Do I need or not the Yakima stretch kit for carrying bikes on my 1998 Honda Civic

[monaxxx]

My local dealer said I will need to get a Stretch Kit adapter thingy to stretch out a roof rack on my 1998 Honda Civic HX 2 door. Specifically I am looking at the Yakima Q Towers roof rack system. I'm seeing online with the Yakima Racks automatic rack fit guide that i might not need the Stretch Kit if I'm only carrying bikes. Can I get away with saving $100 bucks and not using the Yakima Stretch Kit adapter with the Q Tower system?

[bonnieLASS]

You can absolutely do without the yakima stretch kit when setting up the Yakima Q Towers roof rack system on your 1998 Honda Civic HX two door. Yakima Racks has done extensive testing to determine the proper and safe cross bar spread (distance between the front and rear crossbars) when attaching each type of gear carrier and traveling at all variations of speed and road surface type. Yakima Racks has concluded that transporting bikes is safe using just the normal Q Tower car rack system without the need for the stretch kit adapter. Remember however that if you decide to carry any long items such as a canoe, kayak or luggage roof box (and also items like ladders and lumber too) you will need to install the stretch kit so you can spread the cross bars further apart on your short roof line to safely carry these long items. But for bikes you can choose any of yakima rack's roof mount bike racks and attach to the Q Tower cross bars for a very solid bike roof rack system.