Bike Storage
 

Maybe a stupid question but where do you store your bike? I store mine in the garage but someone mentioned i should store them in the house.

Wut? Anywhere with a lock and that folks can't see into.

In my living room

Single speed and mountain bike in the garage. Road bike stays in the mud room. They all over-winter in my office, so I can tinker with them.

In the garage. But don't store fertilizer or chlorine for the pool in the same garage.

My son's bike developed a coating of white dusty mildew from being in his mother's garage all winter. The chain also rusted. Her garage is dry but there must be some kind of humidity thing going on. Any ideas?

I've been storing bikes of every material in Houston garages for more than 30 years Never a problem. High temperatures, high humidity. Nothing wrong. Of course the bikes are maintained for riding, so the chains are protected by lube.

We had a rash of garages get broken into this summer in Minneapolis and bikes stolen out of them.

I store my expensive bike and my commuter in my apartment. I store my winter bike (that ends up covered in crud, crap, and debris) on the bike hooks in my garage stall, that's where I keep my mountain bike as well. They're locked up with a chain that hooks onto the bike hooks that are bolted into the cement wall.

Isn't just relying on insurance more sensible. They are just bikes after all. I don't value them any more than any of my other possessions. Locking them up inside my own locked garage or having to keep them inside the house like you describe would be terribly depressing to me.

I'm a guy, and terrible at interior decorating. Keeping a nicely painted bike inside gives me an excuse to have something with some color inside my place. :-)

Fortunately our master bedroom is almost 700 sqft including closets, and 1 closet is dedicated my bikes (about 50 sq ft). 2 bikes + organized gear in there, and 2 more bikes in the inside storage room downstairs. All 4 are my bikes.... Wife's and kids are in the garage.

Probably not. Your premium will likely go up for years and you likely have a deductible. Mine is $500 or $1,000. Can't remember which. The combination of those two things may make a claim a losing proposition over the long term. As my agent told me, if you make a claim, make sure it's a big one. I had my custom racks along with the Surly LHT they were attached to stolen from inside the house. For about $2,000 I didn't bother with a claim.

I don't have a garage or any other outbuilding. We usually have 5 bikes on the first floor. Two hang on the wall.

In the house

If you don't have a secure garage with the necessary space, well then you just don't. But keeping your bikes in the house is still a far cry from chaining them to the concrete slab or some such thing. I have a friend who had perhaps $100,000 or more of jewelry taken when very well informed deactivated her alarm and simply ripped her floor safe out of the concrete slab and hauled it away. If they want it, they will get it. Simple deterrence like a locked door normally works. When it doesn't that is just the cost of living. One more chain and one more chain and one more chain just gets ridiculous after a while.

I think your agent is screwing with you to keep his agency's claim history low. In my experience with a good insurer home insurance rates don't rise significantly until the third claim over a short period of time. Sure some restraint regarding how to use your insurance protection makes sense, however, you are not paying for the carrier's benefit but rather for yours. Claims that are similar in size to your deductible don't accomplish anything good for you; they do just antagonize the carrier. But if my three bikes were stolen from my garage for a total loss of about $20,000, you can bet I would be getting reimbursed. And there would surely be enough slop in the appraisals that I wouldn't be out the deductible. Not because I would fake anything to cheat the company, but because in my experience home insurance appraisers always treat their faithful policy holders well and err on the generous side. Maybe I have just been lucky.

Garage. Never been a problem.

Most of the bikes are in the garage. The mountain bike is in the shed in the back yard. One of the cross bikes is stored in the shed during non-cross season as well.

[QUOTE=rpenmanparker;17197966But if my three bikes were stolen from my garage for a total loss of about $20,000,[/QUOTE]

Of course, but not for a max of $2,000 worth of bike and racks minus a $1,000 deductible. We accidentally left the door unlocked. Classic urban situation. It was a Friday night a week before X-Mas. We were out shopping and having dinner. Took a cab home. Came in the house with packages. Cat running around under our feet yapping for food. We were both distracted and fogot to lock up. Later that night, while we were in bed watching the evening news, some apparent crack head went around trying doors. I heard a loud noise and the bedroom door, which was partially open, swayed a little. We looked at each other. Ten seconds later I got an eerie feeling because I surmised that the swaying of the door was caused by the pressure created from the slamming of the front door. "I think there is someone in the house. Dial 9-1 and wait." I said to my GF. I walked to the stairs and looked down to see the Surly gone. It was the closest bike to the door and was oriented to roll out. When I finally went down the stairs I could smell the guy's funk all through the first floor. I later realized he also took my cheap cell phone. Fortunately, the two custom Independent Fabrications were left alone.

I still keep an eye out for the bike. I had a friend recover a bike years after it was stolen. A Colnago C-40 of all things. Someone came into the shop where he had purchased it and tried to sell it to the shop's owner. The owner thought he recognized the bike and told the guy to leave it overnight so he could check out its condition. When the guy left, the shop owner called the purchaser, who happened to be a relative. The purchaser told him to look inside one of the bar ends for his busines card. There it was. To avoid trouble, the shop owner bought the bike for something like $75.

Sure, I agree.

Garage next to my motorcycle.

never in the main house, that would never work
half in the walk out basement and the others in the garage, working on building a shed for the mtbs
I usually keep the steel frames in the basement which is dry

i'm in an apartment right now and i keep both my bike and Boy's bikes right next to my bed. i actually like it there, they're not intrusive or in the way, they're along the large window in my room.

however, i'm about to move into a house with a garage in a month or so and was thinking i'd keep them in the garage... but i too have heard the garage is not a safe place. my room won't be big enough to keep them in there so i'm at a loss as to where i'll have them soon. the house i'm moving into is a friend of mine's and i can't really just set up a wall rack in the living room for 'em.

If the garage has a locked overhead door or overhead door attached to a remote door opener it is as safe as the house providing any windows and pedestrian doors are also locked as well. That is a good as the house and should be as safe. If there is glass in the overhead door or any windows, be sure to cover them with opaque material. What a thief can't see, won't tempt him/her.

So, why 'store them in the house'? Security? Maintenance? Other?

Our bikes are all over the place: In the summer, we keep the frequently used bikes in the attached-garage. "Storage" bikes are in the basement. Winter months, the road bikes move to the exercise room with trainer, steel frame bikes move to basement (avoid salt brought in by cars) and winter bikes and AL frame bikes stay in the garage.

Minneapolis is BAD for bike crime - My kid lives in the city, her rear wheel stolen from bike locked outside her apartment (she keeps it in the living room now). Also in Minneapolis, garages are getting broken into just to get bikes. Out in the 'burbs hasn't been an issue, as long as you lock up the garage.

In the back of a VW Jetta :D

Good to know about fertilizer and bike.