UsedToBeFaster

My five bike floor rack is fine but takes up too much space so I'm looking for best practices when hanging bikes.

Best Practices

1. Is it better to hang a bike from its front wheel back wheel for frame?
2. Does it differ based on frame type (CF vs Steel vs ALU)?
3. What are the pros/cons of roof mounted vs wall mounted? (its a newer home so lots of studs exist in both floor and roof)

Best Solutions

1. What products do people recommend?
2. Pros and Cons?

caloso

1) Doesn’t matter, although it’s a little easier for me to hang by the front by using the handlebars. If you hang by the rear, you have to lift by the saddle or top tube.
2) Doesn’t matter. Although if you hang CF wheels, you’ll want to make sure the hooks are well wrapped.
3) The less you have to lift, the better. For me, that means wall hooks positioned so the rear wheel is still on the ground or just a bit off: just roll up, lift the front, rotate bike to vertical, hang the wheel. Easy.





Re products, there are lots of fancy ones but they all work the same as the $2 hooks you can get at your local hardware store.

WhyFi

If you have hydro brakes, hanging them upside-down can be problematic, but other than that and taking measures to not unnecessarily scuff your frame/wheels, you can pretty much do what you want.

Mojo31

Here is my solution. The Gladiator wall tracks were used for storage of other things initially, but repurposed for bikes earlier this year.

All bikes are carbon frames. All brakes are hydraulic. The bike on the left has carbon wheels. Have not had any problems with this method. I do try to keep the hooks centered between spokes so there is no tension on the dpokes.

WhyFi

The brake system is designed so that air will collect in the reservoir in the hoods. Inverting them, as with the pink bike, will mean that any air in there can migrate beyond the cylinder and in to the lines, resulting in squishy or downright ineffective brakes; finding this out at just before rolling out is always a fun delay. The further down the line they get, the more difficult it'll be to get the bubbles back up out of the lines (this is particularly problematic with the rear brakes because of the length brake line and routing/orientation). You may not have had any issues with this thus far, but this isn't something that I'd continue to do.

raria

Is there any way to store.them so that they are flush to the wall or does hanging them the way that you do minimize the amount of floor space used.

kcjc

I hang my bikes off the ceiling due to space limitation.

msu2001la

The brake system is designed to be sealed, and shouldn't have any air in it. Hanging a bike upside down doesn't cause air to enter the system, but it can help identify if there is air in the system (which should be bled out).

Here's what SRAM, Shimano and TRP say on the topic:

https://www.cxmagazine.com/hydraulic...sram-shimano/6

Quote:

6. Is there a recommended way of storing a bike with hydraulic road levers? (Is it better to store the bike on the ground, or is hanging a bike from a wheel acceptable?)

It's also worth noting that all 3 recommend hydro brakes to have fluid flushed, replaced and bled annually, which I doubt most owners are doing.

WhyFi

I didn't insinuate that hanging a bike upside down would introduce air in to the system, just that it could cause air in the system to migrate to an area where it might be problematic. Air in the system isn't abnormal and the system is designed such that it can cope will small amounts of air, provided you keep it oriented properly. In a perfect world, sure - hang it any way you want, but they're often not perfectly bled in the first place and air can and will seep in and accumulate over time. In a thread about best practices, I'd say that it'd be best practice not to assume perfect set-up and maintenance when the precautions are pretty simple.

Per Shimano's manual -

GlennR

5 years of hanging my CX bike and never a issue. And it's hung, untouched from April to November.

It's a sealed system, so if its correctly bleed there should be no air.

GlennR

My garage


My son's garage

Bluechip

It just depends on what type of space you have available. I have more wall space then air space so I went with a flat against the wall type.

Zaskar

Just give in. Let the bikes have your half of the garage...

Nachoman

Bikes are easier to store than pinball machines.

Stickney

Does this method of storage cause damage to right-side shifters? :-)

Seriously though, is this a homemade solution? Intrigued by it.

Bluechip

Yes, the higher you hang the bike the shorter the right lever gets. It actually took me a second or two to figure out what you were talking about.

And yes again, it's a homemade hanger. When I saw the price for some of the manufactured pedal hangers way back when ($40+) I said I could make one on the cheap. Originally just plywood scraps to test the theory. It's worked so well that I haven't improved the design yet, but will for the next house.

BiciMan

I've never liked the looks of anything but horizontal storage to display my wheels. Downsized to one car and have room to keep all 2-wheelers in garage now. Preparing for and trying Ibera horizontal wall hangers next.

Blues

Very ingenious!

vane171

I still don't know what lever length the talk is about or what is the issue. I like that way of bike hanging though, wouldn't have thought of it. The horizontal wood stripes take the weight off the pedal hanger too but I suppose it would work without them anyway? Doh, they would tilt backwards

Fixie fan to boot

Bluechip

The horizontal board is just to keep things level. The board can support the weight or not depending on how long the crank is or the overall size of the bike. There is a big difference between my bikes and my wife's bikes but it works for both sizes.

The lever comment is just pointing out the fact that on the fixed gear bikes I have a dummy or stubby lever instead of a rear brake lever. It took me a second or two to catch on too.

vane171

Thanks, now I got it, I thought it is something to do with the hanger system. The middle bike is perfect fixie, I like that chainring (same 'aluminum' overall look as the spider with the arm and clean lines), that's class.

JohnJ80

Me too. I use the hanging system from Harken - around 10 bikes hanging from the ceiling and it works great. Been doing it for more than a decade.

Moe Zhoost

Do you have any issue with the bikes rotating around that single suspension? I've been considering this system.

Thanks

JohnJ80

No

The bike hangs from a 2:1 pulley so there are two lengths of rope that go through a pulley that connects to the straps. As long as that is not twisted the bike will hang straight. If you twist that, the twist will want to straighten the bike out. The bike will not spin randomly when hanging.

we’ve used these for more than 10 years to hang 7 bikes some of which are used daily. Zero issues and they’re quick and easy to use.

we also use a different version of these to hold two ski cargo boxes to the ceiling in the off season. They have to hold tight to the ceiling because they only have about 1.5” clearance to the garage door when it opens. They have never slipped even a fraction of an inch in all the years we’ve had them stores there.

So we’re big fans of the Harken stuff.

j.

Moe Zhoost

Thanks. This allays my worry that multiple hanging bikes would be bumping into each other.