Thule558P Tandem Bicycle Pivoting Roof Mount Carrier

This item was easy to install and is well made. More importantly, it is very easy to use. I have a small 2-door VW Golf hatchback but wanted a way to move a tandem to the trails. The Thule carrier has two very clever aspects to it. The first is that the rear section comes off for mounting a normal bicycle. This is important for small car owners, since a long carrier prevents the hatchback from being able to open all of the way. The second is the rotating head to mount the fork. It is a snap to connect the fork and then swing the bike around. I am over 50 and this causes no strain at all. There is one minor comment, however, that I should mention. In order to be able to lift the bike up to mount the fork into the pivoting head, the carrier has to be fairly close to the edge of the car. Do to my roof mounts, i wasn't able to mount it as close to the edge as I would have liked, but found that by rolling down the front window there is no issue with the bike touching the car. Therefore, this isn't really a concern for me....but make sure and take this into account when you put on the carrier. This device has opened up a whole set of biking opportunities, and I'm thrilled with the purchase.

The roof mount holds our tandem securely on our car as have the previous roof mounts we have used on other cars. There are a couple problems which may be specific to our car (Audi All Road station wagon). We picked the car since the roof is lower that other long flat roofed vehicles sold in the US. So we can put the bike on top without much trouble. This is fortunate since using the pivot would likely lead to a scratched car. The second problem stems from a recent redesign of the roof mount. The roof mount was made sturdier by changing the way the mount is attached to the car rack. Unfortunately this means that you are limited in how far forward the rack can be placed. As a result we must remove the extension if we wish to open the back hatch. We used to carry the detached front wheel in the back of our station wagon. But since we can't open the back hatch with the bike on top, we had to buy a roof mount for our front wheel.

Buyer beware! This is an expensive rack with a very cheap axel lever! Just a small little snap ring holding all the pressure. I have an all Thule rack set up that I love...but this surprises me. I expect much better from Thule. The lever just popped off in my hand the very first use! I have contacted the seller and I am waiting for a response. I will update my review when I hear back.

Nice sturdy bike carrier. Fits my tandem well. The removable rear portion is nice because I can open my hatchback without hitting the carrier.

I bought this rack because of it's advertised ability to allow a single person to load a tandem. This is very much based on the size of your car. Even with a small SUV (RAV4) I still needed my wife to hold up the rear of the bike while I set the fork into the quick release mount. After a few times of this I decided that I would just put the bike in myself to make it easy. This was accomplished by lifting the bike and setting it in the rack as you would do a single bike on a rack with no pivoting quick release mount. At this point the rack was no longer useful to me because the pivoting of the quick release was not a usable feature. Add to that there is no secure way to attach it to the car or a way to lock the bike once on the car. Thule could have done a much better job for the price.

We're using this for a Cannondale RT1000 tandem on a Honda Fit. Attaching this to our Yakima round-bar roof-rack was pretty easy. Have used it quite a few times since (including on some long highway journeys as well as through bumpy city streets. The mount *does* squeak slightly - but I think is a natural function very slight movement in the mount/bike/rack. I don't think it's because it's not secure.Pros:- Easy to install. Instructions are pretty good, just need a socket wrench or spanner set, and you're good.- Removable back portion allows you to keep this in the car without impacting the hatchback (if applicable). Our Honda Fit hatchback does hit the back of this rack when the rear portion is attached, but, when not in use, the ability to remove the rear section is a big help.- Pretty easy for one person to mount the bike using the rotating head. It might be a bit of a struggle if your car is particularly high, or if your person is particularly low, though.- It works.Cons- It's pretty ugly. Since it's not really built to be removed easily, it lives on the car. Next to our other fork-mounted Thule racks it's very non-streamlined and ungainly. And I don;t know what it's doing to fuel efficiency, if anything.- Security. There's no integral ability to lock the bike to the mount. The fork mount is just a regular skewer. I've looked at some of the lockable skewer options (I think Thule make/made one? And Rocky Mounts?), but can't seem to find anything that is guaranteed to fit/work. I understand this is a simplistic design that's durable, I just think they could have found a way to have a locking fork mount. We've used a U-lock and security cables to lock the bike to the rook rack bars, but it's pretty ugly, and the U-lock isn't very stable, so rattles around.- Price. It ain't cheap. However, after looking at the other tandem racks available, I didn't like the Yakima one because the rear mount would have rested on some of our gear cables, and, for the Rocky Mount one, I wasn't convinced the telescoping rear section wouldn't hit our hatch, even when fully retracted. Our tandem actually did fit inside the car, but it involved putting down the front seat, and pretty much jamming it in there. Bike grease on the upholstery also made that option unpopular.

We dont' really use the pivoting feature. But this mount is very sturdy and enables us to take our tandem everwhere.