Review: Thule Thru-Axle Adapter
(2021) Major changes in any industry have deep alterations. Road bikes have seen exciting changes over the past few years: carbon fiber, electronic shifting, disc brakes. With the move over to thru axles, the roof rack has been a bit of a struggle to adapt. There are skewered bikes still in the service course as well as a creeping thru-axle count. So what to do given this mix? We explore the Thule Thru-Axle Adapter.
We are die hard fans of the roof rack. Yes the hitch-mount trays are nice but having a bike in the line of danger as well as the ease of grabbing make us nervous. A hitch tray is the first thing to take the hit from a distracted driver. Nothing says bummer like losing a bike, a rack, and damage to the car, assuming everyone is ok. And to have a near service station for any would-be thief plays right into the tray racks. That’s too much to worry over, so on the roof the bikes will get stowed.
Having a Thule rack with fork mount receivers has always looked cool if you ask us. It feels like the team car could slip into any pro race and act like we belong. Keep in mind, we only use roof racks because of the lightness of road bikes. We still haven’t heard back from MIT how some people get heavy comfort bikes on stand-up roof racks atop SUVs. There must be a lot of noise getting them secured up there. And - if we could stereotype - mountain bikers seem to like the look of hanging the front wheel off the back of a pickup truck tailgate. But I digress. Road bikes on fork mount roof racks check a lot of boxes.
Thule’s Thru-Axle Adapter does check many boxes but not all. Easily removing the single piece of hardware from the box, the Adapter went easily into the fork-mount receiver. Once secured tightly, we locked the Adapter via the Thule lock system. That is where the locking abilities ended. The Adapter can be locked onto the rack, but the bike can’t be locked to the adapter. Our concerns of heisted bikes reentered the imagination. Once the Adapter was in place, the bike easily slipped onto it. As in, it was shocking just how smooth the bike popped onto the device. Thru bolt at the ready and the bike was snug onto the Adapter and the rack system. We stood back to admire the view. And to consider whether the bike was gankable. We have heard that the bike was sturdy in nearly ninety mile-per-hour winds on the NY Thruway.
Thule’s Thru-Axle Adapter does come with some concerns. Before we even had a chance to try it out, the adapter fell prone to the current product shortage. We had to call several bike shops before finding one that “[had] several on the rack.” Some ask why not look into getting a thru-bolt ready roof tray? Thule’s offering for a locking roof tray with thru-bolt adapter did not come highly recommended. Plus the move to thru-bolt specific trays would make carrying standard bikes difficult. For the small cost, the system seems to work. It can be removed faster than a bike.
For quite some time we drove the team car around with the bike stowed in the cargo space, both wheels removed, derailleur hanger most likely bending every direction. Meanwhile the roof rack sat empty atop the high performance machine. As luck would have it we took the bike to Upstate New York only to get rained out. We chalked it up as a testing opportunity. Or maybe it was our attempt to make up lost time. Either way, this simple piece of sturdy metal has made carting around a thru-axle bike a lot easier. We’ll make sure the car - and bike - is in sight at all times when we’re not in it.
