No Bike Rack at Work
#1
Thread Starter
Senior Member

Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 596
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From: Pacific Northwest
Bikes: 2008 Giant FCR2, 1992 Raleigh hybrid, my son's old mountain bike
No Bike Rack at Work
Has anyone faced this? I drive a paratransit mini-bus and recently moved to a depot in a low-medium risk industrial park. There is no indoor storage possible. Unbelievably, not a single pole or other suitable thing to lock bike to! Employer will not provide rack. Commercial parking racks are 300.00-plus, so I'm trying to think of something suitable I could truck down to the parking lot to lock my bike to. I figure with the help of my son, I could load/unload something up to 150 pounds in my wife's CRV. I'm keeping my eyes open in my travels for a big hunk of metal of some kind, but wonder if anyone has other ideas. It occurs to me that something awkward would be as effective as something heavy...
Last edited by NVanHiker; 02-22-10 at 08:30 PM. Reason: Grammar.
#2
xtrajack
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 2,058
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From: Maine
Bikes: Kona fire mountain/xtracycle,Univega landrover fs,Nishiki custom sport Ross professional super gran tour Schwinn Mesa (future Xtracycle donor bike)
I don't have anything to lock to at work, either. I am in a low risk area. I generally just lock the front wheel to the frame. My bike is heavy enough and awkward enough that I don't worry about it a whole lot.
#3
If you've got QR wheels and seat adjustment, maybe take off the wheel and maybe seat (if of course you have a place to even put that?)?
Won't stop someone from throwing it in the back of their car, but maybe it would be enough...
Won't stop someone from throwing it in the back of their car, but maybe it would be enough...
#4
Member
Joined: Nov 2009
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From: Iowa
Bikes: Surly Steamroller
Anchor bolts
https://www.mcmaster.com/#tie-down-anchors/=5wz4qd
A couple of concrete anchors, hammer drill and wall might work to give you a place to lock up your bike.
A couple of concrete anchors, hammer drill and wall might work to give you a place to lock up your bike.
#5
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Joined: Oct 2004
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From: Cary, NC
Bikes: 1983 Trek 500, 2002 Lemond Zurich, 2023 Litespeed Watia
I second the anchor bolts. You can choose one of a number of types, including those that can be bolted or screwed into wood, concrete brick, etc. There are a number of ways to make the screws or bolts resistant to removal. In my garage I screwed a large eye-bolt deep into a wall stud so I can cable-lock my bikes as a deterrent to would-be teenage thieves. Removing it with the bike attached would be difficult. Two eye screws attached to the same cable lock or U-lock would be impossible to unscrew since each would prevent the other from rotating.
#6
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Joined: Oct 2004
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From: Cary, NC
Bikes: 1983 Trek 500, 2002 Lemond Zurich, 2023 Litespeed Watia
You might also take a walk around the building to see if you can find an elecrical conduit, water pipe or natural gas line. These are my usual last-resort locking sites.
#9
I would talk to your employer about options as a $300.00 rack might be far too much for one bike whereas an anchored locking point might be something they could see themselves doing.
I have been so fortunate to have employers that were very amendable to providing secure storage, one let me turn a storage room into a bike locker that would hold a number of bikes and gear and another let me install wall hooks inside the bay door (next to the soda machine) to keep bikes up and off the floor.
The time I have spent working in bike shops has been the best as there is never a parking issue there.
I have been so fortunate to have employers that were very amendable to providing secure storage, one let me turn a storage room into a bike locker that would hold a number of bikes and gear and another let me install wall hooks inside the bay door (next to the soda machine) to keep bikes up and off the floor.
The time I have spent working in bike shops has been the best as there is never a parking issue there.
#11
Thread Starter
Senior Member

Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 596
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From: Pacific Northwest
Bikes: 2008 Giant FCR2, 1992 Raleigh hybrid, my son's old mountain bike
Thanks for all your thoughts... I'm likin' the anchor bolts. Also, the equivalent of REI up here (MEC) has a case-hardened chain for only 37.00 - could possibly wrap it around the lone tree and leave it in place. It's amazing how utterly sterile this place is. We share the parking lot with the local DMV testing station and sinking a bolt into concrete would probably involve many layers of bureaucracy. They're in a cinder-block building with a gas meter - I'll ask. Considering this place is about two miles from the nearest bus stop, I'm amazed no one seems to bike here.
#12
Thread Starter
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Joined: Jun 2009
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From: Pacific Northwest
Bikes: 2008 Giant FCR2, 1992 Raleigh hybrid, my son's old mountain bike
No, that would be wrong. Also, you run the risk of having to pick up two wheelchairs at a time which means something would have to go!
#13
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From: Rochester, NY
Bikes: 2010 Kona Dr. Dew, Moose Bicycle XXL (fat bike), Yuba Mundo V3
#15
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Joined: Jan 2010
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Anchoring bolts just might be the solution to our problems. I have a similar lack of lock down point for my bike at one location I park it at. It might be worthwhile to come there with a cordless drill on a quiet afternoon and sink a couple of anchors in the ground, that would make for an excellent point to lock my bike to. It just might work, didn't think about it before, but that is a really good idea!
#16
I had a manager who use to say that. Problem was he used us as the scapegoats when he got caught out.
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This is Africa, 1943. War spits out its violence overhead and the sandy graveyard swallows it up. Her name is King Nine, B-25, medium bomber, Twelfth Air Force. On a hot, still morning she took off from Tunisia to bomb the southern tip of Italy. An errant piece of flak tore a hole in a wing tank and, like a wounded bird, this is where she landed, not to return on this day, or any other day.
This is Africa, 1943. War spits out its violence overhead and the sandy graveyard swallows it up. Her name is King Nine, B-25, medium bomber, Twelfth Air Force. On a hot, still morning she took off from Tunisia to bomb the southern tip of Italy. An errant piece of flak tore a hole in a wing tank and, like a wounded bird, this is where she landed, not to return on this day, or any other day.
#17
Papaya King
Joined: Aug 2005
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From: Columbus, Ohio (Grandview area)
Bikes: 2009 Felt X City D, 1985 (?) Trek 400, 1995 (?) Specialized Rockhopper, 1995 Trek 850
#18
Interesting problem and solutions. What about 5-gallon bucket filled with concrete and a steel piple down the middle and some tamper-proof hardware to chain/lock your bike to? Anyways, thowing out some ideas.






