Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Indoor Storage

Hey guys, I've been trying to figure out the optimal indoor storage setup for my bikes, and I want to get some ideas from y'all. So, post pics of how you store your bikes inside and give any insight you have on the topic.

I tried the hooks but they didn't work out b/c my studs are in all the wrong places. Last night, I bought this delta michelangelo bike rack off craigslist, so I'll see how that works out. So far so good, but it seems a little bit flimsy. Here's a pic of the michelangelo:

http://www.sunandski.com/v/vspfiles/photos/7784054270702-2.jpg

This is an ugly wooden A-frame I built for about $20 to store 5 bikes in my old house. Very, very ugly but it worked well.

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h170/HandsomeRyan/bikerack1.jpg

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h170/HandsomeRyan/bikerack1.jpg

I found the being single and owning a four bedroom house made storage simple. Since my girlfriend moved in, I've had to make a few concessions. The bikes no longer have their own bedroom, but I still have a few in the 2nd lounge room, and one in my office. The rest are out in the storage shed.

Leaning them against walls or hanging them from the repair stand is as fancy as I ever got.

Since my girlfriend moved in, I've had to make a few concessions.

That's how it begins. Pretty soon you'll be wiping little asses and hauling diapers on a cargo trailer. Ride your bike for fun? Ha!

That's how it begins. Pretty soon you'll be wiping little asses and hauling diapers on a cargo trailer. Ride your bike for fun? Ha!

Seeing as how my daughters are married and my son is in college, the odds of little ones running around here are absolutely zero. She does have a daughter that's ten though, and this winter, we're building her a BMX bike to race. While they've cut into my free time, we do go on bike rides together, and she doesn't mind me sneaking away on my Harley now and then, but is more likely to go with me. I have no complaints.

Seeing as how my daughters are married and my son is in college, the odds of little ones running around here are absolutely zero. She does have a daughter that's ten though, and this winter, we're building her a BMX bike to race. While they've cut into my free time, we do go on bike rides together, and she doesn't mind me sneaking away on my Harley now and then, but is more likely to go with me. I have no complaints.

Meh. It was a joke. :thumb:

Meh. It was a joke. :thumb:

I waited until my son was two months old to strap his car seat into a trailer, behind a TT bike. There was an actual diaper bag in there back then. No joke.

I've had one of those Delta Michelangelo racks for about two years across two apartments and I've been pretty happy with it. Usually just my road and mountain bikes hang on it, so figure about 18lbs + 28lbs.

I also happen to have a very large apartment, so that rack shares a spare bedroom with all of my other bikes either learning against walls or in a Park work stand.

I don't have pics, but when I had to store 3 bikes in 1 room, hang em from the ceiling against the wall using any rubber coated hook.

http://www.allproducts.com/metal/ucando/35-hooks-s.jpg

At my girlfriend's place she hangs her bikes (and my bike) off the ceiling with hooks. Just flip it upside down and hook in the wheels. Works quite nicely if you've got the ceiling space

The trick to hanging bikes when you need to hang several from the wall or when the studs are not in the right place is to put a 2x4 into the wall at the studs and then put the hooks into the 2x4. I did this in my last apart to hang four bikes (we had like 12 in the apartment at one point). it worked great and I just removed the 2x4 from the wall when I moved out.

I opted not to put it back up in my new apartment since I'm only dealing with my four bikes. I picked up the Topeak stand that can take up to four bikes if you buy an extra two racks. I just put it up the other day and it looks great and took like five minutes to install, didn't require anything more than a 5mm allen key.

The trick to hanging bikes when you need to hang several from the wall or when the studs are not in the right place is to put a 2x4 into the wall at the studs and then put the hooks into the 2x4.

Or, attach the 2x4 to the ceiling, and you can fit a lot of bikes and wheels in a relatively small space.

I never thought of drilling a 2x4 into the studs. that's a great idea.

twitch--are you hanging the bikes completely upside down from the ceilling or hanging them from the ceiling so that they rest against a wall?

My apartment is kinda weird--tons of windows and a fireplace, so there's hardly any free wall space, which makes storage hard. Building a rack seems like it could be a fun project. I'm glad to hear someone else has owned the michelangelo and had good experiences w/ it, tho.

I am building one of these the next time I go to ikea
http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/2008/02/stolmen-bike-rack.html

i'm about to get some of these from OP and see if i can make use of them:
http://www.allproducts.com/metal/ucando/35-hooks-s.jpg other than that, me and my roommate have four bikes to work with... and they're scattered around the living room.

http://photos-g.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs220.snc1/8719_179023229749_631694749_3701994_239890_n.jpg

i know, terrible setup.

I never thought of drilling a 2x4 into the studs. that's a great idea.

twitch--are you hanging the bikes completely upside down from the ceilling or hanging them from the ceiling so that they rest against a wall?

My apartment is kinda weird--tons of windows and a fireplace, so there's hardly any free wall space, which makes storage hard. Building a rack seems like it could be a fun project. I'm glad to hear someone else has owned the michelangelo and had good experiences w/ it, tho.

Completely upside down. A hook for each wheel. She's got high ceilings so you can walk under them with tons of room to spare. If your ceilings are lower you could hang them against a wall over like a couch or something though

hooks in the garage ceiling. easy.

(except for the mortgage on the house to which the garage is attached...)

Damn dude, I want your garage

Here's some pics of my man-cave:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/aleach/photo4.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/aleach/photo.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/aleach/photo5.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v205/aleach/photo3.jpg


These pics are old, but illustrate a couple cool ways to store bikes inside. The big double-decker floor rack is facing inwards now, a little bit further into the garage, with 3 more bikes on the back side of it (My roommate's commuter, my commuter, and his girlfriend's commuter) . I also no longer have the IRO, my T1 (dedicated track-racing bike) lives in the house, and there are two more geared road bikes (my Soma Smoothie and my roommate's Lightspeed).

http://upshizzle.com/gallery/albums/October_2008/DSCN2514.JPG

cost like 50 bucks to make.

via this:
http://ikeahacker.blogspot.com/2008/02/stolmen-bike-rack.html

i have lucked out with the 2 houses i have been living in during college. my old house had a room that wasn't hooked up to the heating system in the house so no one used it but me as my bike room(i called it my office). my current house has a basement that is huge, so i've got plenty of space.

i wanted to do the ikea hack but my ceiling's taller than that post :(
what to do, what to do..?

I am so envious of you guys with spare bedrooms and garages. I had to repurpose a bathroom. The shower wasn't QUITE wide enough for a standard wall rack, and the walls/ceiling weren't receptive to drilling so I had to hang them christmas-tree-style from this rack. Works pretty well actually.

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=122528&d=1256130509

i wanted to do the ikea hack but my ceiling's taller than that post :(
what to do, what to do..?

Just cut it down with a pipe cutter or hacksaw.

Also, I would recommend against using aluminum to hold your bikes up. Aluminum will fatigue over time and eventually fail catastrophically, and be unnecessarily harsh every time you set one on the holder. Use a steel pipe, and get that nice, plush, "round" feel that you just don't get from aluminum. Steel is real!

Just cut it down with a pipe cutter or hacksaw.


Will that make it longer?

yeah my ceilings next semester will be 18' tall, so any suggestions on that?

Without drilling the ceiling btw

haagenize--i suggest using a bike rack similar to the one I have now, because you just lean it against any wall. Or you can use the hooks, which are like $2 from performance. If you use the hooks (this goes for anyone), I recommend getting some kind of a pad for your rear wheel to lean against. Otherwise it will destroy your wall with black marks.

I am also jealous of you guys that have extra rooms/basements. The worst thing about Texas is that the soil isn't conducive to building basements. the second worst is george w.

I am also jealous of you guys that have extra rooms/basements. The worst thing about Texas is that the soil isn't conducive to building basements.

In Texas: Garage = Basement

yeah, i know, but it just doesn't have the same cache as the basement. You can't have a secret pot smoking clubhouse in the garage b/c there is always a chance that someone will open the garage door and expose you to the neighbors haha.

i have one of these
http://www.bikerackshops.com/images/indoor_bike_racks/130RPlarge.jpg
don't buy it. it sucks. thing always looks like it is going to tip over. you can mount it to the wall, but i don't want to go drilling into the walls here. my landlord is a dick.

Used my spare bedroom as a bike room.
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii303/chrism32205/bikeroom.jpg
http://i267.photobucket.com/albums/ii303/chrism32205/bikeroom2.jpg

i hate everyone with spare bedrooms, garages, basements, etc..
i'm so jealous!! :(

That's how it begins. Pretty soon you'll be wiping little asses and hauling diapers on a cargo trailer. Ride your bike for fun? Ha!

6 weeks into it, all i can say is that truer words were never spoken.

i had ~4k miles under my belt on 8/1. ~400 miles since then. otto was born 10/2.

chrism---i'm jealous of your bike room and the bikes in it. very nice. is that s-works a cross bike w/ slicks on it?

Ahhhh, you people with the luxury of space...

i have one of these
http://www.bikerackshops.com/images/indoor_bike_racks/130RPlarge.jpg
don't buy it. it sucks. thing always looks like it is going to tip over. you can mount it to the wall, but i don't want to go drilling into the walls here. my landlord is a dick.

I got the same rack for $40 at Ross. It's a good rack but you definitely need to screw it into the wall at the top. It's only one screw I don't see what the big deal is.

^^ I have one of those. It's been leaning against our wall for about 8 months. No tip, although it's not super stable. It does leave marks on your wall.

Will that make it longer?

the pole comes with braces so you can mount the top section to the wall when it isnt long enough.

http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/uu132/gavriel_bucket/DSC_1965.jpg
http://i641.photobucket.com/albums/uu132/gavriel_bucket/DSC_1967.jpg

The shed
+drywall = my work shop/studio space if I can call it that

I also was a little bummed about the hooks when I decided to hang my bikes. The beams are 15" from the wall, so I have a bit of space from the handle bars to the wall but whatever.

What kind of geetar you got there, sonny?

It's some Yamaha DW-4SC, it's nothing special but it sounds really good.
This is my otherhttp://th09.deviantart.net/fs32/300W/i/2008/282/d/4/field_day____guitar_by_gaviD.jpgjust a Squire

i'm using a clothes rack from ikea that was like $5. works well..

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2525/4052805222_25cb96344f_b.jpg

not my picture, but that's exactly the same as what i'm using.

^^ that's pretty nifty.

Hairnet your bikes look good upside down, And nice paintings.

Swagman Bike Hanger from MEC. It's not all that great. A bit pricey ($80 IIRC) and doesn't feel terribly stable. But it's very adjustable and customizable and hasn't given too much trouble yet.

http://sixpop.com/files/204/rack2.jpghttp://sixpop.com/files/204/rack1.jpg

Here's some pics of my man-cave:

Jealous! I wish I had a setup like that. Even down to the kegerator.

^^ I have one of those. It's been leaning against our wall for about 8 months. No tip, although it's not super stable. It does leave marks on your wall.
mine is a little out from the wall because of that reason. i have had it for ..... hmmmm, not sure, well over 6 months. never tipped on me, but does not seam stable at all. it "works," but i am not a fan. but i am probably moving soon. either buying a house or renting for a year while we look (and i look for a new job. Damn you government for cutting back in medicare and ruining the medical supply manufacturing industry and taking my awesome cushy video editing job away from me. end rant). most of the places we are looking at have garages or are half a double, so i should have plenty of room, or can anchor it into the wall.

yeah my ceilings next semester will be 18' tall, so any suggestions on that?

Without drilling the ceiling btw

trapeeze?

Here's mine. I also have a couple other hangin out around the apartment right now wherever I can fit em.

http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad344/7daysaweek/bikerack.jpg

homemade 5-bike rack
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3027/3043953047_41fbf17d9b.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3296/3043951381_b3e0a216d1.jpg