Indoor bike storage - wall hook

Philip S

Afternoon all.

We're a two road bike household and live in a first floor flat, with no external ground, so the bikes have to live indoors. To date, they've just rested against bookcases and walls in the spare room, but demands on space are such that this is going to have to change.

From a bit of on-line research, the ideal solution seems to be a wall hook that enables us to stand the bikes vertically (ie, as though they are riding up the wall), something like this: http://www.deltacycle.com/product.php?g=57

Does anyone out there do something similar? My one worry on this is that the hook may cause some damage to the front wheel - is this concern unfounded?

Thanks for your help,
Phil

bobtravers

Never put your bike by the front wheel, you may damage your fork, or your headset, especially on carbon bikes and fork... Always put it by the rear wheel on the wall... Your hook from Delta Cycle looks great, but a another way is this... Much bigger, but more solid, and no damages on the walls!

http://www.sportrack.com/bsr1
http://www.sportrack.com/bsr12

Good luck!

willbevan

Hmm been looking for something myself like that

bobtravers wrote:

Much bigger, but more solid, and no damages on the walls!

http://www.sportrack.com/bsr1
http://www.sportrack.com/bsr12

Good luck!

Do like those, any idea where in the UK anyone stocks them or similar? as there website doesn't allow you to select the Uk....

Philip S

bobtravers wrote:

Never put your bike by the front wheel, you may damage your fork, or your headset, especially on carbon bikes and fork... Always put it by the rear wheel on the wall...

Thanks for this Bob. That's exactly the concern I had.

So, the hook would be okay, so long as I hang the bike by the rear wheel, as though it is riding down the wall? I guess the risk of damage is more to the frame than the wheel rims?

I would go for the horizontal racks but the room we're going to put these in is pretty small, so vertical suits better, so long as it doesn't damage the bike.

urban_winter

Never put your bike by the front wheel, you may damage your fork, or your headset, especially on carbon bikes and fork... Always put it by the rear wheel on the wall...

Any evidence for that?.......I didn't think so. And what does being carbon have to do with anything?

Hanging forces are tiny compared with riding forces. A couple of my bikes get hung from the front wheel and have done for years. Forks and headsets haven't failed yet - and I see no reason why they should.

U.

Dales1

Yes, I prefer to hang by the crossbar rather than the wheel (if only to avoid any damage to the wheel finish).

I use a couple of standard DIY store large diameter hooks (eg for ladder hanging?). And I padded the hooks with foam pipe insulation from the same store. Economical, but it does mean hooks in your wall.

Dales.

dazzawazza

If you have high ceilings you can drill two holes and screw in bicycle hooks to the joists (it can be tricky locating them). Then hang you bike by both the wheels from the ceiling. If you are shorter than 6ft 5" there shouldn't be any head contract.
I have found this a brilliant space saving solution and there has been absolutely no damage to my road bikes to date. I taped some old inner tubes to the hooks for added padding. Hanging against a wall isn't an option for me as the wall space is then lost.
The only problems I have is negotiating the bikes up my skinny London stair case up to the spare room.
I also have a secure garden, but would prefer to keep my best bikes inside. The garden shed is too full of junk to get the bikes into.

Rich-Ti

Why not set up the Leonardo hook so that the rear wheel is resting on the ground, thereby relieving any stresses on any important bike parts? :shock:

Personally I don't think there's any issue with hanging from the front wheel - as urban_winter said, riding forces are much higher! :P

ru--

I've heard these are pretty good:

http://www.cycloc.com/

Cheshley

ru-- wrote:

I've heard these are pretty good:

http://www.cycloc.com/

They look cooler than a penguin's cold bits, and what an innovative idea, but 60 quid.............?

My 3 bikes hang from Leonardo hooks and I've never had any problems.

Nuggs

I use that same hook for both my and my wife's bikes. It's been great and means bikes can be stored in the tightest of spaces. The guy who owns my LBS swears by them - he can get a crazy number of bikes hung in the workshop in a tiny bit of space.

bobtravers wrote:

Never put your bike by the front wheel, you may damage your fork,
or your headset, especially on carbon bikes and fork...

What are you talking about Bob? I can tell you now that my front wheel, fork and headset take far more punishment when having a 15 stone rider on top of them than when hanging by the weight of the bike...

over-the-hill

bobtravers wrote:

Never put your bike by the front wheel, you may damage your fork, or your headset, especially on carbon bikes and fork... Always put it by the rear wheel on the wall...

Good luck!

Any more info on this?

sjburbidge

Try these - £3 for 2!

http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/ebwPNLq ... tID=8835&f%
5FSupersetQRY=C288&f%5FSortOrderID=1&f%5Fbct=c003154c003136c003545

they just screw into the wall with a rawl plug, and the bike hangs vertically from one wheel with the other touching the wall and spreading the weight, or on the floor depending on the height. You may want to put something to stop your wall being marked if it's in your flat though....

Simon

babyshambles

I found this topic from a while ago.

Have just moved into a new place and storage is pretty tight, but I think I can store two bikes in the communal hallway but i need them as flush to the wall as possibe.

There is a bit of debate as to whether hanging the bike by the front wheel causes any problems. My first thought that this could perhaps 'strain' the wheel although this seems to have been poo-pooed in the above posts. I cannot rest the wheel on the floor so the full strain would be on the front wheel.

Whilst I accept comments with regards to 15st riders etc, as the wheel is mostly rotating, the strain will effectively be spread accross the whole circumfrence.... i just think the bike hanging in one place for say two weeks may distort the wheel????

Not sure how much bikes weigh (trek 1.2 and Trek 1.5) but as they sell the hangers, i guess they must be ok??

Any additional comments welcome please or particularly some pich of your stored bikes would be great

babyshambles

I found this topic from a while ago.

Have just moved into a new place and storage is pretty tight, but I think I can store two bikes in the communal hallway but i need them as flush to the wall as possibe.

There is a bit of debate as to whether hanging the bike by the front wheel causes any problems. My first thought that this could perhaps 'strain' the wheel although this seems to have been poo-pooed in the above posts. I cannot rest the wheel on the floor so the full strain would be on the front wheel.

Whilst I accept comments with regards to 15st riders etc, as the wheel is mostly rotating, the strain will effectively be spread accross the whole circumfrence.... i just think the bike hanging in one place for say two weeks may distort the wheel????

Not sure how much bikes weigh (trek 1.2 and Trek 1.5) but as they sell the hangers, i guess they must be ok??

Any additional comments welcome please or particularly some PICTURES of your stored bikes would be great

Gr.uB

over-the-hill wrote:

bobtravers wrote:

Never put your bike by the front wheel, you may damage your fork, or your headset, especially on carbon bikes and fork... Always put it by the rear wheel on the wall...

Good luck!

Any more info on this?

Thirded.

My TCR hangs from the front wheel in a DHB hook from Wiggle.
My Thorn ( with carbon fork ) hangs by the front wheel too.

What evidence is there of any damage?

ynyswen24

Worked in a bike shop for years, we hung all the bikes from the front wheels of normal DIY store storage hooks, never caused a problem ( and one of the co-owners was one of the guys who helped set up the Vytech certification scheme standards so I'm pretty sure he knew what he was on about).
DIY store storage hook - about £1.50. Job done