I'm moving, and will need to fit ten bikes (including a tandem) and a bicycle trailer, plus tools, ladder, a few wheels, and various and sundry things into a one car garage with a door into the house. Right now, they're all in a one car detached garage. In order to leave the door into the house free to open and leave space to walk through the garage (which there isn't much of now), I'll need to hang the bikes on the wall or ceiling.

So I'm wondering this: Is there some reason that hanging bikes upside down is so common? Wouldn't it be easier to hang them right side up? And do you all have any ideas for storing the most bicycles in the smallest place while still allowing them all to be accessed fairly easily?

Thanks in advance.

Bikes are hung upside down because the wheels are on the bottom But really imagine lifting your bike to the ceiling hooks rightside up, meaning you are lifting the bike by its spinning wheels. That would not be an easy task. Also spacing between the hooks is less important and can accommodate a larger range of bike sizes when hanging by the wheels.

They make bike hoist pulley systems you've probably seen but that can get pricey if hanging a lot of bikes.

You can get quite a few bikes into a small space if you stagger them and alternate direction so their handlebars aren't colliding and pedals/cranks aren't lined up. Too close and it's kind of a pain to snag one out of the center.

They balance better upside down, just two hooks and boom that's it.

They also sell these racks that you hoist up to the roof if you wanna look at something like that

Or you can just put a 2X4 up near the ceiling and hang bikes by the saddle nose the way LBS do

+1 hanging the saddles on a beam or sturdy pipe is the easiest

If you have a leather saddle, you don't want to hang by the saddle ;(


Tom

Been a long time since I got rid of my Ideale, but it seems like with most leather saddles the rails would be contacting the beam before any leather would.

Oops, I guess a lot of the less racy models have skirts that come down below rails. So yeah, ixnay on the saddle hanging for some of those.

Swallow, Swift, maybe Team Pro should be OK

Yea, only have to lift whole bike to hook front wheel,
then swing the back wheel up to hook #2..

the block and tackle bike hanging kit
would let you haul the bike into the overhead straight up,
but they do cost more than a couple storage hooks..

roller blocks and rope would make something useful
a rope cleat on the wall, rather than the ascender like clutch .

I thought that two hooks halfway up the wall to grab the top tube would be easy enough, and it totally didn't work because the front end was too wide. So upside down it is. Thanks for the help

I just put this setup in my garage

you can hang them on the wall with one hook by the rear wheel

I haven't had to resort to hanging my bikes overhead yet but when I was considering it these two ideas came up foremost to my mind.

Keep in mind that we're talking about overhead such that you can easily walk under them. That means a tall ceiling. If you're just lifting them up to hang from a typical 8 foot ceiling then lifting and hanging them from the saddle or top tube is much easier to do without having to hold them by the wheels. But if you're graced with a 12 foot ceiling in your garage like my new one then upside down and way up overhead hanging by the wheels it is for sure. The only bike that won't see this is my mountain bike with the hydraulic brakes. If I hang it I'll need to use a pulley hanger so it stays upright due to the brakes.