Middle of a refurb - new bike sheds

Kieran_Burns

and I need some recommendations.

Forget sealed cages with swipe cards and machine gun nests... what practical options can I take to a meeting I have with the contractor tomorrow?

He's got a limited budget but is willing to any suggestion I can come up with. Personally I'm happy with a series of Sheffield stands sufficiently far apart to allow bikes to fit in without clashing with each other, all under a shelter.

surrey_commuter

how many bikes and how exposed is it (ie are you stopping opportunists or dedicated thieves)

veronese68

Can you get a grant from the council to help pay for it? We got free Sheffield stands and half of the shelter paid for as part of their drive to encourage people to cycle to work. Not sure who you approach in your area, we come under the TfL scheme called Cycling Workplaces or something. Got to be worth a go.
Sheffield stands and a shelter are perfectly adequate, try to get them put somewhere that they are always overlooked if possible.

Kieran_Burns

We've got space to the rear of the building under CCTV surveillance, there was sufficient (albeit cramped) space for 8 bikes and they are doubling it.

Quiet commercial park near a village where there has been no issues in the past (even when the travelling folk camped opposite)

alan_sherman

Sounds sensible. What about showers, lockers , drying facilities?

surrey_commuter

powerpoint to recharge your bike?

Can somebody explain what drying facilities are as I want to ask my employer about it

Kieran_Burns

alan sherman wrote:

Sounds sensible. What about showers, lockers , drying facilities?

Doubling them as well (no drying places yet, but we're working on it)

Initialised

My last place had a metal and perspex shed with a simple coded lock in plain view of the security guard at the front desk.

However, access to the carpark required you to swipe your building pass, I wondered why this wasn't extended to the bike shed. Then was grateful as it would have made the first week annoying.

Drying facilities were non existent, this is probably where most employers fail hardest. A 1950s style indoor over-the-bath washing line and a low speed fan in the shower room would do the job.

The Rookie

Our new building is going to get 'bike pods' they are a sheffield stand combined with a polypropolene moulding that raises the front of one bike so the bars don't clash. They already have them at some of the other buildings and are proving to work well.

Different make, but very similar to these...
http://cyclepods.co.uk/products/streetpods/

veronese68

Drying facilities? I put some clothes line up in the boiler room. Every time an engineer comes in they cut it down.

Kieran_Burns

The Rookie wrote:

Our new building is going to get 'bike pods' they are a sheffield stand combined with a polypropolene moulding that raises the front of one bike so the bars don't clash. They already have them at some of the other buildings and are proving to work well.

Different make, but very similar to these...
http://cyclepods.co.uk/products/streetpods/

I put an email together prior to the meeting and included these. There's this design philosophy at work at the moment and these would fit right in.

Kieran_Burns

Turns out the guy sorting out the bike shed is a cyclist He was going to go for the carousel idea, but we soon stopped that. Getting a bigger bike shed, more sheltered but very near where the old one was. Proper Sheffield stands with deep ground anchors all included.

tangled_metal

Well we have metal stands that lift up every other bike. However they are too close together to actually fit the bikes in that close so we only get half the bikes in that there are stands for or we end up doing stuff like sticking pedals into other bike wheels trying to get into the narrow gap. All that is covered by a square box section frame with corrugated cladding on the top and most of the sides (a small gap near the top that allows rain in). All this is fully open at the front and back. Indeed the cover is too small and at least one wheel is out in the open without the cover above it. Not that it matters since rain is often wind blown and gets in anyway.

On top of this there are too many bikes to fit into it, even if you could fit them into all the stand places. That leaves people with their bikes leaning against the sides of the shed, against a safety barrier an even in the compressor house. Security consists of it being in the yard. The stand is not even bolted into the ground. No ground anchors and indeed you can not even fit into the stand to lock up your bike without a struggle. I actually walk around the back (sorry I squeeze round a narrow gap) and lock it from the back. Then I leave work late so I can unlock without half the bikes there. Most people have their bikes unlocked because there is nothing to lock it against. Oh, we are in an area that you would not want to leave a bike unlocked. We regularly get a certain ethnic group from a big Island off mainland Britain in their little trucks come round looking for scrap or anything valuable. They even climb over the security fence and throw over heavy steel cages so a handful of bikes is nothing.

Then other facilities...

Got nothing to say further as there are none.

At least we have no bike thefts. Last bike theft I heard about in the company got sorted out to the bike owner's satisfaction. two days after the bike was stolen a young lad at work rode in on it. Turns out he forgot where he had nicked it from. Anyway the owner had a chat with him at break for a few minutes. Half an hour later the lad came back into work and nothing further was said of the matter. All who saw the lad knew what the conversation went like. Many years back that and things have changed. The guys no longer sort problems out that way.

Anyway. you sound like you are getting some good facilities. I am not jealous at all. As long as my bike is still there at home time I have no real issues with my lot here.

The Rookie

We currently lock our bikes to the steel frame of the building in teh stairwells, that is the limit of our cyclist facilities.

However we are getting an all new building, to comply with planning requirements we will get bike stands and showers and changing rooms etc etc.... Ground work has just started on the building!

tangled_metal

What planning requirements specify bike storage and showers?

The Rookie

It's part of the environmental score, you have to get so many 'points'.....so we are getting a changing room and showers and enough bike racking for 15% of the occupants (probably 5% will cycle on a good day!).