Living Car Free - Need an idea for a nice outdoor bike rack at my home...

We keep the bikes in the garage overnight (a "single car" garage can hold a lot of bikes), but during the day there's a bike here and a bike there and someone is coming and someone is going...

So I am looking for a nice low key good looking bike rack to hold a couple of bikes. I would prefer this vice leaning the bikes against a glass table (which is the current trend).

Everybody wants to park near the front door, which is just inside of a gate in a little courtyard area. So I want something that would look nice next to the front door. Security is not such a big issue as this is all behind the gate that leads to the front door. Convenience is the key.

I could make this if it were of wood... So I am open to ideas.

I was riding by some townhouses this morning. They all had wooden fences around their courtyards. At one of them, there were 3 bikes hung over the fence by their front wheels. This may not be the ultimate solution but that's how someone handled it.

Use bamboo poles, they are good looking and weather resistant.

I built a version of a 'hitching post' of steel. It is a steel pipe 5 feet tall (3 feet are above the ground, 2 feet under ground set in concrete) with a round steel loop at the top. I painted it brown. It sort of goes with the southwestern look of my home.

I rode my bike out to my office a while back. This is an office building on maybe 10 acres of land, with all sorts of construction equipment parked and stored on it. I came in the big chainlink gate, locked it behind me, and left the bike on the porch. Two or three hours later when I went back out, it was gone. So don't assume bikes left behind a gate are safe- lock 'em anyway.

You're the best judge of the character of your neighborhood, but I've read enough accounts of theft, even in nice neighborhoods, to believe that security is aways an issue, even behind a gate.

Having dispensed with that, I'd say something steel, maybe something that looks like a sculpture, and that fits with the design of your house and garden. For example, there are lots of public bike racks around town here that also serve as street sculptures. Those particular designs may or may not be appropriate in a garden setting, depending on the architecture and landscape design. But something along those lines would work, I think.



A good example of what I'm talking about:
I built a steel version of a 'hitching post' of steel. It is a steel pipe feet tall (3 feet are above the ground, 2 feet under ground set in concrete) with a round steel loop at the top. I painted it brown. It sort of goes with the southwestern look of my home.

We keep the bikes in the garage overnight (a "single car" garage can hold a lot of bikes), but during the day there's a bike here and a bike there and someone is coming and someone is going...

So I am looking for a nice low key good looking bike rack to hold a couple of bikes. I would prefer this vice leaning the bikes against a glass table (which is the current trend).

Everybody wants to park near the front door, which is just inside of a gate in a little courtyard area. So I want something that would look nice next to the front door. Security is not such a big issue as this is all behind the gate that leads to the front door. Convenience is the key.

I could make this if it were of wood... So I am open to ideas.

Either you can whip up a DIY rack from plastic plumbing pipe or buy a kickstand.

You're the best judge of the character of your neighborhood, but I've read enough accounts of theft, even in nice neighborhoods, to believe that security is aways an issue, even behind a gate.

Having dispensed with that, I'd say something steel, maybe something that looks like a sculpture, and that fits with the design of your house and garden. For example, there are lots of public bike racks around town here that also serve as street sculptures. Those particular designs may or may not be appropriate in a garden setting, depending on the architecture and landscape design. But something along those lines would work, I think.



A good example of what I'm talking about:

Good points all around. Perhaps I should have also mentioned that we have two dogs. And the front door is usually wide open, so we tend to be very aware of what is happening in the courtyard.

But be that as it may... I think something a bit decorative might be a good answer... and perhaps out of direct sight behind the garage might also be a good choice.

I'll have to think about this a bit more.

Either you can whip up a DIY rack from plastic plumbing pipe or buy a kickstand.

Kick stand???

We have 8 bikes between the 3 of us, and only one kickstand. I like bikes without kick stands. And besides, you would have me ask friends to add kick stands to their bikes? What kind of a host would I be then.

"ah sorry... you need a kickstand before you can come over... oh and take off your shoes." :D

"Oh, you brought wine, how nice.... " ;)

The person who owned my house before me put piping in a long railing upside down U along railroad ties that serve as the property boundary.

He probably used it for something else but this thing is the perfect "bike rack".

Kick stand???

We have 8 bikes between the 3 of us, and only one kickstand. I like bikes without kick stands. And besides, you would have me ask friends to add kick stands to their bikes? What kind of a host would I be then.

"ah sorry... you need a kickstand before you can come over... oh and take off your shoes." :D

"Oh, you brought wine, how nice.... " ;)


Don't be bitter now. YOU didn't menton friends and besides a kickstand is designed to hold up
a bike......ANYWHERE.:notamused:

I could make this if it were of wood... So I am open to ideas.
Wordbiker makes pretty ones out of wood.

Wordbiker makes pretty ones out of wood.

Who is this "Wordbiker?" do you have a link?

Good points all around. Perhaps I should have also mentioned that we have two dogs. And the front door is usually wide open, so we tend to be very aware of what is happening in the courtyard.

But be that as it may... I think something a bit decorative might be a good answer... and perhaps out of direct sight behind the garage might also be a good choice.

I'll have to think about this a bit more.

At my place, I called the city and gave them permission to install a rack out on the sidewalk. The only string attached was that it had to be available to the public.

Since you want decorative, businesses around here are getting into having these iron racks designed to have a pattern related to the business- an outline of a steaming cup of coffee for a coffee shop for example. So go to a business that makes iron fences and railings and throw some ideas at them. If nothing else a bike rack in the shape of a bicycle would work.

Who is this "Wordbiker?" do you have a link?

http://www.bikeforums.net/member.php?u=32323