bwanapatto

The raptor aero will indeed fit on my 97's stock bars - they're barely thick enough. One thing I noticed is that due to the thinness of the bars and the way they bend, putting the bike anywhere but the middle of the rack causes the bike to lean to one side, which doesn't seem very stable. I heard horror stories of this mount losing bikes on the highway and discounted them as improper setups, but I can see how a sharp turn at high speeds could dislodge a bike.

Yeah, that's what I usually do, but lately I've been doing a lot of muddy off-roading and don't really want to get all that mud in my car after the ride. I checked the install guide PDF on yakima's site and was pretty sure I wouldn't have a problem so I ordered the mount and am hoping for the best. I'll post the results tomorrow when it arrives.

I am wondering if there is any difference in dimensions between the factory crossbars in the 96-99 R50's and the ones on the 99.5-04's. The reason I ask is that I have a 97 R50 (SE model I believe, if that makes a difference) and was hoping to be able to mount a Yakima Raptor Aero mount to my bars, but the fit list for the mount only lists pathfinders after the 99.5 model year. Has anyone had any success mounting Yakima bike mounts directly to the factory crossbars for pre-99.5 pathys? Thanks!