Bicycle Mechanics - Hanging Bike Upside Down in garage

What do you think of hanging mountain bike and road bike upside down in closed garages? I live in San Francisco so space is very limited. I have been hanging my Full Suspension FSR Stumpjumper and 853 Steel Road Bike Upside down on 2 hooks. Is this safe for parts and/or lubrication? If the bikes get wet, I do lean them horizontally on my wall to dry off. I do not have space for the bike Hoist, wheel and pulley system. Thanks,

It's fine for the bike. Just don't walk into them in the dark.

Works great. Just make sure to take the bottles out of their cages (or at least make cap is sealed) or they'll drip all over the top tube and possibly into the cable housings.

You can also hang them by one wheel. Put the hook on the joist about 6 in from the wall and the bike will hang vertically against the wall.

Check with your suspension system manufacturers on your FSR. Some suspension components are not meant to be placed in an inverted attitude. The same might hold true if you have hydraulic discs too.

Should be fine with the above stated cautions.

Check with your suspension system manufacturers on your FSR. Some suspension components are not meant to be placed in an inverted attitude.

Interesting. I'd never heard that.

OK, Ituw . . . now you have to report back to us when you find out :)

I hang all 5 of my bikes upside down from the garage rafters, but I don't have any suspension or hydraulic brakes.

Check with your suspension system manufacturers on your FSR. Some suspension components are not meant to be placed in an inverted attitude. The same might hold true if you have hydraulic discs too.

I second this comment, some forks are not made to be upside down. I read about one that leaked the oil out. Sounds like a good idea to check on the rear shock and hydraulic brakes too.

I would be surprised if you could not store hydraulic brakes in any orientation you like. It should be a totally sealed system. If fluid can leak out, air can get in and that ain't cool.

As a slight aside, just be sure there are no corrosive fumes in your garage. Once I saw two hardly-used Bridgestones trashed in a Houston garage where they also stored pool chemicals. Combined with the high humidity these released chlorine fumes over time that ruined all metal parts. Could have wept!

Emailed Rock Shox and read the manual for my SID SL 80mm travel and they said it is OK to hang upside down. The manual actually recommends storing the fork upside down to keep the oil bath lubrication running smoothly. I don't have Hydraulic brakes so I didn't check into it. Thank you for your help.

I was going to say, it's actually good for some forks, lubricates the insides. For closed system hydraulic brakes (Maguras, Hope C2s etc) hanging upside down is fine. I don't know a great deal about open system brakes, so can't comment.

As a slight aside, just be sure there are no corrosive fumes in your garage. Once I saw two hardly-used Bridgestones trashed in a Houston garage where they also stored pool chemicals. Combined with the high humidity these released chlorine fumes over time that ruined all metal parts. Could have wept!


This is true. An ex-employer of mine had a BMW motorcycle that all the metal had started corroding. :eek:
The bike dealers had never seen this and couldn't figure out what happened.
Turns out he had chemicals in his garage that caused it.

I hung my Mountain Bike upside down in the garage for the winter and did mostly road riding during that time. My Manitou SX-Ti Fork seals did not hold up well and when the weather warmed up, I took it down in preparation for a trail ride only to find that the fork was empty of oil.

Must have happened slowly because there was no drips or puddles. ONly a slight wetness around the fork boots.

Emailed Rock Shox and read the manual for my SID SL 80mm travel and they said it is OK to hang upside down. The manual actually recommends storing the fork upside down to keep the oil bath lubrication running smoothly. I don't have Hydraulic brakes so I didn't check into it. Thank you for your help.

Also interesting.

Thanks for posting the follow-up . . . and remember to watch your head ;)