best way of storing lots of bikes - hanging?

Special K

I'd like to hear from people who are storing their bikes by hanging them up. Am thinking of storing mine and the wife's bikes by hanging them up by their front wheel with some weight on the ground.

We have a wall in our utility room (which as of next week will be branded The Bike Room) which is about 240 cm wide with about 120cm clearance into the room to allow for saddles etc. (room is 280cm wide but got to allow for the door and access).

My question is: I want to hang the bikes up as I reckon its the best use of space, but I also don't want to put lots of large holes in the walls by putting hooks directly in the wall: any ideas?

pliptrot

I hang them by the front wheels so they're vertical. I put a 3"x2" on the garage ceiling and bought some of those general purpose plastic coated hooks. To avoid putting holes in the wall or ceiling you could always build a free standing frame. The key is, I found, that you need more space between the hooks than you may imagine. I'll post a photo of what I am trying to explain - a bunch of bikes in a row like this look quite nice (and there are nothing like bikes to make the place a mess and snag on your best clothes every time you go near them, etc....)

Special K

good idea - I guess a photo would help so I can understand how heavily built a free standing frame should be

Special K

just found this

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/ProductDetail.aspx?Cat=cycle&ProdID=5360019444&n=Ultimate%20Velo%20Cache%204%20Bike%20Stand

but can't imagine it being as efficient as something built in.

thoughts?

Monty Dog

Most free-standing bike stores support the bikes from the top tube and not hanging from the front wheel. You could either screw your plastic hooks directly into your ceiling joists, or alternatively, screw a piece of 2"x4" timber to the ceiling joists and into which you can fit the aforementioned plastic hooks. The most space-efficient is to top-and-tail the bikes i.e. hang alternately from front and rear wheel - this way, the spacing between the hooks only needs to be just over half-a-bars width. I can get 10 bikes into about 10 feet in my garage

Special K

Good call - thanks. Makes sense to top and tail. I guess the bikes you use more often you hang by the front wheel as it's probably easier to get them into position?

PHcp

When I lived in a rented flat where I wasn't allowed to drill anything into the walls or ceiling, I made a bike wardrobe.
Two sets on industrial shelves from Machine Mart facing each other, a length of scaffolding pole bolted on top and butchers hooks (the type they hang carcasses from) with the lower bend padded. The shelves were useful for all the cycling bits, tools, helmet, lights, spares... The advantage of hooks on a rail is you can move the bikes closer together giving room to easily remove the one you want. It is top heavy so I added a few paving slabs to the bottom shelf. I boxed the whole thing in with plywood which made it more rigid and kept the stuff on the shelves. At the GFs insistence I added a curtain to the front to hide the bikes (obviously not a relationship that was going to last)

ademort

Could this also apply to mother in laws greetings ademort

Gav2000

I store 4 bikes in my garage by hanging them from their back wheels from Tesco Value Cycle Hooks that are about £2 for 2 hooks. The hooks are screwed into a rafter in the garage and are about 14" apart. This is about as close at they can go but they have held my old and very heavy mountain bike for a month now with no signs of pulling out.

Gav.

gavintc

We have 3 biikes hanging over the boiler' 2 down, 1 up alternating hanging by front / back wheels. The 4th bike is on one of those pulley things that Edinburgh Bicycle sell and is stored in the utility room on the ceiling.

Special K

I was going to ask if this damages the wheels. But I guess the weight of the bike is a lot less than the weight of me riding it good and hard.

hammerite

I have 3 x un used hoists for bikes bought from Lidl ages ago. Plan was to have the bikes hanging from the ceiling in the garage. Trouble is I can't really do this in my garage since I moved house.

They are free to a good home (or 3 good homes!). They are quite heavy so if anyone wants them they would need to pay for postage or collect (Bedfordshire).

I'd put them on Ebay, but I'm too lazy!

bornagaincycler

I fixed two pieces of 28mm copper tube to the underside of the garage flat roof, covered it with pipe insulation, then hung the bikes by the seat & tie up the handlebars with a short piece of rope to the other tube. It works a treat & keeps the bikes in perfect condition. It's easy to do. I have 4 bikes hanging up.

rustychisel

Hanging's too good for 'em. I make mine stand in the corner.

gkerr4

Gav2000 wrote:

I store 4 bikes in my garage by hanging them from their back wheels from Tesco Value Cycle Hooks that are about £2 for 2 hooks. The hooks are screwed into a rafter in the garage and are about 14" apart. This is about as close at they can go but they have held my old and very heavy mountain bike for a month now with no signs of pulling out.

Gav.

They are excellent value those hooks - I think they are actually £1.29 for two - could be wrong though. I bought some and then bought some more when i realised how useful they are.

They have a great deep thread and are quite hard work to get in place (i drilled a pilot hole a couple of mm dia to help) but are very very strong when in place. My fixed wheel bike is held up in the garage at the moment and a space is being cleared for my current best bike to go there when its place in the conservatory is taken by a new carbon best bike in the new year!

I also have power cords, security chains, pannier racks, deckchairs and all sorts hangning off the other ones which has recalimed all sorts of floorspace in my garage .

Special K

Great advice, thank you!

So, going to purchase two of these@ 1800mm tall:

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/cs5150bp-150kg-quick-assembly-shelving-/path/tool-racks-shelving-workshop-flooring

and put these

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/cht191-20-pce-storage-hook-set

in some 3*2 length of wood between the two sets of shelves.

Will secure the shelves to the walls for stability, and the wood to the top shelf of each set of shelves using some basic brackets and fixings.

Job's a good'un

The Mechanic

Sounds like you guys have too many bike. How about giving me one or two.

proper_job

all good advice except i used b+q hooks and my mtb tyres dont fit into them easily. this is a drag as the tyres are only 2.3 contis so a big boys bike with 2.5 definately won't fit

Raph

This doesn't fit the requirement of having "some weight on the ground", but for about a tenner Halfrauds sell a two-pronged thing that'll hold two bikes under the top tube. Down side,if you want the one nearest the wall you have to remove the other. I've fixed these up just below the ceiling so skewers are at a perfect forehead-denting height, and there's just enough space to lift the top tube clear without the saddle wedging on the ceiling. I can also hang a few spare wheels and tyres in there without taking up any extra space. There's a version with prongs that fold upwards, for a couple of quid extra.

Cheaper is to get a couple of plastic coated hooks - sort of big L shaped things that do the same job and you fix both up seperately (so it's you that gets laughed at if you put them the wrong distance apart like I did) - they're not as strong and they don't fold up.

I find hanging bikes up like this in twos takes up very little space that you'd use anyway, and I can still have chests of drawers underneath or other stuff that's still accessible, albeit some of it through spokes.