Go Back  Bike Forums > Bike Forums > Commuting
Reload this Page >

No Bike Rack at Work

Search
Notices
Commuting Bicycle commuting is easier than you think, before you know it, you'll be hooked. Learn the tips, hints, equipment, safety requirements for safely riding your bike to work.

No Bike Rack at Work

Thread Tools
 
Search this Thread
 
Old 02-21-10 | 10:11 AM
  #1  
NVanHiker's Avatar
Thread Starter
Senior Member
15 Anniversary
 
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 596
Likes: 9
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.
NVanHiker is offline  
Reply
Old 02-21-10 | 10:26 AM
  #2  
xtrajack's Avatar
xtrajack
 
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 2,058
Likes: 0
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.
xtrajack is offline  
Reply
Old 02-21-10 | 10:32 AM
  #3  
sudo bike's Avatar
Bicikli Huszár
 
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 2,116
Likes: 0
From: Fresno, CA

Bikes: '95 Novara Randonee

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...
sudo bike is offline  
Reply
Old 02-21-10 | 11:06 AM
  #4  
Member
 
Joined: Nov 2009
Posts: 44
Likes: 0
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.
rrohret is offline  
Reply
Old 02-21-10 | 01:17 PM
  #5  
sggoodri's Avatar
Senior Member
20 Anniversary
 
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 3,077
Likes: 4
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.
sggoodri is offline  
Reply
Old 02-21-10 | 01:20 PM
  #6  
sggoodri's Avatar
Senior Member
20 Anniversary
 
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 3,077
Likes: 4
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.
sggoodri is offline  
Reply
Old 02-21-10 | 01:28 PM
  #7  
DVC45's Avatar
Senior Member
15 Anniversary
 
Joined: Dec 2006
Posts: 3,335
Likes: 15
A tree?
DVC45 is offline  
Reply
Old 02-21-10 | 01:30 PM
  #8  
mikeybikes's Avatar
Senior Member
 
Joined: May 2009
Posts: 3,213
Likes: 0
From: Edgewater, CO

Bikes: Tons

Drill a couple large holes in the side of the building to wrap a cable through.
mikeybikes is offline  
Reply
Old 02-21-10 | 01:31 PM
  #9  
Sixty Fiver's Avatar
Bicycle Repair Man !!!
 
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 27,266
Likes: 150
From: YEG

Bikes: See my sig...

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.
Sixty Fiver is offline  
Reply
Old 02-21-10 | 02:14 PM
  #10  
|3iker's Avatar
Alfredo Contador
 
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 431
Likes: 0
From: Where everybody knows my name
Well you can always toss it at the back of the mini bus that you drive. Think of it as 'office parking'.
|3iker is offline  
Reply
Old 02-21-10 | 02:26 PM
  #11  
NVanHiker's Avatar
Thread Starter
Senior Member
15 Anniversary
 
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 596
Likes: 9
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.
NVanHiker is offline  
Reply
Old 02-21-10 | 02:33 PM
  #12  
NVanHiker's Avatar
Thread Starter
Senior Member
15 Anniversary
 
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 596
Likes: 9
From: Pacific Northwest

Bikes: 2008 Giant FCR2, 1992 Raleigh hybrid, my son's old mountain bike

Originally Posted by |3iker
Well you can always toss it at the back of the mini bus that you drive. Think of it as 'office parking'.
Um...not that I have EVER done that, especially dropping the bike in or picking it up from the shop during my shift. 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!
NVanHiker is offline  
Reply
Old 02-21-10 | 02:52 PM
  #13  
Senior Member
 
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 903
Likes: 1
From: Rochester, NY

Bikes: 2010 Kona Dr. Dew, Moose Bicycle XXL (fat bike), Yuba Mundo V3

Originally Posted by NVanHiker
We share the parking lot with the local DMV testing station and sinking a bolt into concrete would probably involve many layers of bureaucracy.
'tis better to beg forgiveness after than ask permission before?
Arcanum is offline  
Reply
Old 02-21-10 | 03:28 PM
  #14  
Member
 
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 35
Likes: 0
From: Lincoln, Nebraska

Bikes: Soverign 12 speed road bike

No one will mess with your bike if you use a ball and chain to lock it down.
Helms91 is offline  
Reply
Old 02-21-10 | 03:57 PM
  #15  
Senior Member
 
Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 450
Likes: 4
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!
whitecat is offline  
Reply
Old 02-21-10 | 04:01 PM
  #16  
dobber's Avatar
Perineal Pressurized
20 Anniversary
 
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 6,555
Likes: 2
From: In Ebritated
Originally Posted by Arcanum
'tis better to beg forgiveness after than ask permission before?
I had a manager who use to say that. Problem was he used us as the scapegoats when he got caught out.
__________________
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.
dobber is offline  
Reply
Old 02-21-10 | 04:10 PM
  #17  
waynesworld's Avatar
Papaya King
 
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 1,640
Likes: 2
From: Columbus, Ohio (Grandview area)

Bikes: 2009 Felt X City D, 1985 (?) Trek 400, 1995 (?) Specialized Rockhopper, 1995 Trek 850

Originally Posted by Helms91
No one will mess with your bike if you use a ball and chain to lock it down.
This post is awesome because it reminds me of my favorite song by Social Distortion

I have nothing else to add.
waynesworld is offline  
Reply
Old 02-21-10 | 04:29 PM
  #18  
cycle16v's Avatar
Senior Member
 
Joined: Oct 2008
Posts: 172
Likes: 0
From: DFW

Bikes: Cannondale, Giant, Specialized

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.
cycle16v is offline  
Reply
Old 02-21-10 | 05:22 PM
  #19  
CCrew's Avatar
Older than dirt
 
Joined: May 2008
Posts: 5,342
Likes: 2
From: Winchester, VA

Bikes: Too darn many.. latest count is 11

Originally Posted by Helms91
No one will mess with your bike if you use a ball and chain to lock it down.
My wife isn't available right now, sorry!
CCrew is offline  
Reply
Old 02-21-10 | 07:18 PM
  #20  
Senior Member
 
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 850
Likes: 2
From: by the football hall of fame
Buy a beater minivan to leave at work. Call it personal bike storage. Drive it home on weekends.
Mr Danw is offline  
Reply
Old 02-21-10 | 07:30 PM
  #21  
wheel's Avatar
Senior Member
 
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 2,147
Likes: 0
From: Crystal MN
Get some bowling balls and some yellow chain.
wheel is offline  
Reply
Related Topics
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
sdt1890
General Cycling Discussion
44
02-17-18 12:37 AM
mr,grumpy
General Cycling Discussion
7
07-19-12 05:13 PM
knowledgdropper
Southern California
14
06-05-11 07:29 PM
amckimmey
Commuting
29
01-27-11 08:48 AM
snorkel
Commuting
4
06-07-10 12:17 PM

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off



Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service -

Copyright © 2026 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.