You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I am lucky enough to be moving somewhere with a good sized basement so the bike fleet can continue to grow! Anyone got any good, inexpensive solutions for fitting the highest number of bikes in smallest area with convenience of taking them out? Happy to take front wheel and pedals off to help this....
Wall hanging on hooks by front wheel. Astonishing how many bikes you can get into a small area like this and still have (reasonably) good access.
I built a wooden triangular frame with slots that you park the back wheels into (sorry, can't post photos, think a Toblerone shaped frame) in my bike room. Got the design off the net, if you Google bike storage you should find something that suits
Vertical wall hanging, with something like this.
Stagger them so the bars can interlock, don't be afraid to hang bikes upside down if they haven't got hydraulic discs. Then I use two Almax chains, with an anchor at each end and a padlock in the middle, suspended so the weight isn't on the bikes (much). This means you can unlock either end to get at the bikes on the ends, or the middle if you want one from the middle.
You can always loosen off the stem bolts and twist the bars round in line with the top-tube so the bike is effectively flat. Next step is to remove the pedals also. Obviously not ideal if you're going to use the bike regularly, but the thing with owning large numbers of bikes, is that you almost certainly won't.
Wall-hanging hooks work well, but even with bikes staggered, there's always some sort of bar / bar / saddle interference going on ime.
<span style="display: inline !important; float: none; background-color: transparent; color: #222222; font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.4px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">You can always loosen off the stem bolts and twist the bars round in line with the top-tube so the bike is effectively flat.</span>
Better to take the front wheel off I think? But then it's a bit awkward to hang off a wall.
High density bike storage
Have you seen my shed?
I've been grappling with this over the last few weeks, spent quite a while deliberating over what to go for. It's a sliding scale of ease of access inversely related to space occupied. Was thinking of top and tailing wall mounted but I realised that this would still protrude quite some way (1m+) into the garage when saddles were taken into account. It was going to use the full height of the wall too, losing me racking space.
I've opted for something similar to mildbore, it's framed out of 3x2 that I had surplus from a fencing project. I've got 2 2.4m lenghts roughly 700mm apart that I've attached cross braces above and below to, making rear wheel slots. The slots are angled at 85deg (rather than 90 deg) which allows the bars to overlap without clashing. Imagine a ladder with wonky runs basically! I considered a 'top and tail' approach but I didnt want the bike being held by the front wheel (not sure why) and it would make it more awkward to pop bikes in and out quickly. Theres a lot of space over the back wheels, I might put some kind of shelf there to keep tools/gloves/helmets on.
As someone who has far too many bikes, I say stop right there. No more bikes, and the best solution for storage is to keep get rid of bikes until it is easy.
That said, after successfully starting my bike cull, I seem to have acquired one more bike than the previous total. 🙂
Holy incoming planet x links batman.
Well, there were about seven of you at one point.
Not done it yet, but me plan to stop them projecting too far I to the garage is to remove the front wheel then sit them on the wall with those cunning pedal hooks - little shelf for the back wheel and some sort of slot for the front axle.
I currently have hooks hanging at various heights from a cross beam. This worked really well originally, but lately 29ers and wide bars have totally buggered it all up. Bloody modern bikes!
The absolute best I have found are steadyrack.
A lot of people think 54 quid is a lot to hang a bike. I don't agree, certsinly when you have multiple posh bikes and wheels.
Anyway, these units only touch the tyre and can swing in both directions so you can shuffle bikes about whilst retaining compactness.
They are currently about £41 on Amazon, which is a tenner cheaper than I paid.
A fantastic solution I wish I'd discovered ages ago.
Also they are much easier to mount than rim mounts as you can just wheel the bike in.
I've got 8 bikes hanging by the front wheel with the racks spaced 300mm apart and the odd numbered racks displaced in height by 400mm. The total space required is 2.4m in length by 1.2m in depth and 2.2m in height. The MTB are on the higher racks and the road/CX bikes on the lower racks. this means no bike interfere with each other. The hooks also allo the bikes to be moved apart like one of those 90s poster racks.
The whole setup was about £40.
Pedals off, front wheels off, saddles off and and bars rotated 90deg (for MTB) means you can get 6 bike side by side in a 1.5m*0.9m*2m cupboard. I did this in a flat in Leeds.
I use two ikea Turbo racks. I can get 4 road bike on each bybtheir saddles or with the bars hooked over.
a load of these
I can easily run an anchor chain through some ground anchors with an alarmed padlock for security too
Ours are at the back of the garage on hooks like this
[img] 
[/img]
Like this
[img] 
[/img]
Behind this
[img] 
[/img]
Gives me all this when the cars out
[img] 
[/img]
As someone who has far too many bikes, I say stop right there. No more bikes, and the best solution for storage is to keep get rid of bikes until it is easy.
GTFO
That said, after successfully starting my bike cull, I seem to have acquired one more bike than the previous total.
Ah, excellent. A remarkable return to form there. Carry on.
Anyone tried these?
Feedback Sports Velo Hinge Home Wall Mounted Bike Storage https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00H96DA00/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_NVQHBbXQADKCS
I'm a big fan of double stacking using pedal brackets, if you have a fair bit of wall it leaves the most floor space available, MTB's at the top and roady bikes at the bottom, due to handlebars.
I got a five slot bike rack (the kind in school sheds) for 20 quid. Store bikes nose to tail (keep in high gear to save derailler) and it is the best solution I've had for years....
Those using pedal brackets, is it possible to get three high? Do the saddles lean out far enough to allow greater overlap?
What you need sir is a fair few Hornit Clugs by sounds of it.
I can second rone’s suggestion of the steadyrack. Not cheap but worth it to me for the convenience.
I'm really not into the hanging by the rim, it makes it harder to mount and if you've got decent rims you don't want to be scratching them.
Seriously get them hung by the tyres, you'll never look back.
I will get a picture of mine shortly.
I did look at those, but for me, the problem was how far the bike then projects into the room.
I've just done a quick video demo of my setup.
I’ve been planning to use Steadyracks for a while now and had them in my CRC basket ready for this week’s time off work. Came to order them last week and the standard version has dropped to £41 which was handy.
im in the process of fitting them to Unistrut channels to give me complete height adjustability.
They are very nice bits of kit. Up to now I’ve been using the type of hooks that Tracey has shown above but my children’s and Wife struggle with lifting their bikes in and out so being able to push them in and pull them out is a big help.
You'd struggle to get the bikes triple stacked unless you have good ceiling height, obviously it would be tricky to remove the upper bikes too if they are triple stacked, do able though.
Probably easier with kids bikes
I use these for all bar the fat bike, never really noticed any problems with scratched rims but that would come a long way down my GAS list as it's a mountain bike.
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;"> https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F292695392336</span>
I can get about 7 bikes in about 6ft of wall space.
Only downside is the OH can't get her e-bike in as it weighs a metric ton. And I do tend to leave my commuter outside rather than faff with threading locks through them every morning.
I use these for all bar the fat bike, never really noticed any problems with scratched rims but that would come a long way down my GAS list as it’s a mountain bike.
Understand, but I've got a couple of carbon rims and putting them in and out of rim holders doesn't seem that great on narrow rims.
Each their own in that respect.
Allow me to fix tinas' balls up of a link 🙂
But it's the same as the Planet X one and twice the price, by the look of it. Oh, unless you buy an 8 pack then it's cheaper. I guess they know their market shipping in packs of eight 🙂
@rone, as your video seems to have disappeared, how much of a gap do you have between the hangers? Trying to work out if I can fit every bike down my narrow wall
Hang on I will put the film back on ..
Done.
It can be very narrow. Wide bars are the limiting factor.
If you look on the left my CX bike is right next to my xc bike .
Nice one, thanks! Might just be able to pull this off....
@ rone, could those be set at an angle, say ~30* (a bit like you see on some uplift trailers) so bar overlap isn't such an issue?
Currently hanging all of mine from a beam in the Garage, topped and tailed but even then bar overlap is still the issue, we're potentially moving soon so I get a chance to revise bicycle storage arrangements.
Having two staggered tiers supporting the front wheel like your setup, but with each front wheel on an angle seems like it might improve the bar overlap problem...
The problem I've found with the front wheel at an angle is it's good for space saving but getting the bike in/out is more awkward - in my garage (mix of road and mtbs), I found that turning the bar to get it off the rack meant the bar hitting other bikes.
@ rone, could those be set at an angle, say ~30* (a bit like you see on some uplift trailers) so bar overlap isn’t such an issue
No because they pivot, if you put it at that sort of angle gravity would swing the bike inwards.
If I understand you correctly.
The Steadyracks do look good. I have 6 bikes (mix of MTB and road) on the static front wheel hooks (like the Jobsworth ones posted above) and whilst it works reasonably well it's not perfect. In order to maximise efficiency, the bikes are always almost touching which means getting them out without scrapes is tricky. I reckon the steadyracks must pretty much solve that problem and probably allow closer spacing, too. They are a lot of money, though.
What I would say is that whilst the hooks look neat, they don't actually save much space. Before I put the racks in, I had bikes leaning against the wall interlocking etc and they don't really take up much less room now. Of course if you regularly need the one at the back it's really annoying...
Mikertroid
(keep in high gear to save derailler)
Jings I'm such a tube. Of course. I did think there was a solution but never worked it out.
Many thanks.
PS. TO all the people with the fancy wall hanging gubbins, that's great but what about the locks?
They are a lot of money, though.
Surely they are a tiny percentage of an average bike cost and will probably last a lifetime, and if they save on just one scrape?
I think when you own the steadyracks chances are you've gone through other solutions by the time you've got to them.
Though I'm not saying they're the answer to everyone's storage problems...