Yakima BOA Fork Mount Short Tray Rooftop Bicycle Carrier

Before buying this mount, measure the distance between your bike's fork dropouts to the rear wheel. Then look at the recommended crossbar spacing for your vehicle in the Yakima Q Clip instruction booklet. If the measurements are not similar (ie. rear wheel not centered over the rear crossbar, short roofline and long wheelbase bike), then the rear wheel will hang far behind the rear crossbar and there's a good chance that the rear towers will shift forward when transporting your bike. This can result in roof damage from the shifting clips and the bike's rear wheel contacting and scratching the roof.

The Boa is Yakima's most economical rooftop bike mount and it shows. If you live in a low crime neighborhood and remove your bike and rack when you are away from your car, this mount will probably work just fine for you. Or if you absolutely need to minimize the footprint of the rack when it's off your vehicle.

The Boa pod is mostly made of glass-filled polymer. There is a flimsy plastic cover that is secured by the skewer and covers the heads of the 3 hex mounting bolts. Unfortunately, even when locked, this cover can easily be pried and cracked open by hand revealing the 3 bolt heads. I complained and Yakima responded that they only provide theft deterrence and cannot guarantee against theft. This does not even approach deterrence.

The Boa mount comes with Yakima's universal locking skewer with a polymer lever, stainless rod, and round steel nut. If the skewer is closed and locked but the handle is in the wrong orientation and there's insufficient tension, then it's a simple matter to rotate the handle counterclockwise to loosen the nut and steal your bike. The lever and cam are plastic and will deform and wear with use. When no bike is loaded, the only way to secure the mount is to tighten the nut further and then close and lock the skewer. However, adjusting the nut defeats the purpose of providing a long-throw skewer.

Adding a long tray converts the mount into a Copperhead mount. However, given the security concerns, I returned this mount and purchased a Yakima Steelhead mount instead. The Steelhead has a clamshell clamping design and is mostly metal. It comes with a stainless metal skewer that has a special locking pin and e-clip on the nut. When the skewer is locked, the clamshell cannot open and the skewer nut cannot be removed even if it is not tightened and tensioned against the mount body. As with the Boa, make sure that the skewer lever rests against the crossbar when locked so that it can only be turned clockwise tightening (and not loosening) the nut.

If you don't want to spend much more than the cost of the Boa but want to use your SKS lock cores, consider purchasing a Steelhead body (new or used) and a Rocky Mounts Lariat tray. You will need to drill a hole in the tray to mount the Yakima head. The Rocky Mounts crossbar mount is compatible with Yakima's round bars and comes with all hardware, and their wheel strap is also less expensive than Yakima's.

If you are using or considering Yakima Q Towers, I have a separate review of that product on Amazon.

This product works great for me. It fits my car and bike just fine with my Yakima rack at 32" bar spacing. I've used it with two different road bikes (one is a 'normal' size, one a smaller size) and it worked great for both.

I'm not sure what the other reviewer was expecting out of this product. I wouldn't call any of the Yakima rack products extremely secure. If someone wanted to take my rack, they could pry the clips out and walk off with it. Also, all the rack bike mounts I've seen use the tension between the fork and the skewer to secure the bike. Apply enough force and you can probably pull it out of the mount. I'm never going to leave the bike on my car anyways, so it's moot.

It works great and the price is right. As long as your bar spacing is in the acceptable range, you're fine.

The Boa bike mount works great at holding the bike on to your roof-rack. The BOA securely holds the bike via front quick-release-type axle clamps (the type that holds your bike wheel). You can add Yakima Lock-Cores to add some security but they are not required. Truth be told nothing is really theft proof, however the lock-cores will hold up while you take a nice break at a highway rest-area. Removing the front wheel isn't an issue if your bike has a quick release. It's actually easier to lift your bike onto a car-roof without the added weight of a front wheel. If your car-system is compatible I recommend the BOA. It's essentially the same as the yakima Copper head but without the rail, and the BOA costs a fraction of the price of the Copperhead. So same function, less money :-)

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 7 reviews  4.4 out of 5 stars