Bird bike rack - 986 Forum - The Community for Porsche Boxster & Cayman Owners

trube78 · 10-22-2007, 07:08 PM

Consider the willwood rack it is very stable, no straps required and not terribly noticable. I looked at both systems prices are similar. Willwood is (IMHO) a sturdier design. If you have ??? drop me a line.
ATB,
Tom

Perfectlap · 10-22-2007, 07:24 PM

i had teh bird system until someone plowed into while I was away from my car. Had to get on a lift to detach it. It worked well while it was in use, the owner of the company in CT installed it on my car in about an hour. He did a great job.

I was thinking of replacing it with the wilwood system if it could work with the new state of the art Saris Thelma bike carrier but Wilwood never responded to my inquiries for a "two point" hitch. They only have the one point.
The use of the Thule and Yakima racks placed well over 80 pounds of toe weight on the rear bumper. Which is far too much imo without any actual anchoring to the chasis.

rick3000 · 10-22-2007, 08:01 PM

I haven't bought from Willwood, but I have talked to him, and he makes great racks. I would go with him because a hitch system will be a lot more versatile than the Bird rack.
Also, some info on the Bird rack is that it permanently mounts two pipes under the car. Then you slide the bike, ski, etc. rack onto the two pipes under the car and lock them. Or at least that is my understanding of how it works. The mounts are not permanent, but I believe you must drill holes and they are intended to be left on. It might be a problem if your car is lower or with speed bumps, but it obciously works or they wouldn't sell it (or would they?).

fatmike · 12-01-2007, 12:04 PM

I just bought a Bird Automotive Bike Rack. I'll let everyone know how the installation goes & my opinion of the rack after I use it a bit.

fatmike · 12-01-2007, 02:13 PM

2 hour and :10 minutes later -- the conclusion:

it doesn't fit...

Perfectlap · 12-02-2007, 10:13 AM

I see you are in NJ....looks you might have to take the trip up to Conneticut and see Mr. Bird.
He did my install with only a floor jack in just under an hour. This was two years ago, I think I had one of the first Boxster versions of the rack.

fatmike · 12-02-2007, 01:06 PM

Yep, I'm in Chatham, NJ.

The BIRD AUTOMOTIVE bike rack fits -- I figured this out after a few conversations and several hours of messing around. I bought it on eBay. The seller failed to include a bolt assembly that attaches the front of the rack to the under-carraige of the car. So, I wasted a Sunday afternoon trying to find appropriate sized metric bolts and washers (spacers) to make it work.

If I weren't such an die-hard cyclist and in desperate need of a bike rack, I might have just sent it back to him...

I'll report back more on the bike rack after I use it a few times. If I had all the right parts to start with, I think I could have assembled the rack in :30 minutes (in my living room) and I probably could have attached it to the car in another :30 minutes. Its only 4 bolts, but the hardest part of installing it is just getting access under the car (and it obviously doesn't work so well without the bolts...).

But, now its done. The system seems to be very effective and it seems like the rack won't damage the paint.

Also, while it was up on the jack I put my snow tires on. So, I killed two birds with one stone...(sorry for the pun)