Bicycle Storage
 

This might not be the right forum for this question, but I don't know where else to ask. How do you store your bikes so as to maximize space and minimize wife/girl friend annoyance?

My future Mrs. Snake heard about a system of hooks on railings, sort of like a clothes hanger, and I don't know where to look for what she's talking about.

It's always a problem in my garage. Right now, mine are on wall mounts or gravity racks.
Our agreement was "none" on the floor, so I only have 3 there.

I'm big on space in the garage, so eventually, they will all be on lifts to the ceiling. Wal-Mart and Lowe's sell a lift kit that's a lot cheaper than the bike box stores, so I'll probably get them there and mount them the most efficient way, which will have the bikes side by side, facing alternating directions.

Whenever you store bikes close together, they find a way to hit each other, and storage damage is always an issue. I simply won't consider storage damage for a couple of bikes, so they get their own wall/wheel hook in another area of the garage.

I've seen ingenious uses of PVC pipe and shelving brackets to make a long rod that stores bikes in a row, rows of hooks on a wall, ceiling lifts, and one of those multiple bike lifts that stores 4-5 together and uses a garage door opener to raise and lower. There's an infinte variety of ways, because we all have multiple reasons we can/cannot store bikes.

Once I get done with my ceiling lifts, I'll probably sell my 14' floor-ceiling rack (3 bikes), my gravity rack (2 bikes), and a 1-bike wall mount to offset the costs. There are always guys like me who need to "do something about those bikes, dear!"

How many bikes do you have to store and how much space?

I like these two teir racks. they take up alot of wall space but considering they make great living art I don't really mind looking at them.

For now...we have 8 that are "house" bikes and 4 more that are for sale. That number isn't firm and is likely to grow. I have about 10 x 10 of basement space as my bike room, but it has a low ceiling.

Happy Mother's Day.

I am already in the doghouse before 8 am this morning. I got up early to clean bikes, and I violated Mrs. Gomango's rule #102 that states there shall be no road bikes, or parts of road bikes, in her living room.

Guilty as charged. I brought up the portable stand from the basement early this morning and was gleefully finishing up a cleaning of my De Rosa SLX when I heard her stir. There was no use in thinking up excuses, as there are bikes everywhere. Not to mention the tell-tale odor of Simple Green.

As for storing these, I have some nice racks that I made a year ago that kept everything off the floor. I saw a pic in the forums here, and I wish I could remember the thread, but it really allows the tight packing of bikes in a hanging by the front wheel system. You can really pack 'em in if you loosen the handlebar stem and twist it sideways.

The problem right now is we are remodeling our basement and that was my former hideaway for red racing bikes.

I think I am going to band together with a few of my riding cronies and rent a deserted storefront. We found one on the outskirts of DT St. Paul that is right off the Shepherd Road bike path. Second floor has a view of the mighty Mississippi. This would make a dandy off site solution and would be a perfect spot to collect our overflow. Not to mention a great spot for our CL sales efforts. I have two buddies that are selling car parts and this would be a good solution for them as well. All we need is a security system for this site and we are good to go. The owner of the site is in a bike club with her husband so maybe we'll catch a break on rent.

Yep, a bike clubhouse. That's the ticket! I think I'll put this idea in the Mother's Day card that I am going to purchase in two or three minutes!

I have a simular rack as Bianchigirll for my Daily drivers that live in the foyer. They keep the bikes reasonably tight to the wall Only thing of warning is you need to get a short bunge to keep the front wheel straight and off the wall.
The one I have is sold as "Bikes Aloft at Performance. There is a set of optional short hangers that alow you to expand that style rack to hold 4 bikes but you would have to be a good ways off the wall to allow access to all the bikes.

I'm tossing around the idea of ripping some of the sheet rock off the ceiling of my garage to allow access to the roof joists so that I can slip the bikes up between the ceiling joists to get some head room. My buddy stores his bikes that way in his detached 3 bay shop and has about 6.5 feet of clearance to walk under them.


www.rei.com and /www.performancebike.com show quite a few storage options on their sites.

With your low ceilings in your store room might want to look a a row of these on one wall. You could alternate the height so the handle bars do not tangle and get quite a few bikes on one wall.
http://www.performancebike.com/bikes..._400007_400245

I have packed the garage to the gills, and as they spilled over into my basement (below) I created a mini version of the racks I've used in my garage.

They are simple and ultra-cheap to construct, can be rearranged and positioned wherever there is a little floor space, and I suppose (if you stick with treated lumber) they could be stacked outside like cord wood as you trim down the bike population within your domicile. (Haven't had occasion to try that myself though. ;))

You'll need a drill-driver, a miter saw, and the following parts:

(2) 16" lengths of 2x4 lumber
(3) 19" lengths of 2x4 lumber
(4) deck railing slats, cut to 34" lengths
(20) deck screws
I position the slats at 3-1/2" on center, to capture the front/rear road wheels. (That also seems to be a viable spacing even for my MTB).

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...keStand001.jpg

Thank you for this design. I was looking for an inexpensive, thoughtful design for my sons' bikes.

Eureka. This is it!

I have a hooks on rails system in my garage. I bought it at Sears. I'll look for pics.....

+1

This is very nice, I can't believe I haven't thought of this. My bikes are just parked side-by-side in the barn however they go in. The regular riders are parked with their front wheel under a workbench that I don't use much. I have a taller workbench that I built for my height. I often have problems with pedals getting caught in spokes, or several bikes tipping over together, not tipping all the way but leaning enough to tangle up so that removal is a pain. I have a bunch of scrap lunber, so a bike rack it is.

I think it's best if they don't see it... so 1.) dedicated bike shack if you have space in the yard 2.) outside storage rental

Even with a low ceiling, try hanging the bikes from one hook and one wheel. If you carefully space the hooks and hang the bikes in an up and down sequence, you should be able to almost store 8 bikes across a 10 foot span.

Yes, just what I've been looking for.

Veloglide
 

There's a system made by Veloglide that has hooks that slide on crossbars, and the crossbars in turn slide on two fixed bars. You can see a demo of it on youtube here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOVVjzbb8aQ.

I wanted that system but didn't want to spend the money on it, so I built something similar. It's a little embarrassing how long it took me to figure out just how to do it, but I've been using it for quite a while now and it's great.

I bolted two garage door rails to the rafters in my garage and bought a bunch of garage door rollers on ebay for cheap. I used conduit for the crossbars and put a roller in each end so they could roll forward and back on the rails. For the hooks, I bought aluminum straps, cut them into pieces, and bent them into hooks. Then I put some clear plastic tubing over the hooks and hung the bikes up. I can get 9 on there I think. Here's what it looks like...

http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/w...k/IMG_1094.jpg
http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/w...k/IMG_1097.jpg
http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/w...k/IMG_1100.jpg
http://i705.photobucket.com/albums/w...k/IMG_1098.jpg

I would buy that system but i had no luck looking for it online, even at the website it listed. Lame!

That looks like a bicycle clothes rack - push this or that to the side and take your pick.

-Kurt

That's exactly what my fiancee was envisioning, except we were thinking something that just hung from one wheel.

I bought this system at Sears. Gladiator GarageWorks. The row of bikes picture spans 1/2 of the bachwall of my garage. You cany slide them like they're on a clothesline or rollers but you can move the hooks closer together by hand to more tightly pack the bike that aren't geing ridden. As you can I have still have 1 slot left on the left. No worries though, I have 3 bikes upstairs and 2 in garage not pictured!!

I was going to paint the back wall with some of that kids proof paint but the lady at Home Depot recommended a semi-gloss latex. Tires makes clean right up!!

http://i495.photobucket.com/albums/r...f/DSC03549.jpg
http://i495.photobucket.com/albums/r...f/DSC03547.jpg
http://i495.photobucket.com/albums/r...f/DSC03548.jpg

That's EXACTLY what we're looking for! Thanks!

Hi, I am revitalizing an old thread here.

Most of my bikes are either road bikes, touring bikes or mountain bikes. I have approximately ten (10) as of 2023. I'm limited on space, and don't want my bikes either getting wet downstairs in the basement or getting dusty with dirt or cobwebs in the garage. Also, I'm limited on space in my house.

Besides the ideas listed previously on this thread, what ideas have you come up with for storing your bicycle collections? Thanks.

I've tried pursuing the 'how about in the middle of the living room wall above the couch?' angle w/ the wife, but there have been drawbacks.

Which bikes are you selling?
I know you have a good eye for bikes.
Any chance your Lotus Super Pro is for sale?

Wet in the basement generates a lot of questions! My favorite place for storage is ceiling mounts. This is problematic because of variable heights of ceilings.
Only one house in my past had one high enough to hang over the door. when it was open.
The spacing of joists is a challenge too. Figuring out spacing requirements is another challenging effort. For drop bars, about 10" works well when alternating direction. When you get to mountain bikes with wide bars, the requirements change forcing more of an alternating offset.
I mounted 8 sets of hanging pullies on a 3/4" plywood piece and mounted the plywood to the available joists to fit my needs.
https://live.staticflickr.com/846/39...b06b6719_w.jpg

Have you looked into cycloc storage solutions?

I dedicate one section of a three car garage to bikes.

This section has 12 bikes, one tool bench, tools, and memorabilia to help make this storage and work area also a museum showing off my bikes.

I have the following types of bikes for my uses cases.
- one modern steel gravel bike (Surly)
- three steel single speed SS bikes one in fixed gear FG setup (Surly, Coppi)
- two hard tail classic mountain bikes (GT, Diamonback)
- three classic steel Italian road bikes (Colnago, Guerciotti)
- two more current carbon fiber road bikes (Cervello, Colnago)
- one more current titanium road bikes (Litespeed)

Lots of tools, spare parts, and displays (parts, photos, posters, banners, *bikes*)

All of the bikes except 4 are hanging from ceiling hooks.
The four on floor do not disturb working on or using.any of the bikes.
I have spreadsheets for the bikes and tools and pictures showing many of the views.
Im also working on a video to better show my setup.
I would like to add detailed links to the video pictures for the actual bikes.

I've tried a lot but ended up settling on a rediculous number of Topeak Swing Up holders spaced on the studs. When bikes are all at an angle, you can save some room in an elegant fashion.
The trouble is, they are not cheap! But they are built like tanks.

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...3015063a77.jpg

Yup! Most of the stuff I bought from Topeak work really well and are built with good quality.