Atera Strada DL bike carrier experiences & towbar fitters in Dublin?

doozerie · 25-04-2012 10:21AM #1

I'm sorting out a bike carrier for my car at the moment and have decided upon a towbar mounted one. Of the ones I've looked at the Atera Strada DL 3 appeals the most, but it is also the most expensive. I've not used a towbar rack before so I have nothing to compare against, and as a result it's tricky to work out whether some of the Atera features are really worth the extra cost. In particular, I like the ability to slide it away from the car for easier access to the boot but in practice I wonder whether this works as well as they claim, and is it a solution to a problem that really exists i.e. are the tilting racks really as restrictive (in terms of access to boot) and inconvenient as Atera suggest?

I'd be very interested to hear the experiences and opinions of Atera Strada DL owners generally (whether the 2-bike version or 3-bike version), both positive and negative. Thanks.

And as a slight aside for a cycling forum I'd welcome any recommendations of towbar fitters in Dublin too. I've contacted 3 so far (Malcolms in Rathmines, Towing Equipment Ltd on the Naas Road, Asdec in Walkinstown) and quotes vary quote a bit - any recommendations based on experience with any of these, or others, would help me compare them on more than just price alone.

Lumen · 25-04-2012 10:27AM

I have the "Atera STRADA DL 3 to 4 bike carrier (UK lights) no. AR2603". I got the extra bar for a fourth bike.

The sliding thing does make access very easy, but I haven't used a non-sliding one so can't compare.

It's a decent bit of kit. I bought it because it's the only 4 bike carrier that will easily fit in my boot.

It does require a bit of thought and practice to load the bikes quickly, but they are very secure and I've had no problems with scratching frames.

Electrics are a bit of a PITA, but that's nothing to do with the rack. I have a Citroen and it goes wrong if the wind is blowing in the wrong direction.

fat bloke · 25-04-2012 10:38AM

I've got one too and it's great. No problems with the electrics for me, once I make sure the yoke is connected properly.

It's a heavy and bulky enough ol yoke on its own I must say. If you've got a dodgy back then recruit an assistance for carrying it to and from the shed and putting it on/taking it off.

The slidey-tilty feature is genius though

Side Show Bob · 25-04-2012 10:48AM

doozerie wrote: »

And as a slight aside for a cycling forum I'd welcome any recommendations of towbar fitters in Dublin too.

http://www.mrbullbar.com/products.htm

They will fit and wire in any lights on the bike rack for you too!

doozerie · 25-04-2012 05:27PM

Another question: the Atera comes with a 13-pin plug and from the description it seems to require a 13-pin socket on the car for the fog lights to work on the rack. Do you lose anything else with a 7-pin socket other than the fogs, does anyone know?

Side Show Bob · 25-04-2012 10:25PM

doozerie wrote: »

Another question: the Atera comes with a 13-pin plug and from the description it seems to require a 13-pin socket on the car for the fog lights to work on the rack. Do you lose anything else with a 7-pin socket other than the fogs, does anyone know?

You can have both plugs mounted on your car but that's expensive, it's probably best to cut off the plug and fit a standard one. The fog lights will be lost, but they will still working behind he bikes.

doozerie · 26-04-2012 04:32PM

I read the Atera description, properly this time, and it actually says in there what you lose with a 7-pin connection - both the fogs and the reverse lights. The fogs and reverse lights on the car may or may not be fully visible with the rack in place, but I'd rather not take the chance so I think I'll go with a 13-pin socket on the car. It seems like some places are reluctant, or unable, to fit a 13-pin socket with a towbar though so I guess that'll narrow down my choices on the fitting side a little.

kenmc · 26-04-2012 04:59PM

Doozerie I really think you're overcomplicating this.
Bearing in mind that any of the "hang on" style tow-bar mounted ones (e.g.

) don't even come with a light or numberplate bar, you're mad to be considering worrying about reversing and fog lights.

I've got mine on today, so you can see it at the race, can throw a couple of extra bikes onto it too so you can see how it looks fully loaded if you want too.

doozerie · 26-04-2012 05:19PM

kenmc wrote:

Doozerie I really think you're overcomplicating this.

Pfft, next you'll be telling me I should install the towbar myself.

A nice simple solution has just occurred to me though - when your group heads off this evening I hop in your car and drive it home as a complete car + bike rack package. That may be slightly undercomplicating and over immoralising it though...

kenmc · 26-04-2012 09:46PM

Sorry mate, I wasn't hanging around for discussions either before or after tonite, with that weather. Glad to see that the rain hid my car from your thieving fingers also

doozerie · 26-04-2012 11:34PM

You drove past me at the bottom of the Embankment. I couldn't help thinking that your bike rack would look better with a Canyon on it rather than a Planet-X (the Canyon black is more flattering, and stuff). I lunged for the car but you callously drove off down the road. Shocking.

I've gotta say though that your bike rack looks the business, and your bike didn't impede the view of your main lights so certainly your reverse lights and perhaps your fogs too seemed like they'd be very visible even with a fully laden rack.

kenmc · 26-04-2012 11:42PM

Yeah as I said, the ones you really need are indicators and brake. you rarely reverse, even rarer you need fogs. It's not like you're towing a trailer that you can't see the back of the car through the bikes.

Sorry I didn't stop, didn't recognise you, and was too cold anyway!

Wishbone Ash · 27-04-2012 08:17AM

Side Show Bob wrote: »

http://www.mrbullbar.com/products.htm

They will fit and wire in any lights on the bike rack for you too!

I'll second that. I've used them several times over the years and was always happy with them. They will also give good advice if you need it.

Stephen_C · 27-04-2012 09:44AM

I have the Atera Strada DL 3 too, Just got it recently. I used to have one of the hang on towbar mounted racks pictured above but had to tie it to the roof rails to support it so couldn't access the boot. Also the tilt function was almost impossible to use with bikes on.

The Atera is brilliant, full access to the boot, slide function works a dream with 3 full suss mountain bike on. I'm trying 4 down to ballyhoura this weekend.

With regards the electrics you can get a 7 pin adapter to go between the rack and the car electrics, the only light that doesn't work is reverse.
The fogs do work.

I got my towbar online from PFjones http://www.pfjones.co.uk/ and fitted the towbar and electrics myself, wasn't that hard, took a day to do.

doozerie · 20-05-2012 03:41PM

I attached my Atera bike rack to the car for the first time today and it has thrown up a couple of questions:

* How much pressure is needed to push the "handle" down into its final position so that you can remove the key? The manual seems to suggest that little pressure is needed, and having seen an online video of it being fitted by a woman (with infeasibly long and fragile looking nails - try changing a punctured tube with those if you dare!) it looks almost effortless. In my case I found myself swinging from the handle, to the extent that the car was rocking a bit, before the handle produced the (barely) audible click that the manual refers to. Have other people found that such pressure was required?

* Even more annoyingly, once the bike rack is mounted you can clearly see that it is not level. It drops by at least 1cm, measured at the lights position, on one side. It looks like the towbar was not fitted level. I'll be on to the fitters tomorrow about that as it seems like they did a poor job of fitting it, but I need to be able to use the bike rack this coming weekend so if the company choose to be thick about it I might be in a tricky situation. So, if worst comes to worst, does anyone know whether it's dodgy to use a non-level bike rack (fully loaded with 3 bikes in my case)? And I presume that in fitting the towbar you get to adjust it so that it is level, or is there actually any adjustability there at all?

Thanks.

Kittycat77 · 05-06-2012 11:44AM

Am relieved to see this post Doozerie, as have just gone through the exact same thing trying to mount my new atera strada dl3 bike carrier. The handle is ridiculously stiff, I was only able to push it down a fraction, and the most it would go was half way down, and then wasnt able to take the key out, so I presumed I was doing something wrong and gave up on it after a very frustrating hour or more spent at it. Really wanted to use it this weekend, instead had to then squash the 2 bikes in the back of the car. I also had to laugh at the girl on the youtube video, I was admiring her nails too! infact this video is what swayed me towards this bike carrier as it looked so easy to mount for a girl! Anyway, if anyone has any ideas on what is wrong here please advise, really need to get it going for wicklow 100 this weekend, thanks

doozerie · 05-06-2012 01:03PM

@Kittycat77, Having put the rack on the car several times now, the handle is now much easier to move into position. It's still not as easy as the video suggests but it's a far cry from the struggle it was the first couple of times. All I can suggest is that you lock and release the handle several times and see if it "loosens" it out to the extent that you find it manageable. The handle on mine locks in a position where it is raised slightly relative to the bottom of the rack (i.e. it is not parallel with the ground in locked position) and this apparently is normal.

For what it's worth, I queried this with the retailer too and they replied that the locking mechanism has been redesigned in newer versions of the rack (mine is one of the newer versions). They seemed to be saying that it was modified with greater security (of the rack not dislodging) in mind, so it may be that newer versions of this rack are harder to close than older versions. They also suggested that it would loosen out with use.

Kittycat77 · 05-06-2012 01:21PM

Thanks alot for that Doozerie, thats reassuring, I was worried that I had done something wrong on the first go and had maybe done some damage to the handle. One last question, when pulling the handle down do you hold in the grey trigger button? On the instructions it says only hold the trigger in until about 20 degrees and then release it to pull it the rest of the way, was this just for mounting it for the first time or do you do this everytime?
Anyway, will have another go at it tonight, once I know its normal for it to be so stiff at least I wont worry about doing any damage by putting alot of pressure on it.

doozerie · 05-06-2012 01:57PM

I release the button at about the 20-degree mark and just push on the handle from there, and I do this every time. Even after using it a few times now I do find that, having unlocked the handle with the key, it can be tricky to push the button in again to allow me to pull the handle up to remove the rack from the towbar - I've had to wiggle the handle a little to get the button to push in. It hasn't happened each time though, and it's the only remaining niggle at this stage.

I was worried too, the first few times, that I might be straining something on the rack by swinging from the handle but it all seems fine. It really does lock solidly on the towbar, which is a good thing, and perhaps the effort required to lock it in place the first several times is worth it for a design which does seem so secure but I wish they'd make some reference in the instructions to the fact that it'll be extremely resistant initially. Even the guy who fitted my towbar commented on how tough it was to close and he was convinced it must have been damaged in some way - I've never used any other towbar mounted rack so I'm not sure how they compare, but after two 300km drives with 3 adult bikes on the rack I'm impressed enough with its performance not to want to change for another rack.

Kittycat77 · 05-06-2012 02:09PM

Thanks again Doozerie, might come back to you if still having problems but hopefully will work ok now

Conways1977 · 28-06-2012 11:45PM

Just curious, who fitted your towbar for you? How did this cycle carrier work out? Considering purchasing same Thanks

doozerie · 29-06-2012 01:39AM

I got my towbar fitted by Malcolm's in Rathmines. The fitter came out to the house to do it, which cost only a little extra than dropping the car into them and saved me having to take time off work - not all of the alternative companies that I spoke too offered this option.

I mentioned in a previous post that I thought the towbar was fitted non-level but it turns out that the issue here is the rack. Malcolm's were very good in the way that they handled this. They sent the fitter out to the house again and he swapped in a new detachable towbar neck but that didn't solve the problem. So I dropped the car into them and they tried a couple of alternative towbar heads and the same problem arose with all of them. The final test was to sit the bike rack on the towbar of another car and it was non-level on that too. It seems that the design of the clamp on the Atera is such that the rack's natural level is determined by how well it mates with the towbar head. I would assume that is true of any rack clamp but there is no adjustability in the Atera clamp once locked in place while some other racks apparently do provide some degree of adjustment. That's not necessarily a failing of the Atera clamp though, it may be that it favours a solid and easy to use clamp over an adjustable one (Malcolm's themselves said the clamp is good and quite easy to use by comparison to some adjustable ones they are familiar with). So overall I found Malcolm's good to deal with and I was impressed with how they dealt with what turned out to be a something unrelated to the towbar fitting.

Incidentally, the solution to the sloping rack is to level the rack by hand before locking the clamp. The manual suggests leveling it, if necessary, by pushing down on the high side of the rack before locking it in place. This didn't work for me at all. What does work is to lift the low side a little instead. This niggle aside (and I've not seen anyone else mention the same issue so I may just be unlucky) I am very happy with the rack. It locks solidly and easily to the towbar (the pressure required to rotate the handle to lock it, which I queried in an earlier post, has reduced significantly with a bit of use) and the bikes are clamped solidly and easily to the rack. I drove with 3 adult bikes on it from Dublin to Connemara and back with no problems at all - I was nervous over the first really bumpy stretch of Connemara roads but it remained solid throughout.

The only thing I'd warn about is speed bumps, which will apply to any towbar and any bike rack. Most speed bumps are fine but there is one very high speed bump in my estate and having tried to drive really slowly over it twice it scraped the bottom of the towbar each time - it's only minor cosmetic damage but was a reminder to me to be careful over speed bumps generally.

Kittycat77 · 29-06-2012 09:32AM

Conways1977 wrote: »

Just curious, who fitted your towbar for you? How did this cycle carrier work out? Considering purchasing same Thanks

I got my towbar fitted by a local mechanic in Mayo, it was between 200 and 250, I cant remember exactly. I have only used the carrier once since I got it, as you may have read from a previous post I was having problems locking it into place on to the towbar, but this was mainly because the instructions with the carrier were very misleading, once I found out from other posters here that the handle is very stiff especially on first time use, (think its a new design and the handle is musch stiffer on this design) then it was just a matter of putting alot of pressure on it. I was afraid to do that initially because the instructions warn about tightening it too much as this would damage the locking mecahnisim. It also didnt help that the fitting video on the website showed a slip of a girl casually attaching the carrier and popping down the handle with ease, hence the confusion. Anyway, once I got over that hurdle I was really happy with it, it was very quick and easy to attach the bikes, and they felt very secure. Its a very solid carrier, I would recommend it though they would want to update their instruction leaflet/video

wayguk · 16-02-2013 12:06PM

Hello all,

I am interested in this bike rack also. Where did you buy this rack from?

Lumen · 16-02-2013 05:02PM

www.roofbox.co.uk, specifically...

http://www.roofbox.co.uk/scripts/rbvehsel4_tab.php/car-specific-accessories/atera_strada_sport_m_3_to_4_bike_carrier_no_ar2685/Qx%40w%2C6M42VAwp3%40Rb%7B~cC4ure5iWX2

wayguk · 16-02-2013 11:03PM

Thanks,

any idea of their delivery costs?

doozerie · 17-02-2013 12:58AM

wayguk wrote: »

Thanks,

any idea of their delivery costs?

I bought mine from The Roof Box Company early last year and the delivery charge at the time was UK£14.

wayguk · 17-02-2013 10:53PM

cheers

Atera Strada DL bike carrier experiences & towbar fitters in Dublin?

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