oldspokes

I've got about 50 or so spare wheelsets around but have never found an ideal way to store them. Some are hanging on a wall with the first wheel on a bike hook and each wheel after that hanging from a piece of rope tied to the last one from the ceiling to the floor. If I overlap them, I can get 3 or 4 wheel sets per hook. On lighter wheels, I'll often double stack these putting two on the top hook. I have some hanging from the ceiling in my basement, I put super sized bike hooks into the joists sideways as high as I could get them along the one side, that way each hook can take 3 or 4 wheels. and I stagger the hooks along four joists in an area where I don't walk. (Most are above my heating oil tank or some shelving. I also hang a second wheel from the first where I have the room. Of course, the wheel I always need is the first wheel on the hook every time.

For frames, I put cross braces between several joists and ran 1/4" rod through in several places so I can just hook rear dropouts on the rods. Each rod can hold about four frames. I screwed several 2x4's along the top of one wall with 1" holes drilled in it on a slight downward angle, I use these holes to stick forks in, with the blades turned sideways, I can get quite a few forks on each board which keeps them up and out of the way, and safe from getting scratched. I also keep some forks in old socks in buckets under my work bench.

SJX426 

OK here is another option for consideration. First there is the issue of ease of access. Second is if the wheel is complete with tires or not. Third is just rims.

Rims are ease as they can be stored on one hook with the real issue of spacing related to hubs (duh!)

When storing wheels with tires, what about using a loop of twine that is hung around the tube stem? I don't think the weight of a front wheel is enough to shear the stem or even damage it with a side load. Often pumping with a hand pump will do more damage!

As appealing as a rod or pipe or tube used to thread between the spokes, it violates issue 1.

Spacing between adjacent wheels should be about 8-10 inches. If you want the get them closer, you need to offset as shown my @Hudson308. I like this idea. You may object to he 8-10 inch linear spacing when using the typical threaded J hook but the clearance is increased when you lift the wheel above the adjacent ones. Offset will determine linear spacing which I think can be taken down by 2" to 6" between offset J hooks.

So here is a pic of wheel set without tires. I think the frame is not square making it look worse that it is. If a block is on the rear, then place it "under" the front wheel to offset the center of gravity.
[IMG]P1000378, on Flickr[/IMG]

oldlugs

That's basically what I've been doing here so far, but its proving to not be enough. I've got wheels hanging from all points possible and still have 16 rows of wheels on the floor to trip over. Its gotten better after dumping some of the unbranded stuff but there's still a lot of wheels. Most are three speed wheel sets, with maybe 1/4 being 27" road bike wheels. I bought 200 extra large J hooks and have them set up in pairs between the rafters upstairs for frames, I found I can put four frames on each hook if I reverse every other one, so long as they're of similar size.
The bad part is that its not the best way to prevent paint damage but most aren't show pieces anyhow.

taguy4

If you would change your pipe out to a piece of structural steel of an appropriate thickness you wouldn't get the bow you've got pictured here. In fact any storage system that spans more than a few feet is better done with structural steel than pipe IMO. Water or gas pipe isn't designed to support any weight to speak of - even its own weight; that's why when you run pipe you have to use pipe hangers every so often to keep the pipe from bowing from its own weight.

wrk101

I've been culling out my wheels lately. I've got a long ways to go! But the 80/20 rule tells you 80% of the value is in 20% of the wheels. Steel rims, 27 inchers, 3 speed wheels, those are pretty much all gone in my stash (OK, I have three sets of 27s for touring bikes). I have a separate stash of high dollar wheels to sell, Campy mainly, some others. I will be easing those out on ebay this year.

In my situation, its more like 90/10. 10% of my wheel stash has 90% of the value. I am not interested in selling the $25 to $50 wheel sets, so those are going to the co-op. Just donated the bottom 40, going to take another swipe at it. When stuff owns you, its time to let some of it go. On my deathbed, I'm surely not going to say, I wish I had kept more of those wheels.

Frames and bikes are the same way, at least 80/20. Sell the top 10% to 20%, donate most of the rest.

oldlugs

With me, its more like 80/10/10, 80% of the wheels are Raleigh or Schwinn three speed wheel sets, 10% are 27" steel wheels but their for bikes like Raleigh Sprites and such, the other 10% are new aluminum 27" wheelsets.
I have very little 700C stored as wheel sets, I rarely come across a bike with a good 700C wheelset, those are almost always trashed. The older 27" wheels are usually in better shape.
Road bikes don't sell well here, its all cruisers, three speeds, and mountain bikes. In that order.
I've got a hand full of decent mid level chromoly road bikes that I've had for years with no takers, big, small, 27" or 700C it don't matter. I sell maybe one or two of them a year. I sell forty three speeds and just as many cruisers.
The sad part is that its easier to make money on cheap bikes than good shop grade bikes here. Buyers jump on Huffy, Freespirit, and Murray three speeds faster than a Raleigh Sports or anything foreign.
Most buyers also don't realize the difference between a real Schwinn from back in the day and the China junk they sell at Walmart.
Most of the road bikes I do sell end up being boxed and shipped to the west coast, mostly around Seattle. In 20 years, I bet I haven't moved 20 road bikes locally. Of course, if I priced them cheaper than a Huffy, they might sell.

I had a pair of dog doo brown Roadmaster branded his & hers three speeds last summer, they were mid 70's models with Shimano three speeds. They were like new. At the same time I bought a pair of mint clean Raleigh Sprites, his and hers models, 1974 models, both ten speeds. I listed the Raleigh Sprites for $350 for the pair. I listed the two Roadmasters for the same price. I got 29 emails about the Roadmasters, two about the ladies Sprite only. I sold the two Roadmasters in three days for asking price, and sold the ladies Sprite for $140 after about a month. I still have the men's Sprite, it never sold and got parted out online. The first thing to sell was the wheels.
I just listed and sold two Huffy Sante Fe 10 speeds, the one's with those cheap Shimano Positron shifters. The two bikes were pretty clean, everything worked but again, they were Huffys. I listed them for $150 each, they were gone in a day. I listed a clean Univega Supra Sport in a 23" frame for $150, and got no emails. I sold two Huffy Chesapeake Cruisers that rode ok but looked like crap. I listed them for $80 each, but got no replies, I upped the price to $150 and sold both in a day.
At the same time, I had three or four clean Jamis cruisers and one Fuji cruiser listed at the same price and they took the Huffy bikes over the nicer bikes.

BMX for a while was king, but it died out again. They were selling like mad for about 10 years in the early 2000's then it died all at once. I noticed that most of the kids around the neighborhood here don't ride bikes, I haven't seen a kid on a bike in a few years now. I asked one kid if he had a bike, he said "What for?" He walked away with his head buried in his phone texting someone. They'd rather play video games or text than ride a bike.
Most of them haven't even learned to ride.
When I was a kid, I couldn't imagine not knowing how to ride a bike.

oddjob2

unistrut

Or a 2 x 8 or 2 x 10

thumpism 

You guys who chuck out 3-speed wheels might be able to make friends with folks on the "For the love of English 3-speeds..." thread. Most would only be interested in Sturmey-hub wheels but you might get takers for Shimano and Torpedo, as well as more obscure brands. Thanks!

oldlugs

You won't catch me throwing away any three speed wheels, they bring more than a whole bike here and are easier to ship.
The wheelsets I've got now though still have to be sorted, I won't sell any of them till I make sure I don't have the rest of the bike here that can be put back together. I'd hate to sell off an original wheelset and find out I need them later for a bike I have here. That last lot was full of 'taken apart bikes'. So far I've assembled a dozen or so, and compiled another 40 in complete lots of parts in which to re-assemble a complete bike. I'm slowly figuring out the last owner's system for marking parts. Its the way he stored them that didn't make any sense. He bagged and tagged nearly every part from each bike he took apart, then stored them in separate containers in separate areas. He didn't put all the derailleurs in one bin, he didn't keep the bikes and their parts in one area, he mixed everything up all over the place. The bins are marked by brand and by country of origin. The bags all have letter and number codes that from what I've figured tell what date he took them apart. Some date back to the 50's.
The oldest so far was a Schwinn World, the newest a couple of 90's mtb's.

About 40% of the light weight bikes are Raleigh or Raleigh sub brands, a few Schwinns, and a lot of Columbia and Rollfast. The rest are obscure euro brands and a few Japanese brands. Out of the whole lot, there were only 11 road bikes that were even slightly worth messing with and all but three have steel wheels. If they weren't super clean or in my size they would have gone away with the piles of department store bikes I traded away.

Once I get all the parts sorted and out of the way I'll start letting go of parts I don't need or can't use.
I found one box today full of nothing but 3 speed shifters, the box was from a 2 drawer file cabinet and was filled to the top. I'm taking boxes like that and sorting the parts out by brand and type into zip lock bags for now so when I need something I don't have to dig through a barrel of other parts to find it. I've got similar lots of hubs, derailleurs, chains, sprockets, etc.
I found an 18 gallon Rubbermaid tub full to the top with used chrome Wald stems, another full of just cranks. Most of that stuff got traded away right off the bat. It was too heavy and not worth enough to bother saving. I did pick through it though and pull out any of the really old parts though.

Wheels have always been an issue to store, if I double or triple hang them, they take up as much room as a hanging bike, if they hang side by side they waste even more space. But they have to stay as long as they have a matching frame for now. I did sell off a few of the Shimano hubbed wheels and all of the Torpedo and Sears hub wheelsets. I got more for the Sears wheelsets than any of the others, probably more than they would have brought mounted on a whole bike.
A few of the Asian three speed wheel sets appear to be new, they still have price tags on them and are built with bright shiny Araya steel wheels and Shimano hubs, the original price tag on them was $75 on the rears, and $25 on the front wheels. Some of the no name rim wheels, with 3 speed hubs were marked only $45 for the rear, and $22 for the front wheel. I sold two pair of the new Araya wheels for more than three times what they were marked. I didn't list them, I was offered that much. I didn't think the old Shimano stuff had that much of a following.
I was pleasantly surprised that most of the ladies frames have sold, I listed them in lots of 10 for $100 and I had one guy take all but five of them. He didn't want the Mixte style frames, only the single and three speed ladies frames. At $5 each, it was big chunk of real estate to clear out. They were all bare lower end frames, lots of pink, red and yellow steel. Some had forks, some didn't. Something tells me their not destined to be bikes but sculpture or something. He loaded them in a cut off pickup trailer stacked like fire wood.
Either way, I'm glad to have them gone because it freed up a huge chunk of space.
I sold the five mixte frames off one at a time, with the last one going as a complete bike in 'kit' form.

dddd

Thanks oldlugs for the follow-up info! I'm glad this has some profitability and you were smart to clear out the boat anchor stuff.

Hudson308 

What a fun story.
More pics would be great!