wrk101

I have wheels scattered all over right now. I need a more efficient way to store them, preferably up in the air. I have seen shops use plastic coated hooks, but that would be a lot of hooks in my case. Anyone have a simple, CHEAP, way to store them?

I know the pile I have now is not too efficient....

I have thought about suspending a piece of 1/2 inch conduit, but that would make access to the wheels a little painful (but it is the best idea I have so far)....

Now that I think about it, a similar solution to cranksets would be sweet as well!

I guess I have too much stuff right now.


thrifty bill

bbattle

The big hooks work the best. I've also hung them on the pedals of bikes I've got hanging from the ceiling.

gems

I have rubber coated hooks on the ceiling (2x4 mounted on the ceiling, hooks from that). I think that's the way to go.
Time saved searching for wheels is worth the small cost.

Also looking for big S hooks so I can hang another wheel from the bottom of the top wheel. May have to bend some metal as I cant seem to find them ready made.

Bianchigirll 

depending on where you want to store them you could use the pvc tubing, then take a peice of twine about 12" long with a loop in both ends. l
then you can put it over the tube and hook the loops on the valve, or attach it to the tube with one loop hanging down. we used to store bikes in a similar fashion over the winter. the down fall is the 'top' of the rim has to be within arms length. the hooks are the best way to go.

I bought a ton of wheels bags last year. they make the pile a bit better but they are still on the floor

juls

pipeing with cheap steel rings (sized so they slide)-then use velcro straps thru the ring and the rim. velcro sets together vertically/works for me. You could use zip ties-but the velcro is reuseable.

wrk101

Sounds like a winner so far. I'll have to look for some cheap rings that would slide on conduit. I want to be as efficient as possible (store as many wheels in a short a distance). Like the zip tie/velcro concept. I have zip ties coming out my ears, so I would probably use them first. I could just loosely hang the zip ties from the conduit. I'll probably put 700c wheels on one conduit run, and 27 inch wheels on another.

redxj

I use the big coated hooks for hanging bikes. They are under $2 a piece and hold up to 75lbs which is too extreme just for holding wheels. For storing wheels I use a pipe screwed the ceiling with pipe straps. I hang S hooks from the pipe for wheels. I can double and triple stack wheels using more S- hooks. You can also dictate how close or far apart you hang wheels to increase storage. I have three pipes in the basement shop for hanging wheels and could probably use another.

The first S hook that hangs on the pipe one end needs to be bent 90 degrees. I purchased the S hooks on ebay (plastic coated S hooks.

Pictures:

BigPolishJimmy

twine is super cheap and probably up to the job of holding a rim to another rim for a bit. I've got a few old steel rims hanging from a nail against a wall w/the next rim then hanging from the axle of the first and so on. This is only good up against a wall where they're not going to get knocked into.

wrk101

I like those S hooks. Just bought some on ebay, we'll see how it comes together. Have you hung any bikes that way? I can see doing that with misc framesets. (OK, I definitely have too much stuff).

This is about half my workshop. And I have another 20 bikes upstairs in the garage....

One challenge I have with my workshop is the relatively low ceiling. I dug out a portion of my crawl space to create this workshop area. So between various mechanical systems (duct routing) and the steel work to allow for removal of the piers, space is limited. If you are not familiar with construction standards in the SE, many houses are built on piers. The piers are about 8 feet apart. They are made out of concrete blocks, so there is not much room between them. So even on a house on a hill/slope, there is no basement. Creating a basement was quite a bit of work, as unless you remove the piers, the space is not usable. I ended up making it even a little larger, hence the two steel poles on the right side of the pic.

brockd15 

I looked at those S hooks when I built my rack but was afraid they wouldn't be big enough to hold wheels with wide tires. I ended up making my own hooks using an 8' length (I think) of about 1/2" wide by 1/16" thick aluminum strap that I got for cheap at Lowes. I put some plastic tubing on it, also from Lowes, to protect the wheels.

wrk101

That's a really creative use of garage door track!

khatfull

Holy Buckets, no kidding...brockd15, can you give us some details of the install there? VERY nice!

BigPolishJimmy

I'm assuming you can slide the bikes away from each other for easy removal yes? Did you post this before and I just forgot about it? hmmm.... I have some extra garage door hardware laying about.... cogs spinning...

brockd15 

Thanks guys, it's worked out well for my needs....just don't ask how long it took me to actually figure out what pieces to use to make the thing!
The idea was to avoid fixed position hooks and allow the hooks move both forward and backward and side to side. So if I need to pull down one of the bikes I just roll the others away from it to make access easier.

I had a thread when I finished it about a year ago that gives some more detail.
https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread...ike-rack-(PICS)

dbakl

I use a couple of bike hooks with a length of 3-4 foot clothes rod on them. Lift one end of the rod off one hook, slide the wheels or rims on or off, rehook rod.

Chombi

Instead of velcro, I found that using "s" type hooks work better as it makes it easier/quicker to hang and retrieve the wheels. I bought some largish ones from a Japanese wares "dollar" type store here in the SF bay area that I think were meant for hanging pots indoors off wire shelving. Real cheap and works great, plus they come on many sizes to fit your needs.
I also put my wheels in wheel bags to keep things looking neat and to protect the wheels from banging against each other

Chombi

wahoonc

I use S hooks on a piece of conduit suspended from the big J hooks...no pictures.

Aaron

Roll-Monroe-Co

I also have the suspended conduit with hooks made from snipped up hangers from the dry cleaners. You always think you'll never run out of those things until you start making useful hooks out of them.

gaucho777 

*ZOMBIE THREAD ALERT*

I just rigged up this system. Pretty simple and cheap. I started with a curtain rod from Ikea ($4.99) and a dozen generic wire shower curtain hooks ($2.99) which I clipped & twisted. Though I found I could make better hooks on my own with some heavy-gauge wire and pliers (cost negligible). I originally planned to hang all the wheels adjacent to each other, but I found it better to hang some wheels/rims together with one hook hanging from another hook in order to avoid axles butting up against each other. Also allows for grouping of wheelsets.





Beats wheels on the floor!

randyjawa 

Wheel storage is such a pain and I like the ideas presented here. Gotta go to The Old Shed and hang a few wheels. I intend to use the pipe and S-Hook method. I will make the S-Hooks out of old spokes, with old cable housing slipped on for protection. I will also stagger hook length. I never though of hanging one wheel off of it mate, though. Great idea and thanks for starting this thread.

20grit

If access to the wheels is necessary you could use two pieces of pvc with sides and let the wheels just sit on the two. something like:

You could make several of the plywood pieces and use them as spacers between wheels. The PVC just goes into the holes in the plywood, a fairly simple locking mechanism like a bolt through a hole in the pvc, and you're good to go. Then all you have to do is make a mounting bracket for hanging the whole system.

bigfred 

Really nice. But, ludicrously expensive! $50 per wheel? For a bit of sheet metal? Get the price of a back plate and three arms down to $20-30 and it might be a marketable product. Look at the pricing of modular shelving systems.

noglider 

The problem with wheels is that they're so much wider at the axle than at the rim. The best way to store them is to unlace them. Bundle the spokes in one bunch and the rims of the same size in another bunch, with one bunch for each size. Toss the hubs in a big box. They naturally nestle among each other into a pretty space-efficient arrangement.

wrk101

Why would I want to spend $250 to hang a whopping 6 wheels?

Do you work for this firm?

Let me check the math, I have about 100 wheels laying around. Ten feet of 1/2" conduit is $1.10, S hooks are $18 for 50, I can hang 20 to 25 wheels on one stick of conduit, then connect another. So I can hang all 100 wheels for $40. I can also hang various frames from the same hooks and conduit.

Or I could buy 17 of those wonderful racks, for a little under $4,500.

Pars 

My guess is he works for them... 2nd post I can find on these, and just joined.