Dead Horse I know - How to store in a garage?
 

In the next couple months I will achieve a small Nirvana. The partially insulated and dry walled garage will be finished with insulation and dry wall, even insulation of the garage door which gets all the afternoon summer sun, OVEN, and conducts the cold like any thin metal surface.

So I did a search for posts on garage storage ideas and came up with a bunch of posts but none on point.

I am looking at one short section of wall where I could store a line of bikes above our Miata, but need pictures of how you have done this to see what my choices are and what materials I need to assemble to do this. Bikes to be stored won't exceed 6-10 and would like to hang them so that their tires are on the wall, suspended from the ceiling.

Another question is the issue of heat in the winter to prevent condensation inside the frame tubes. I know these are all vintage steel frames and that horse has long left the barn, but figured it never hurts to pause the corrosion and then there's keeping me warm on winter days working on bikes. :thumb:

I've had a 20amp plug in installed by the electrician and will use an electric heater, any better in your experience?

Thanks for you pictures and advice.

Personally I don't think you need a heater so much as you need airflow to evaporate moisture, once the temperature drops below the dew point, you will get condensation. Even a lightbulb is helpful in an enclosed area.

But that's just my opinion.

Get a couple angle brackets, a long 2X4 (pressure treated) and some bike hooks. Space the hooks on 14" centers and hang the bikes alternatingly head to toe.

As shown

Mark Petry
Bainbridge Island, WA USA

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...829152eeb5.jpg

Here's my DIY set-up in my garage. Currently holding 8 bikes, I could have compressed the linear space by staggering alternate bikes at 2 different heights to avoid the handlebar space, but I have plenty of room.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...024b554b49.jpg

Here are close-ups of the front wheel docks, taken before the fleet got evicted from inside the house.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e1fe49bc94.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7a76401603.jpg

Everything is scrap wood, I had on hand, so no cost. You could accomplish the same thing with commercially available bike storage hooks too.

This is an unheated space and NYC winters haven't caused any issues.

Very nice idea/solution.

I space my hooks at 12" intervals and hang bikes head to toe. (Sorry about poor picture quality. It's pretty dark down there). https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c3eaef8e96.jpg

Don't store dead horses in the garage....the stink and make mess really fast (someone had to go there)

I don't have any free walls so I just dangle em off of hooks screwed in to the roof joists.

Gratuitous dangle shot..





https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...77218a99da.jpg

First of all, start with a garage at least twice as big as you think you need...

;)

I'm a dangler, too. Sneak peek of my shop I haven't got quite set up yet. But it's packed from the rafters on down with bikes n' stuff.

Rafters are spaced 24" on center, so there's plenty of room between the bikes to put up a little ladder to pull them down when needed. They hang about 5' 10" on average above the floor, so there's lots of space for the shelves, cabinets etc below them for storage. I live in a rain forest, basically, so I need to get some fans up to keep air circulating.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...74bb39e797.jpg

At the limit, I've hung 22 bikes along a 17' wall with still-semi-reasonable ingress/egress.

There are threaded hooks that will precisely snap onto 1/2" iron pipe (from which sliding hooks can be suspended).

All super-low-cost materials. I space the threaded hooks into every second joist in the ceiling, except at the far end of the room where a few heavy Schwinns are hanging (hook in every joist there).

The local Dollar Tree sells the sliding hooks six for a dollar, which can be twisted 90-degrees and which are strong enough for normal bikes.
Shown below, I used home-made hooks that are thicker at 3/16" dia and which have a bigger radius at each end than the Dollar-store cheapies.

The threaded hooks (for hanging the pipe) come from the hardware store and are rated for over 100lbs each (I tested them well above that level before hanging any bikes).
Find the size that will snap onto the iron plumbing pipe (which a better plumbing outfit will cut to any length for you).

I was about to have the local iron works make me a batch of the sliding hooks early on, but in the process of making them a requested sample hook, I solved my own problem of how to make them myself.:innocent: The steel rod and all of the parts for the bending fixture (save for the cap screw and the concave roller I fabricated) came from Home Depot building materials.
Some of the thicker hooks pictured were strong enough for a motorcycle (I made samples from 5/32" up to 3/8"!!!).
The thin hooks from the Dollar store are just strong enough in part due to their smaller bend radius (which better resists hanging loads for any given rod diameter). One of these is shown in the center of the bottom photo.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...4dd68f1589.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...ab8f43b6e6.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...d47ee47fed.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...50692f1bee.jpg
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7b795631cd.jpg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...cffa4d096c.jpg

Thanks all you've been very helpful. I've copied all your suggestions and GREAT pictures into my garage file. This really helps having to not re-invent the wheel.

Good morning for the monthly re-inflate the collections tires while listening to the Doors - Greatest Hits.

Life is Good. :beer:

Nah ... You'd be the only one on this forum ... ;)

I went to Home Depot and bought some bicycle storage hooks. There's hint in that answer. :)

Came here for this.

Most important concern is reducing humidity. Anything consistently over 55% humidity in a closed non-circulating area and your leather seats are going to turn into a mold-fest. Anything over 70% humidity and you'll mold out even with circulation.

I found this out the hard way, rendered two of my favorite saddles unrestorable. Once mold sets in really well on a leather seat, you're screwed. I tried everything, and when I got super desperate I took one and soaked it a mold and mildew blocker, the other in highly diluted bleach water for days. No dice. Even after finishing, drying them safely and fully in a low-humidity area, mold still had roots deep in the leather and it was molding again a few days later.

Mold sucks.

Note that Armor All seems to foster aggressive mold growth on everything, including a bike's paint!
I've seen mold attack and degrade (and/or corrode) plastics and even metal surfaces, and which cannot be fixed without considerable stock removal from the surface.

Bike dungeon!

Mold great in cheese, everything else....

We've had a few high humidity days, but mostly where we live it isn't that humid, but a good thought to add a means to measure humidity in the garage just to keep an eye on it.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...266c26f677.jpg
So I just ordered one of these, 13,000+ reviews with 4 1/2 stars for under $14.00 bucks figured can't go wrong to hang this with the bikes.

Now I just hope what I learn I will like, knowledge is funny that way. :rolleyes:

Anyone know weather the ozone generated by a chest freezer in the garage will really eat your tires?

I keep bikes in an unheated garage in Maryland - the Chesapeake Bay on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. We are quite humid in the summer and often in spring and fall. I don't see corrosion problems with the bikes because the inside temp is only a few degrees different from the outside temp. The garage has a vapor barrier under the concrete floor, so that may help.

IMO if you want to heat/cool your garage, do it year round at a constant temperature.

Tires and other such organic materials will suffer greater ozone exposure if they are in near proximity to high-voltage electrical activity, though appliances do also vary somewhat in terms of how much ozone is produced independent of the current flow @110v and in terms of the average daily duration of said current flow.

Ventilated spaces such as garages in smog-afflicted regions have much greater rubber-attacking ozone levels than do indoor spaces (where ozone is depleted by the attraction from other organic materials in the room). Thus inside of a closed closet (indoors) will afford good ozone shielding.

Garages can also be terrible for tires, plastics and the lubricated parts of a bike because of higher peak temperatures.
I have seen the plastic tops of TA and other water bottle cages literally self-destruct and crumble from being stored up high in a hot garage, and have noticed that STI levers will gum up much faster and more severely when stored in hotter areas.