If you take away only one point from this thread, I hope it's that the grid (aka, "wheelbender) is a no....no....NO! I can't believe they still make those things. Virtually worthless as a bicycle parking device and can do more harm than good. Just about every university setting I've been to that has those type racks also has a healthy number of bikes with bent wheels permanently attached to them.
I like the Sheffield Stand or the inverted-U. Both of these are simple, intuitive, provide stability with two contact points and are reasonably unobtrusive unless you're looking for a bike rack. As for the artistic bike racks, I've known cyclists that lock to nearby signposts because they think the artistic rack is a piece of sculpture and don't think they should lock to it.
In the final analysis, a bike rack should support the frame of the bike, not the wheel, and permit locking the bike's frame to the rack. The APBP Guide to Bicycle Parking that nbac23 linked is an excellent place to start your search.

Of those two, I like the wave. Taller bars that you lean your bike against work much better than those racks that have a raised slot for a tire to go into. If the opening for the tire is not tall enough to push the tire through so that the forks rest against the vertical bar, a bike with weight on the back falls down too easily. I also see road bikes that just fall down in those shorter racks, if the cable is not stiff enough to support the weight of the bike.

Personally, I won't use a "grid" style, or any rack that only locks the wheel. I find a signpost or parking meter instead so that I can lock my frame.

Heh, the LBS in town has a grid style rack. Of course, it's in a house with a yard, and a residential sidewalk in front, so I don't think it'd be reasonable for them to install anything else. Also crime is so low that I never even bother to lock up there.

Yeah, those things are fine if you don't need to lock it up.

My favorite kinds to lock up to support the weight of the bike from above, and fit more bikes than the wave style as well. Here are some examples:

Yeah I have to say no to the grid/wheel bender type. They are all over A&M and there are always damaged bikes in them. From what I have noticed though is that the wave racks that the campus ha no body knows how to uses them and they get over filled to where you have a cable lock running a whole 4-6ft loop to just tie it to the rack in some places. Yet they put to notices on bikes when they don't have enough racks.

I really wish they had those sheffield stands, inverted U or the one mentioned above where a bar goes above the bike and has drop down supports.

These hoops have all the functionality of the Scheffield type and they're a little more interesting.
My BAC recommended similar, simpler hoops to the City and there are quite a few around now.

I work for a small outfit, and would not think of asking my employer to shell out for a rack when the flagpole out front works just fine. I work in a fairly low-crime suburb, and my "keep 'em honest" security sysem is sufficient.

My fav is the car-shaped one posted above.....

We have a lot of inverted U around here, i feel very confident locking my bikes to them.
Never have used sheffield stands, never seen one, but they look good.
I love art racks, we have one here at the post office of a cyclist and a few more around town.

I don't like waves, too sloppy, and people rarely lock up to them correctly.
Don't like the grid system, well i do and i don't, usually i tend to see junkier bikes in those racks because they find it easier to park into, so they leave the better and proper racks free.

The bike shop i go to has a grid rack outside, but in all reality it is a small area and it works for what it is. But i just wheel my bike right into the shop anyways and lean it on the counter hahaha

like everybody has said... grid SUCKS

wave is fine, but they could make it better by having taller waves and having the bottom wave closer to the ground

my personal favorite is just a street sign post. it's the simplest and allows lots of freedom on how to position your bike

I absolutely hate these racks, almost as much as Grids.
The loops are too high up to lock with Sheldon technique (rear wheel and frame thru U lock).
And if your bike has cargo racks you can't even back it into those slots anyway.
Which leaves you with the 2 end columns to use; but they're angled which limits things.

Don't forget to consider the "lollipop shaped" bike hitch; single post with a ring and "t" cross bar.
Dero Bike Hitch is a good examples. These work well and can be placed in just about any spot, easy
to create bike parking if there is not much open area.

Grid style is horrible. If you have fenders and the sides are already taken you can't ulock your frame, or at least I haven't established a way to.

Wave style is the way to go. Plus it really ought to be cheap. How expensive can curves steel pipe be? The racks also require that you cement them down. Most grid bike racks I see are either:
* Not bolted down and never have been
* Were bolted down until the bolts rusted through.

Also, I often see grid racks in sizes that won't fit a 700c wheel. These are obviously intended for childrens bikes but are often installed to the exclusion of racks to fit adult bikes. When you see bikes at them they're usually adult bikes locked up in some odd way.

With the exception of some of the bollard styles, some of the U shaped styles and some of the styles in the pics people have posted here I have yet to find a bike rack my recumbent can easily be locked to.

It is true that you have to use a cable AND a u-lock if you want to lock both tires with these, but the ones that I showed all have bars that come low enough to support the weight of the bike. The bottom of those loops are at about axle height.

I've never thought of backing my bike into a rack, though. I work on a college campus, and there are literally thousands of bicycles ridden on campus every day. Backing your bicycle into a slot would not allow someone to use the same hoop from the other side, which would not go over that well around here. The campus police give out $35 parking tickets if you lock your bike to anything that is not a designated bicycle rack (local fire marshal is really picky about codes and pushes it), and I see them give those tickets out all the time to people that ended up locking their bikes to a pole beside a full bike rack. If you regularly took up the entire slot, eventually one of the people getting a ticket because there were no more slots would probably mess with your bike.

The idea is for your bike not to be noticed around here. You don't have to ride a beater, but you dont' want to draw attention to your bike either. Theft is not a big issue around here. It seems like the only bikes that get stolen, are the REALLY expensive and new ones, and the ones with too many locks (a challenge?).

My favorite rack is anything that gives me a horizontal bar, slightly higher than handlebars. I lift my front wheel and put my shifters over the bar (this is a road bike I'm talking about). Then I lock it up with a cable lock (I don't make any U-lock necessary visits -- lucky me).

This way I don't have to lean my nice bike against any vulgar, paint-scraping steel.

That being said, I still think the art racks are the way to go. A college campus is a reasonable hip community (even the land-grant ag schools). They'll figure it out, or word will get out. You can't keep a secret on a college campus!

Grid style is OK by me. It's what I grew up with. Its great virtue is that it can hold a lot of bikes in a small space. We visit Ocracoke Island during the summer. There are a lot of bikes there, and no rental cars. If businesses had the modern style racks, there would not be enough bike parking.

Locking is fine if you don't have a quick release. As for the alleged wheelbending, it hasn't happened to me in 50 years of cycling

Paul

The two bikes we had stolen (GF & I) were nowhere near high-end. Hers was a single speed, beach cruiser, and mine was an old Scwinn, hybrid that weighted at least 40 lbs. Hers was locked, mine was not.

Here are the City of Portland's bicycle parking guidelines:
https://www.portlandonline.com/transp...=58409&c=34813

Grid racks are horrible! Whatever you do, don't go with grid racks! They are easily disassembled or even hauled away with the bikes still locked to it! They only allow for the front wheel to be locked so you can kiss the frame and back wheel of your bike "bye-bye"! Grid racks need to be done away. Period.

Go with the inverted "U" racks or Wave racks properly spaced and placed near entrances of buildings.

Good news everyone.

I relayed all your excellent information to my boss and he has presented it also in his Admin. meetings as well. I'm pushing for either the upsidedown U design or the Sheffield rack, and we're pricing steel pipe to have our own machine shop do the building. As it's happened, I have a direct say in the eventual design that we'll end up with. Even if the material and labor costs are the same, we're going to have our own shop build them, so that they can be more easily altered to size, length, color and future preference. There are a couple of things that differ between the majority of suggestions and what they are willing to do, but the general ideas are moving forward.

-I should clarify that we're NOT replacing any existing 'grid' or 'low oval' racks at this point, just adding
new racks.

-Also, rather than cementing the racks down, they want to weld them to rails in 10 bike (5 hoop) sections so that they can be moved around in the future. Perhaps bolted down in a few spots for security.

-We'll most likely powder coat them black.

-30 in. between hoops, to allow for two bikes per hoop to be easily parked.

-Hoops will be 36 in. tall.

Right now the options that we're looking at are as follows:

- 12 inch radius 2" pipe 180 degree "U" welded to vertical pipe for a rack that stands 36" tall and 24
inches from pole to pole.

OR

- 6 inch radius corners with a 5 inch tangent on the top side (requiring an additional weld at the top,
making for a more square look and an overall length a bit shorter at 22 inches from pole to pole, and
also 36" tall.


Since the hoops are going to be sitting on rails, the narrower design (22") with a straight 10 in. section on top may be easier to straddle with the wheelbase. I don't like the idea of having to park either too far forward or too far back in order for your wheels not to be sitting up on the ~1 inch rail. Is 22" from vertical pole to pole enough to adequately lock most bikes???

Any other suggestions would be appreciated, as long as it follows our preliminary design and and the abilities of our quite capable machine shop. Thanks again.

-Jeremy

I like this style. Best of the wave and hoop design. Compact and secure.

https://www.madrax.com/Default.aspx?t...=a&ProductID=2

The rack in the pic caused a huge stir in Trani (Italy) because of ruining the aesthetics of the cathedral and was finally removed. Here in southern Italy people still prefer to lock bikes to traffic signs or fences or trees, or everywhere you can put an eye on while doing your businesses.

I hadn't the chance to try it (it was removed too quicly) so i can't tell if it was lock-wise functional, but I kind of liked the design.

Thing is that in Italy we can't really mess with the religious authorities, if they want the rack removed...