This paper describes a setup dedicated to the test of silicon photomultipliers interfaced to a scintillating bar detector. The main item of the setup is a scintillator bar tracker made of extruded bars, readout with wavelength shifter fibers: multiple configurations in terms of number of fibers and readout bar sides are available to test different readout approaches. This setup has been used to test the prototype SiPMs produced by FBK-irst which are characterized by a larger fill factor and photodetection efficiency with respect to standard devices. The SiPMs have been characterized in terms of efficiency, signal to noise ratio and mean photoelectron number using cosmic rays.