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Thule Wing Bars – Review

A change of car has forced me to seek out a new set of roofbars. I wanted the best set of roof bars for my car without going silly on the cost. This time I have went for the Thule Wing bars. These are known as the Thule Aeroblades in some parts of the word. I love cars that can have a set of roof bars bolted to them, either to fittings hidden within the roof or roof rails. The new Unsponsored HQ paddle wagon/family transporter is a very sensible two litre 184bhp BMW 320d Sport.

Thule Wing Bars

My latest car is an estate/touring with a set of roof rails so requires a roofbar that can clamp directly to the rail. After looking at the OEM version I decided to take a closer look at the Thule Wing bars. Mainly because the OEM version sat quite high off the roof and from BMW would have cost a small ransom. I have had a few different sets of Thule bars in the past and still own/use a set of Thule ProRide 591 bike carriers so it made sense to have a look at the newer offerings. In addition Thule have a pretty good reputation world wide and certainly have great customer service here in the UK.

There were a few types of bar I could have chosen. Firstly the bog standard square bars, which are pretty good but they don’t have the T channel for quick attachment of bike carriers and roof boxes. They still work really well but I have a few bits that use the T bolt system and I really like it for ease and security. The second is the Aero bars system which I have used a great deal in the past. They are again good, but I found them to be a little noisy on the cars I have had in the past. This may have been down to the bars or the foot system, or the way I had fitted them. The Aero bars do have the T channel which still makes them a contender. OEM bars tend to be very similar to the Thule Aero bars anyway. However for a little bit more cash the Thule Wing bars offer a lower profile, a reported 55% reduction in drag compared to the Aero bars and a possibility of an overall quieter system. After a hunt around (see below) I got the Wing bars for the price of a set of Aero bars

Thule Wing Bars

Thule Wing Bars

Now, just to complicate matters the Thule Wing bar system is available in two different flavours. You can go for the Thule Rapid system which involves purchasing the bars, a foot pack and clamp system to fit your car. Alternatively the Wing bar can also be purchased in the Wing Bar Edge format which gives an even lower profile and comes complete, but does narrow the amount of carrying space. I therefore went for the Rapid system to maximise the width of the bars.

Rather than going for a pack put together by a roof rack shop or supplier I decided to visit the Thule website, find the make, model and year of my car to create a shopping list of the parts required. This is a simple but crucial process as the different possible combinations of bars, foot pack and fitting kit is enormous. Once checked I sourced each of the parts from different suppliers on Amazon. This saved around 20% and as I have Amazon Prime included free delivery.

The parts required to build my Thule Wing bars were:

A set of 961 Wing bars
A Thule 753 rapid foot pack
A 4023 fitting kit

I also ordered four new lock barrels to match the four I already have on my pair of Thule ProRide 591 bike carriers. You can buy 8 packs of barrels which would have worked but I have a perfectly good set of four matching barrels on my ProRide racks, so it was great to find a store that would sell me barrels matched to those that I already have.

I took my time fitting the parts of the Thule Wing bar system together and making sure that they were positioned and setup on the car correctly. I made sure that when positioned I took a note of what the feet of the bars lined up with. In my case they lined up with a couple bits of trim near the B pillar and rear door. This did take some time to get just so, but was worth it as they can now be fitted to the car in a matter of minutes.

To be honest I wasn’t expecting to have a system that was super quiet. But this system is. I have never used such a quiet set of bars. I have been using them for the last few months and they have been on the car without boats, with one, two and three boats and each time the noise has been so quiet that it is not really noticeable. There was no need to turn the music up to drown out whistling! Thule reckon there is a 90% reduction in noise compared to the Aero bars. I couldn’t say whether or not it’s 90% but it certainly is virtually silent.

Thule Wing Bars

Thule Wing Bars

The rubber strip used on the Wing bars to cover the T channel is different from that used on the Thule Aero bars. This strip has a series of ridges. This addition makes the rubber super grippy against boats.

So far so good. Choosing to get matching sets of barrels was great move as only one key needs to be carried, and although briefly tempted by the new black anodised Wing bars I am really happy with the natural aluminium coloured. The finish will hide bumps, scrapes and scratches much better than the black anodised versions. The black versions are also around £20 more.

I’m using these bar with two Thule 591 bike racks with the T track system.

For additional security I have bought a couple of these. They can add extra security when my bikes are on the roof by locking the wheels in place and when I have a paddle (or paddle bag) is can be looped over and locked to the rack.

UPDATE: March 2016, I am still very impressed with the Thule Wing bars. They have been faultless and silent.

UPDATE 2: July 2017, I have now sold the BMW and now have a Skoda Octavia VRS Estate. It takes the same width bar but requires a different foot system as the rails on the car are not fully flush. A simple swap over using a set of Thule 757 footpack.

17 Comments

  1. abc

    Hi, could you describe what it takes to mount it on the car? Would it be the same with the Wing Bar Edge? Thanks.

    • Unsponsored

      In my case the foot pack fits the roof rails. The clamp then is tightened onto the rail which has a slight lip. Thule provide a short Allan key for this. I believe that the wing bar edge is very similar but is much narrower as it doesn’t have the overhang.

  2. KHBS

    Hi. Have you added bike carriers to these bars and if so, how many bikes can you fit on the bars?

    • Unsponsored

      It very much depends on the width of your car and hence the bars. I have a BMW 3 series touring and can get three large mountain bikes on with super wide handlebars with ease.

      I use the Thule 591 bike racks.

  3. sean (gadget) lynn

    thule wings bars , i swear by them .. ! i’ve had the same set on my superb, fabia and now, yeti with the appropriate fitting packs .. ! the only whistle you’ll get is from the straps occasionally but you can negate this by twisting them a few times .. !

  4. Unsponsored

    Now two years of use. The bars are that good I haven’t removed them from the car. No noise and no real sign of impact on MPG.

  5. Jaime

    Hi! Nice article. I have just installed the wingbars and rapid system on my Mazda 3 and get whistling as soon as I get over 55km/h (about 20-25mph). You don’t get ANY?

    • Unsponsored

      No issue at all. Is the rack a rail mount?

  6. Pit

    Be careful with Wingbar Edge. They are supposed to be quieter than 961 bars + 753 foot pack but they are probably not. I both wingbar edge for BMW 5er Touring, with 4022 kit. Plastic cover, covering foot and kit (and securing the rack with the lock) does not fit tight, there is a 2-3mm slot. I suppose this is a reason of whistling, with high frequencies. With box on roof rack I was not hearing that, there was heavy noise coming from the box. After removing the box whistling was so annoying that I removed front bar from the roof on the gas station – I was not able to drive with it on the roof!

    The same kit on 753 foot and older aero bar was not quiet but was also not whistling. Plastic cover of 753 foot was fitting tight with my kit. I regret I have not bought classic 961 bars.

    I plan to put some foam or rubber between the kit and plastic cover. I hope it will help.

  7. Tim Reeve

    What are the dimensions of the actual wing bars? Concerned that my roof box fittings wont fit across the actual width of the bars.

    • Yossi Dahan

      That is exactly the issue I’m facing, having bought them only to then realise standard roof box fitting are not wide enough

      • Rachel

        I have just got out my new wingbars to discover the same thing!! Does anybody know if there is a fitting that can go on the track which can attach to the roof box instead of the U bolts? I have tried to google it but I’m finding it tricky to find a simple solution, which I’m sure there must be!!

  8. FAT79

    Hi, I have bmw f10 and got these bars to carry bikes. They work fine at low speed and having trouble with wind noice after 50MPH. It gets worst at higher speed. I tried to move bars and all possible positions and was no use.

  9. Antonio Karakas

    Hi, like you review of the WIng bar, I will buy them.
    But saw that you changed BMW for Octavia touring RS. I have the same 320d touring, and had the same dilema.
    What are you experiences now with Octavia, is it any worse, do you notice and miss that RearWeelDrive BMW feeling?
    Antonio from Zagreb

    • Unsponsored

      VRS much quicker. Room inside, well it’s bigger too. Seats are probably less comfy on a longer drive but still ok. Not missing the service costs or cost of run flat tyres.

      • Antonio Karakas

        Much quicker? Isn’t it similar 184KS, but OK it is lighter. My BMW is quite heavy, 1670kg (automatic with lots of kit) .
        I would next time buy normal tiers, less expensive and more comfortable and take a risk of having a puncture 🙂

        • Unsponsored

          I reckon that the gear ratio is different. My VRS is auto and the BMW was manual. Still quicker. Mpg slightly lower but not by a great deal.

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