I'm just curious how fast people have gone (successfully) with a roof rack and bikes. I have a Yakima rack and was movin' along pretty quickly coming home from my cottage this weekend. I hit 160 km/h (100 mph) and everything 'appeared' very solid.<p>Ride Hard,<br>Mike B.

I have seen a bike come off a car at speed....not fun. The fastest I have gone with two bikes on top of my Jeep is about 70 mph. Wind is a very powerful thing....don't play with it ...or your A4 might suffer...or you might kill someone driving behind you. Just my 2 cents worth.<p>Steve S.<br>97 2.8QM

I have a Thule rack for my A4.<p>I got up to 150km/h. Everything seemed OK.<p>It is surprising, the wind noise is very low.

I don't know how fast he was going, but luckily there was no one behind him.<p>Oh, and it was off of a 97? Jetta<br>

Funny you mention that, I tried to put our Yakima rack on my 97 Jetta using the catalog Yakima parts specific for the Jetta III, and all it took to dislodge it was a firm upwards bump on the end of the crossbar. The Q clips do not accurately contour the shape of the door seal nearly as well as they do on the A4. I'm surprised your friend's Thule fell off since there are actually slots underneath the rain gutter rubber stripping to which the Thule rack locks into....*seems* like a more secure design.<p>Ted<br>97 GLX<br>98.5 1.8T

Here's by buddy's email responses:<br>Mark P<p>mark, <br>i had two bikes on top of my car-eddy merckx titanium road bike and specialized stump jumper. the rack model was a thule #444 system. the VW is a jetta/98. the rack system is designed especially for the VW's. do not attempt the bike flying through the air trick at under 75 mph because desired results may not be achieved. anyways, i hope this helps <br>brant <p>mark,<br>was moving at 75mph and it was kind of windy out. thule did absolutely nothing because i could not produce the rack parts that were strewn all over the highway. thule only replaces racks or pays for bike/car damage if there are faults in the worksmanship, which i cannot tell due to my lack of parts. thule racks are very secure and if it had not been for an incident with the rack in chicago i don't think the even would have ever happened. in chicago i ran the rack into the top of a parking garage and had to re-install the rack there. the only thing is that it worked from chicago to nebraska where i spent the night and then the next day it decided to fly off. i have since had to buy a whole new rack because they don't sell replacement parts for my system due to the fact that it's a specialty rack meant only for VW's. all in all though i'm satisfied with thule as a rack maker, but not as a support company. talk to you later <br>brant <p>

<br>Buddy, once had the bike's front fork come undone while driving. (Why it slipped off who knows?! Never did before) The bike proceeded to lift up then flop over on the side of the car. Smashing the side of the car, with a big dent and scratches.. Make sure it's locked down before taking off and don't drive too wild... My $0.02<p><br>

x