Bicycle Storage

[Eddie's GTS]

Hi Guys
I am looking for a way to store my road and mountain bikes. I currently have them on the wall hung by the front or rear wheels, but this makes it hard for my wife to get her bike down. This method also leaves tire marks on the wall which I would like to eliminate. I am thinking of a remote controlled winch system. I have the ceiling height and getting the bikes up and away will also make them more secure and free up some wall space. Any thoughts, please include photos.
Thanks Ed

 

[MustangRick]

I have one of these:
http://www.harborfreight.com/bicycle-lift-95803.html

It is worth about $7. The idea is good, but the rope will jump the pulley and end up on the shaft if you go too fast. If you could glue big washers to the sides of the pulleys, it may turn it into a quality product. If you are going to use this daily or weekly, do not expect this to work as is. I use it on a bike that is used a few times a year and it is mounted to my rafters, so the tires are about 7' off the ground. I have enough rope to go another 8' in the air if needed.

 

[Mickey O]

Don't think you'll need a motorized lif unless your bicycles are made of lead.

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If you by chance have a post you can mount a bicycle rack to it and hang them. This is what I have, it holds two bicycles, made from an old bicycle carrier mounted to a piece of 2 x 4 and then a U bolt to the post, the bicycle "hooks" fold in when the bike isn't on it, suppose you could mount one to a wall, I had that at the old place but don't no where a pic is currently. I mounted one high (your) and one low (the wife's).

 

[shannonw]

I saw a system (can't remember where) but it was basically like you mention a power winch system that dropped a rail with a couple of bikes on them. Seemed pretty cool if you have high ceilings. I thought about even just the inexpensive pulleys and box out between the joist in the attic and raise them up into the box too.

Only thing about the pulleys and stuff is i've always thought it may make me less likely to grab the bikes and go for a ride...but that just may be my laziness =)

I mount my parallel to the wall with hangers up high, i keep the wifes on the repair stand. I built a caster platform for the repair stand so i can move it out of the way into the center of the garage or up against the wall. The wife seems to get it easy enough off that. I like having the stand out, and when not in use it doubles as storage.

Unfortunately bikes and especially the kids stuff is a pain, if we're still here next year i'm making a shed and will keep that gear there probably.

 

[Victorymike18]

I've got a couple of the Harbor Freight bike hoists. As mentioned above, they are not a completely trouble-free to operate, but they're decently strong and easy to setup... For the price (about 7-10 bucks each) they're great.

 

[fireguy]

I did not get my bike hoists from Harbor Freight, but similar design. My Haluzik sometimes needs some help coming down, but the Cannondale Mtn bike comes down OK. My Schwinns are no problem to hoist up. Sometimes I need to hold one wheel or hte other to keep them straight during the movement up and/or down.

 

[SGKent]

the problem is you must have the headroom. If not you will hate yourself when you walk into one. We used wall storage holders that lag screw to the studs. they hold the bikes like a bike rack and have baskets that are part of the system which allow us to store shoes, gloves and helmet. We have them in a spare den/office as that way they stay dry and clean. My garage is too organized with tools and things to give up any space for bikes as we also park a collector car and the daily driver in it. While we could park under bikes we don't have head room to walk under them without hitting them.

 

[Eddie's GTS]

I have 14 ft ceilings and was thinking about a hoist that would support 8 bikes. I planned to just lower all the bikes at once. I guess I need to build a framework that supports the bikes and the ceiling unit with wench and pulleys.

 

[ricleh]

I made a rack from some scrap pieces of oak I had left over from making some kitchen cabinets. The design is very simple and flexible. You can adjust the length of the vertical pieces to fit whatever height you need and you can make the holder arms and position them wherever works for you.

Bicycle rack

Bottom of rack with bolts for adjusting to clamp the rack in place

Top of rack

Arms for holding the bicycles

Bicycles on the rack

 

[Eddie's GTS]

I would like to recapture my wall space as well as clean up the area by getting the bikes out of the space. The pole mounts eliminate the marks on the wall but still take up valuable space...

 

[abstamaria]

A problem, really

I was thinking of hanging my bicycles also, but was worried the extra effort to bring them down might discourage me from biking.

As I noted in another thread, I have had to keep some bicycles indoors. They look like sculpture and I only have two indoors, so they don't spoil the aesthetics too much. Or so I think.

I have to find a solution.

Andy

 

[abstamaria]

By the way, there are several solutions here-

http://www.bikerackshops.com/storage_racks/

 

[machine_punk]

I'm not sure this will help you, but others will eventually search this thread, looking for bicycle storage ideas.

I needed to get my bikes off the wall, so I built a 'freestanding Bike Wall.' You could put casters on this too, to make it moveable. I was trying to recover as much room in the garage as possible, for my metalworking studio. I only have half of a two car garage for metalworking--and five bicycles to store...
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[Inky Ford]

I just bought one of these wall mount units and am happy with the quality. Here is a link to the site. They have tons of storage solutions: LINK

I got the 6 bike unit.

 

[Iron-Iceberg]

I got this one from costco, yes its motorized but i didnt think the wife could pull up five bikes. It works great and she can get a bike down in a minute with out my help.

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Produc...rypageHorizontalTop|PopularProductsInCategory

 

[RVDan]

I got the cheap harbour freight style.

While it works good, I failed to think about the extra space that the hoist assembly uses up, so my bikes don't go as high as I like. With a higher roof it would be a non issue.

 

[dirttracker18]

Again, bike hoist here. Got two up to my 12' plus ceiling. Out of sight out of mind. If you wanted to could rig them to be motorized but they are simple to operate.

 

[Inky Ford]

I just bought one of these wall mount units and am happy with the quality. Here is a link to the site. They have tons of storage solutions: LINK

I got the 6 bike unit.

For the kids' bikes I got an old metal rack from a school yard. It has 5 slots and is really sturdy. Remember when kids would ride their bikes to school?

 

[ducktapeguy]

I use a hoist as well. One of them works great, no problems at all, I just don't remember where i bought it. The one from HF is almost identical but has problems with the rope getting jammed in the pulleys. I'm thinking part of the problem is the rope on the HF is much thinner and softer, I've been meaning to switch to a thicker rope which should alleviate the problem.

It's great IF you have high enough ceilings to get the bikes completely out of the way or can put them in a corner that you won't walk in. I had two bikes hanging above the hood of my car, no problem as long as the car was parked there. If I moved the car out to work in the garage I was constantly banging my head against the tires.

 

[ADaughen]

I have one of these:
http://www.harborfreight.com/bicycle-lift-95803.html

It is worth about $7. The idea is good, but the rope will jump the pulley and end up on the shaft if you go too fast. If you could glue big washers to the sides of the pulleys, it may turn it into a quality product. If you are going to use this daily or weekly, do not expect this to work as is. I use it on a bike that is used a few times a year and it is mounted to my rafters, so the tires are about 7' off the ground. I have enough rope to go another 8' in the air if needed.

I have one of those, too. Make sure your ceiling is high enough or it is a waste. My 8' ceilings allow me to store stuff under the bike, but I would have to move everything out of the way to get the bike down. (insert face palm here)

I also do not like how the hooks work on my seat and handle bars. I got mine for $5... you get what you pay for.

 

[98TJ]

I use screw-in hooks into the studs and hang the bikes by the wheels.