64 - AMB
Whispbar is a company with its roots firmly in the
aviation industry, thus aerodynamics are a key
informer of their products’ form and function.
The WB201 is their roof rack using ‘SmartHold’
technology; that is, it enables carriage of bikes
on your car roof without the removal of wheels by
securing the frame’s down tube. This has several
advantages; not having to fuss over removing
the front wheel, difficulties with newer front axle
technologies (Maxles and Lefty), and enabling
more space to carry things inside your car.When I first opened the WB201, the first thing I
noticed is how visually striking the rack is. The
brushed silver rack boasts sleek lines that would
not look out of place on an Audi or BMW. Indeed,
Whispbar states that a major driver of their
innovation and styling has been trying to make
car accessories that enhance the aesthetics of a
vehicle. When not in use, the SmartHold frame
clamp lies smartly flush with the main strut of the
rack, also increasing aerodynamics.Installing the WB201 to existing Whisper racks
with QuickDock technology is a piece of cake; it’s
a case of lining the rack up, dropping the rack into
the ’T-slot’ and securing with the levers on each
side of the racks mounting system. I needed to be
a little more forceful with one end of the rack, but
it is essentially a very easy system to mount. The
WB201 can be used with other racks and comes
with adaptors, check the Whisper website for
compatibility.The rack itself will hold up to 20kg of bike,
depending on the positioning of the bars, however
the rack really excelled when using smaller,
lighter bikes due to the requirement of lifting a
whole bike above-head onto the roof.WorDS AND PHoToS: ANNA BECKTESTED
HiTS- Elegant appearance
- Holds the bike securely
- Wheels stay on the bike
MiSSES- Could do with a simpler ratchet system
RRP $329
http://www.whispbar.com.auESSENTiALS
WHISPBAR
WB201 RACK
The beauty of the SmartHold frame clamp soon
became apparent: once you have your bike in the
correct position with the arm located around the
down tube, you press down the lock and the clever
frame clamps are able to ascertain the size of
the tube and clamp appropriately. I tried this with
bikes of different down-tube diameters and some
that had atypical down tube shapes, and the rack
performed every time.I also tried positioning the SmartHold arms at
different angles prior to mounting the bike, in
order to avoid the awkward bike-mounting dance
and resulting old-person groans. The optimal
position varied with each bike, depending on a
few factors such as height of bottle cages, angle
of down tube, frame size and chainring set up
and clearance (if bringing arm up from it’s resting
position). once I figured out the best way to do
this for each bike, however, the user experience
of the rack was greatly enhanced. A small stool or
crate would make things easier.Securing the bike is a case of positioning the
wheels in the docks, then placing the retaining
clip over the wheels and into bilateral ratchets
on each side of the wheel. This was perhaps the
trickiest part of the bike mounting process and
I felt that the ratchet design could potentially
be simplified into a one-sided affair, therefore
reducing the huffing and puffing associated with
short people trying to secure their bike on a
roof mounted system. Plus there was the time
I accidentally didn’t secure the clips back in the
rack after use and went for a drive...needless to
say it was purely user error but I cursed while
dodging traffic to pick them up!The Whisper WB201 certainly ticks many of the
boxes for roof-mounted bike racks; it’s nice to
look at, doesn’t require wheel removal and the
SmartHold technology means you needn’t fear
using the rack on even the fanciest of carbon
frames. If I was looking a pure ease of use the
bulkier Yakima branded racks would probably win
out. If I was concerned about the aesthetics of my
vehicle, I would be choosing the Whisper WB201
over other racks on the market, especially for
road and XC bikes that are lighter weight and a
little easier to wrangle over your head.