Any GE Thule users here?
 

I am a new owner of the Thule 400xt base system with the 38" Fairing. I ordered through Rack Attack and I am not happy with the fairing size for the car. They insist that Thule recommends a 38" fairing, but to me it looks way too small for the Fit.

Is anyone using a Thule system for your GE? And what size fairing are you using?

i feel for you. nobody likes a small rack.

I have a 42" fairing for my Yakima rack (as recommended by Yakima) and it fits well. I'm not sure if Thule has a similar size fairing.

I have the bigger (42") yakima fairing too... fits perfect.

Yeah - take a look below. My Thule fairing just does not extend all the way to the supports and to me at least, looks just odd.

http://www.thebluepotato.net/fit/rack1.jpg
http://www.thebluepotato.net/fit/rack2.JPG

Looks clean & sharp to me. A wider fairing would look out of place,but that is just me. Side winglets should direct airflow away from mounts to eliminate air rush noise that I have. Can't use fairing for what I haul,because it gets in the way of tieing down 2 canoes.

BTW,does the fairings help with the notorious wind buffet drifting of the Fit in crosswinds,trucks,etc ? Looks like it may add some down force to help control the wind buffeting. When I haul canoes that buffeting stops,I think mainly because the canoes act like giant rudders.

PaFitter

The Fairing looks to me to be right on that black fit. I recommend however against a fairing as it will drop your economy, especially if you drive at highway speeds. both My integras lost about 3-4mpg with the fairing on. It does help with noise so there is a tradeoff. Had a Thule on the 93 Integra GS and a yakima on the 2000 GS-R. With the fairing off, the yakima howled like crazy so I picked up some windjammers to cut down on the noise. when I get some feet for the Yakima, I'll be putting it on the Fit but without the fairing. Looks better with... wallet likes it without.

~SB

Mileage for me is same with and without fairing. Loosing a total of 3-4mpg and nothing too big. Without the fairing, the bars scream like whining hollow tubes. Fairing is a must especially with how thin the Fit's sheet metal is.

I had my sunroof open on the integras with the rack on. The thing that made the biggest difference were the Windjammers. No Howl at all. I just needed to buy a few of them because one didn't work like was recommended. for me, I got the same economy with or without a bike... but with the fairing, I lost a few mpg. granted the GS-R took premium and got around 32mpg so it was a greater loss than would be with regular and 37mpg on the fit but still... it's a few $$/tank.

That said, I still have my fairing and as soon as I get the feet for the yakima, it's going on. If it's really loud... I'll test out the fairing and see what the MPG difference is. I do practically no Highway anymore so it might not be as big of a hit. Birthday's coming up so maybe someone will pick it up off my Amazon Wish list... I get alot of car parts for my birthday :D

~SB

hahaha thats great!

I found the same - mileage loss with or without the fairing. The windjammers seemed like a good idea, but it looked like they would take up a lot of space on the bar and might interfere with the bike rack mounts (I have 2 King Cobras and they're wide), especially if you need more than one windjammer.

I have a Unique setup on my Yakima. I can't do fork mounts because I have a Jekyll with a Lefty (no 2nd fork) so I needed a full upright. The uprights compatible with my bike were really cheap looking/feeling from yakima but the Thule Big Mouth I had from my previous car was great so I converted the Thule to fit on my yakima. Because of this and the narrow(er) roof on the integra, I easily got by with one windjammer next to the bike rack. If I had the bike attachement straddle the foot, I could fit two bikes and a cargo box on the roof.

My mileage loss was only with the fairing on the integras. If I had a bike on the roof, I didn't notice much, but if I had the fairing on as well, I had a higher economy loss.

the Jammers are pretty small and IMO, work very well. It saved me a few $$ on gas so I was happy.

~SB

Hmm. I haven't actually checked the mileage loss on the Fit - I was going by my previous car (a Subie) which got (comparatively) bad gas mileage to begin with so I didn't notice the difference. Perhaps the Fit is more sensitive to the fairing?

I have the same problem with fork mounts as well - my Stumpy FSR doesn't fit well into fork mounts unless you're buying top of the line, so I ended up with a King Cobra. I liked it so much I bought another for my wife's bike.

The subie had a [bigger engine?] than any of the hondas I've owned with probably a decent amount more torque (not more than the Ridge). Torque will help mitigate the effect of drag a little bit and that is something that the fit is seriously lacking (same with the integras too)

I'm in the same boat with the Thule bigmouths. I decided to buy two as they hold REALLY well... and I didn't want them to not match... I had no other option with the lefty than an upright. It's sad but i haven't ridden in a while. Used to take annual trips to Killington for some nice XC and Downhill. Most other riders would look at the lefty and say... no right fork? I wouldn't ride that cause it's going to break on you. Never had a single problem although it's a bit disconcerting to not have a right fork the first few times you ride it.

~SB

Agreed. The Subie had more than twice as much torque as the Fit - that's the one thing that I really miss about that car - you could drive around town all day in 3rd. Well, that and the Subienuts in the snow. :D

I test rode a Cannondale with a Lefty once, and you're right, it seemed weird at first with only 1 leg. Nice bike though. Like you I haven't been as active on the bike in the past couple of years since my son was born. Bought one of those trailers to tow behind the bike last year and was able to fit it in the trunk without putting the seats down. Sometimes this little car still amazes me!

Lol! I knew you were going to make some kind of comment here when he mentioned a rack... Seriously! :D

Good one! You give an added and welcomed charm to the forums. Being a married man I'm not so happy about the "taunting temptations" your posts bring, ;) but it's done with class, and I for one appreciate the humor. Yeah, ok, I appreciate the pics too! :popc:

Thanks for the light-heartedness and laughs. :)

At first I didn't think so, but I agree with you after looking a couple of times. The fairing should be at least an inch wider on each side, if not as wide as the supports. If you do a Google image search for racks and fairings you'll see at least the base of the fairings are as wide as the edge of the supports.

Anyway, it looks that way to me... I would ask them for a wider fairing. Looks to me like they could have sent the wrong size, compared to others I've seen in person, and those I've looked at around the web.

BTW, your Fit looks nice... and I think the rack actually adds something.

I believe I have the same rack, but i'll have to check. If you check some of my posts, there should be some pictures out there with my car.

If not, I can always post some up later. :)

i've got the thule rack, but it's an older one, so i found an old school fairing to match. it's pretty wide, and doesn't have the winglets yours have. when i had my gti, i ordered a yakima fairing, the recommended size looked small to me too. maybe there's a reason they recommend the smaller size, but i don't get it. i'd ask for the bigger one.

Details.....
 

Could somebody with a Thule rack post a coupe of pictures showing a detail of how the feet sit on the roof? I'm curious if the rubber pads sit outboard of the rain gutter/step, or do they straddle the step? Also, how well the rubber pads conform to the roof curvature.