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Having just acquired my Nth bike I am now struggling for space in the garage. Wishing to be able to refute Mrs Stigheed's claim that I have too many bikes I have decided to organise the bike storage situation.
Has anyone stored their bikes vertically by hanging them by the front wheels on a hook? How has this worked for you?
I had exactly the same problem - picked up one of these from Cyclestore and saved a huge amount of garage space. I've got 4 MTB's (top and tail) and a road bike on mine. Takes plus tyres too, if that is a consideration.
Has anyone stored their bikes vertically by hanging them by the front wheels on a hook?
Most people on here I'd imagine.
How has this worked for you?
Perfectly fine. Someone will tell you it's not good for your forks or brakes or some other shit, but in the real world.....
If your brakes are bled properly there is no issue. I had a shimano with a variable bite point...storing it vertically made it go spongy - I guess it forced the bleed issue. Been absolutely fine ever since.
As above re: brakes. No issues once I’d spent money and got someone less rushed to bleed them.
Four Steadyracks in the shed is my solution. Not cheap bits of kit but worth it to me for the efficient storage.
We have, done it for years and never had a problem.
Have a read through this, pic of ours in it
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/optimum-mountain-bike-storage/
Thanks for the responses. It certainly has given me food for thought. Who knows, once I have created more space I’ll have room for an Nth bike!
Steadyrack.
I've tried a few things, the most efficient from a space point of view is to take the front wheel off, turn the bars 90 degrees and hang the bike from the front axle. Then hang the front wheel off the headset or whatever using a largeish S-hook.
If you have the headroom, removing the backwheel too might be worth doing too as you can then use the space underneath for whatever.
If you have a high ceiling, then those pulley things that lift the bikes out of the way are great, I used them to lift 10 bikes into the roof space in my workshop and could just pop them up and down as required, but I know most on here that have space for that wouldn't be asking your question.
I've added a couple of lofts at each end of my workshop and have lights mounted on the roof so I can't lift the bikes up anymore, so they're hung upside down from nails into the loft floor joists as there is space above a car that's parked at one end.
The trick really is to find a bit of space that you're not using and find a way to get the bikes into it.
Have a look at Kenovo.. They do a rail which you can then clip a bike hanging hook from. The hooks can sit wherever you like horizontally so you can leave more space for often used bikes and less for others etc. I have two rails one above the other about a foot apart so the bikes are staggered in height. Works absolutely perfectly, nice and sturdy and the cost was reasonable.
That does look good, but I'd struggle to justify £10 a metre when it's just a french cleat system made of metal.
I'm looking for a combination of the "hang by front wheel" and "pulley hoist it above head height" if anyone knows of something?
My current thinking is to mount a front wheel hanger on a vertically sliding rail. Any suggestions for something that does this already?
The hang from the front wheel thing works well if you have the space, but I found that bikes stick out further than you imagine.
I hung 4 bikes like this in our single garage, so they stuck out sideways into the space. Ideally I'd have mounted them on the far end wall, but there's a window & a workbench there, so that was a non-starter.
I should really have taken some measurements because in reality the bikes poked out a long way into the space & I ended up taking them down & moving them if I was working in there for any length of time. And they were mounted on 45deg Arris rail, so actually took up less space than if jutting straight out.
In the end I took the rails & hooks down and now lean two bikes up against the wall top to tail and do the same with two bikes above in the same manner mounted on a large pronged wall rack. It works for a road & mountain bike, but think that the length of mtb bars would mean putting two mtbs on the elevated rack would be a pain.
I thought it might be a pain, but in reality the two bikes that get used less go against the wall & the other two are at the front so easy to access.
And they stick out far less into the garage, so take up less of the available space.
So has anyone had any issues with bikes hung like this with forks/shocks/dropper posts?
And with a full sus do you hang by front or back wheel?
Never had a problem with them hung with the front wheel. We have seven hung on the back wall of the garage out of the way
I'm a fan of the brackets that hold a bike by the pedal. Great if you have some spare wall space.
Has anyone stored their bikes vertically by hanging them by the front wheels on a hook?
Yes
How has this worked for you?
Pretty well... But here are some caveats and issues.
^^From when we moved in^^
I (currently) have four bikes, the remainder of the family have another four between them so eight bikes, all hung "nose up" that takes up about 3/4 of a wall...
Hanging them wide-spaced by the front wheel makes them easier to hoist in and out of each storage position, but requires much more space.
I had less space in our previous garage and as a result Top 'n' tailed the bikes in a smaller space, which I found less convenient from a handling POV.
I have other sundry items, like misc parts and unassembled frames/forks/wheels slung from roof beams and on shelving and propped up in between some of the built bikes, it's not just bikes you end up needing a storage solution for
Hung bikes can end up becoming "temporary coat hooks"...
you need clear wall space, as you can see I've got pipes, consumer units, blockwork and other crap to work around.
Most importantly you need at least 1.5m^2 clear floor space next to where a bike is hung to lift them down and move it on it's back wheel.
In yer house.
You don't need all those rooms 🙂