

This is a common problem with roof bars/racks, it's worse when you have a ladder on top.

The only way I solve this problem is when the whistling gets too unbearable, make sure all the windows and sunroof are closed and pump it up (the music),

best regards, Martin

 

[Chaps]

We had this problem the first time we used our roof bars. The problem was solved by inserting the supplied rubber 'blanking bars' (don't know the technical name!) into the bars and the whistling stopped. We thought that they were cosmetic so didn't use them at first but they made a massive difference to the noise.

 

[Clinty]

Hi thanks for that. I have already inserted the rubber. The roof bars are fine, its just when the bikes are on that it happens.

 

[Clinty]

Hi all, an update after a weekend of experimentation:

roof bars with no bike racks fitted = no whistle;

roof bars with bike rack fitted on offside = no whistle; roofbars with bike rack fitted on nearside = whistle.

what the?

 

[weejock]

Not being familar with bike racks I wonder if your wheels are turning causing this whistling. Also is it possible to turn your bikes to face the other way as it sounds to me as if it the wind flow round your bikes rather than the rack that is causing the problem.

 

[Lutz]

Are you sure it's the bike rack that's whistling and not the spokes of the bikes? You might like to try wedging something between the spokes so that they can't act like violin strings.

 

[Clinty]

Slowcoach you are a genius. Have turned one of the bike racks round to face the opposite way on the roof bars and the whistling suddenly disappears!! Many thanks again to everyone for your suggestions