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Whispbar Roof Racks – Ultra Quiet, Fuel Efficient Cross Bars

Written by Tyler Benedict
12 Comments
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Whispbar Roof Racks are touting hyper-quiet, fuel efficient roof racks as a better way to transport your bike (and other stuff) on your car’s roof.

Whispbar aerodynamic design creates less drag  and 50% less noise than competing designs. They sent this video link to illustrate how quiet their roof racks are compared to other common cycling brands:

Pricing, specs and more info after the jump…

The Whispbar cross bars come included with keyed locks, and they can easily be moved to other vehicles with their various “Smartfoot” fitting kits…essentially new “feet” that fit specific vehicles without the need for entirely new bars or end sections.  They retail for $399 for the complete setup: two bars, locks and Smartfoot fit kit for a single vehicle.

They offer Whispbar cross bars that work with existing roof rails, flush mount and through mount, with fittings that accomodate tracks, bolt-on fixed point, gutter mount and flush rail mounts, as well as permanent mounts that you bolt into your car’s roof.

The matching bike mount is $150 and is an aluminum, locking fork-mount design with a ratchet to hold the rear wheel (shown at top of post), or you can get the frame mount (below) for $149, but it doesn’t have a locking mech.

Whispbar also offers accessories for canoe/kayaks, ski/snowboards, surfing and fishing, plus roof cargo boxes.
Tyler Benedict
11,282 articles

Tyler Benedict is the Founder of Bikerumor.com, where he’s been writing about the latest bikes, components, and cycling technology for almost two decades. Prior to that, Tyler launched and built multiple sports nutrition brands and consumer goods companies, mostly as an excuse to travel and ride in new places.

Based in North Carolina, Tyler also loves the Vanlife & family adventure travel and is always on the lookout for the next shiny new part and off-grid adventure.

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12 Comments
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uglyyeti
uglyyeti
14 years ago

No Whispbar rack options for Saabs or Isuzus. Looks like I’ll have to stick with my round bars.

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Paul
Paul
14 years ago

The key to reducing wind noise and wind drag is a fairing, after that you want a bar that allows for the best fit to the vehicle and allows for the best support to your gear. In most applications round bars fit vehicles and gear the best.

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Ultimotive
Ultimotive
14 years ago

I’d have to agree with the previous comment that the design of the roof rack isn’t the major determinant of how much drag they create. It’s whether you have something fitted, such as a fairing, in front of the roof rack and the cycle. The rack in and of itself doesn’t offer that much resistence in comparison with the bike.

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Travis
Travis
14 years ago

No Honda Element, either. I’m actually a little surprised by that.

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Whispbar
Whispbar
14 years ago

Hey uglyyeti, sorry to disappoint you with our still-growing US site. Please see our EU site for Saabs and Isuzus – http://www.whispbar.eu/findmycar

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Whispbar
Whispbar
14 years ago

We respectfully disagree that fairings and round bars are the best solution. Round bars are old school, the world leader in roof carrying systems (at the moment !) Thule doesn’t have any round bars in their offering, they are moving towards the t-slot attachment system found on Whispbar which makes attaching accessories so much easier. Of course, adding accessories adds to the noise regardless of whether you have quiet bars or not, but most people don’t keep their accessories on year round. Yes fairings reduce the noise for the accessory fitted in some cases, but often the equipment itself sticks up higher than the fairing so you still get the noise. With Whispar you don’t need a fairing because the bars themselves are aerodynamic.

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Whispbar
Whispbar
14 years ago

Hi Travis, the Honda Element is on the list for the Engineers to look at so watch this space!

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Spencer
Spencer
14 years ago

Nothing for the Saturn Vue. Actually, nothing for Saturn anything.

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Nathan
Nathan
14 years ago

I like the concept, I tend to leave my racks on full time and just take the accessories off so this works for me. BTW Spencer jut checked the Saturns on the website, looks like a few there, including the Vue http://www.whispbar.com/cars/saturn/vue/2010/5doorsuv-5408

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Sebastien
Sebastien
14 years ago

Of course these bars will not provide less or more drag than any other bars – when accessories are mounted on – but when they stand alone, they are pretty quiet. and also, they look great!
Just bought them, and quite happy.

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Bicyclist
Bicyclist
13 years ago

I’ve got whispbars fitted. Nice bars but putting bike racks on and off is not so easy. the rubber in the t track is designed to stay in there permanently. but it grabs the t bolts when putting on fixings. the supplier has told me to put the t bolts on separately first, then attach the bike rack to the t bolts once the bolts are in position. destroys the point of quick release and takes longer to put on/take off bike racks. it woudl be quicker with fixings that clamp round the bars!

In effect you end up leaving the bike racks on all the time. If anyone has a solution to this, would be great to hear!

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James
James
13 years ago

Fiited whispbars this weekend using them with thule pro ride bike carriers. Had provlems fitting them at first as the rubber strip got all bunched up. Squirted a bit of dish soap in and they go on and off like a dream!

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