MattPugh

I am a student at school and currently i am studying design and technology and i have a project. My project is to find a solution to a problem, and the problem that i have found is bike storage. I plan to make a storage product in order to store the bike in a more space saving manner such as raising it in order to store other items etc.

My questions for you to answer are what environment/area do you store your bikes in, do you have trouble storing items because you bike is taking up room in your storing area and do you have any solutions for your bike storage such as a bike rack or homemade solutions etc.

The information that i require from the participants in this questionnaire will be shown as primary research in my project coursework showing that there is a problem with bike storage. If you want your username edited out just let me know thanks.

Any replies are very much appreciated.
Thanks

benaroundawhile

I seems that you are trying to reinvent the wheel. There are many storage solutions that already do exactly what you describe in your "problem" in search of a solution.

MattPugh

I know there are a variety of methods out there. Im trying to make something that is better and more unique for my school project so if you could answer the questions it would help me out big time as i have a deadline to meet thanks for the reply anyway.

benaroundawhile

My answer:

There is no problem with bike storage.

There are many excellent methods to store bicycles from simple wall hooks to more elegant solutions that do the same thing.

kevindsingleton 

I bought a couple of bicycle storage systems that are pulleys with ropes that can mount to the ceiling or rafters. These systems use metal hooks to connect to the bicycle, and a small rope with a cam-lock clamp to hold the rope while the user secures it, more reliably. I bought these hoists because they were on clearance for a really good price, but I haven't installed them, yet, because I already have hooks in the ceiling that work, and I don't have anywhere to attach the cam-locks, which will likely require proximity to a wall.

I say all of that to indicate that the rope hoist, despite all its high-tech design and materials, doesn't improve on the simple hooks already in place.

Most storage systems are going to rely upon a compromise by the purchaser to make the design work in their environment, and, inevitably, people are going to default to simple and cheap. So, that's my recommendation: figure out something that is simple and cheap, but improves on a basic hook.

Oh, and, the biggest problem I run into is saddles interfering with handlebars, and vice versa. Gotta find some way to offset the bikes enough to avoid that little conflict without increasing the space required to store the bikes.

Good luck!

SpeshulEd 

My problem with bike storage is that I have too many bikes and not enough room.

My bike shed currently has 10 bikes in it. I have 7 hung and 3 leaning against things under the hanging bikes. I'm not sure if there is anything that would make this situation better other than a bigger shed or fewer bikes. Maybe different length hooks so I could hang them closer together without the handlebars getting in the way of one another, but I can just hang them in different directions so all of the bars aren't on side.

Seattle Forrest

I share an apartment near downtown with my girlfriend, and we keep my bike in it. I'd love an easy way to hang my bike from the ceiling, and keep it flush with the ceiling. I'm envisioning two rubber-coated hooks, like in post #2, for the wheels, plus some cord (for the top tube?) to pull it up and hold it in place.

RonH

Nashbar, Amazon, etc sell several models and styles of what you're looking for.
—> https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&ke...l_6gxf2crpvv_b

Maelochs

I am in the process of building a rack which holds my bikes suspended by one wheel (half done, three hung.) By alternating front and rear wheels, I can fit a bike into about one foot of horizontal and six feet of vertical space about 30 inches deep—six bikes in six feet, with a little room at each end so I can slide the bikes over like clothes in a closet, to select the one I want that day.

Drawbacks: I have to physically lift the bikes and hook them up, so I need to keep the hooks tight, then loosen them to slide. None of my bikes weigh that much and I am tall enough to hook them up, but it takes some care, particularly since the wheels can rotate and the hook has to go between the spokes (obviously.)

I run some risk of bumping the bikes into each other side to side, and some risk I suppose of dropping a bike taking it down. The real difficulty is hooking up the bike, which is not hard now, but might get harder as I get older, and might be impossible for a smaller rider.

In that case some sort of more complicated hook which drops and then raises via a lever might be needed—but that would need a certain amount of strength to lift. An alternative might be to have the whole rack lower on a crank, but that is way more complex than I am willing to tackle.

Yet another issue is that I cannot hang my mountain bike—I have been warned against storing any bike with oil shocks or hydraulic brakes in any but a wheels-down position.

The benefit is that I can fit all my bikes in somewhat less space than when I stood them up side by side, I don’t have to rest each bike on the other (which means that will not all fall when one slips) and I do not have to move all my bikes to get the one in the back.

If I had sufficient wall space, the hook-and-crank assembly which stores two bikes vertically against the wall would be ideal—but I would need three such set-ups.

Not sure how you could beat the available systems. For folks with two bikes, they can use the hook-and-crank to store them against a wall and never have to lift anything—though they’d have to move the bottom bike, potentially, to access the top one. Some kind of telescoping arm system would solve that but then again, the more complexity, the more possibility of failure.

Are you looking to solve the problem of storing one or two bikes or four or six, or ten or more? I’d bet an average family of 4.3 has two or three bikes at most and one or two will be tiny kids bikes which will often be tossed haphazardly in the yard. Four bikes I would guess would be the max for most families ... but unless they were all enthusiasts, most families would be fine with stacking them against the garage wall or on the back porch.

benaroundawhile

The person(s) that gave you this warning, to put it politely, is severely misinformed. At best.

MattPugh

Thanks Maelochs for taking your time in writing that in depth answer its helping me a lot. At the moment the client who i chose for my school project only has 1 bike and he is an enthusiast. I like the idea of the bikes hanging from one wheel and can see the possible drawbacks. At the moment for my project i might be looking at (if possible, i havent really researched the stuff yet) but maybe a possible magnet like a neodymium magnet that can be put on the bike which can be housed in a 3d printed case etc. The housing will be able to be screwed on and off. And this will be able to be just stuck onto a strip of metal of some kind on a wall. This will mean the bike can be hung easily but i dont know about being taken off lol. Thanks. Any advice will be appreciated.

shafter

I lean mine up in the garage, with a pedal against something so the frame doesn't touch.

dedhed

What to help my bike storage issues? Get all that other crap out of my garage so there's more room for bikes.

Jean3n16

I dont store mine in the garage because theres barely enough room for my car ( 1920s house, they built it small) let alone a bike! I keep my bike in my car. It then takes up that room but i dont need that much room usually anyway. I wish in a perfect world, i could hang my bike in the garage but i cant.

kevindsingleton 

If the warning included the possibility that an air bubblein the hydraulic brake system could migrate to the caliper causing soft braking until the bike is righted and the bubble makes its way back to the reservoir, then it is correct.

Dunno 'bout the shocks.

Maelochs

As i recall the poster mentioned hydraulic brakes and oil shocks. I didn't pay attention to the latter because i have air shocks, but I guess the idea was that the oil would be pulled by gravity out of the top of the fork if it was stored inverted.

I have no clue, because I am sure when they ship the shocks they cannot prevent every one from turning up[side down ... or maybe they actually take that much care in packaging---I hope so.

But, yes, it was that the brakes would need to be bled if the bike was hung up inverted ... and I do not need soft brakes on my MTB ... enough "Oh, No!" moments as it is.

Thanks very much for the confirmation.

On the other hand, you might just have prevented the shooting of some very entertaining GoPro YouTube footage of me eating it.

kevindsingleton 

That's me: spoiler of great videos.

CrowSeph

No trouble , more expensive bike in my personal room and the others outside in the tools hut.

CosmicF

I need an invention that will make my wife allow me to bring the bikes inside.

indyfabz

With all the other options out there, this seems like it would be too much trouble. Who wants to attach something you a bike every time you want to hang it when you can simply use one of many available hanging systems? And there is the issue of damaging the bike's finish. With a carbon fiber frame, there might be issues of possibly damaging the frame by clamping something on too tightly.


Also, you'd probably need more than one magnet. And if I am imagining this correctly, the metal strip would have to stick out from the wall a great deal because of the width of the handlebars. I have a floor to ceiling bracket with two "hooks" for each of the two bikes the bracket can hold. The hooks stick out horizontally probably 2' from the wall.

indyfabz

It's called a divorce lawyer. Disclaimer: Going that route may result in you having no inside to bring your bikes into.

Maelochs

it is called "divorce" ... and afterwards your bikes will be all you have left.

Whoops, I was Indyfabbed.

fietsbob

Have them in various places around the house & in the Basement,

I have a Mud Room/Entry, those bikes, just inside the door, get used the Most.

I have No decor focused Wife.




./.

General Geoff

my bike is stored in an enclosed front porch, which has a ~9 foot ceiling. Not quite high enough to get the bike out of the way if hung from hooks or a pulley system.

KenshiBiker

The rope hoist can have one significant mechanical advantage vs simple hooks - assuming you set it up as a block-and-tackle arrangement. I built my own to store our tandem at the last house. At about 45 pounds (probably more if you include the rear rack and trunk, etc., I couldn't easily lift the tandem onto hooks in the ceiling (and no way my wife could), at least partly due to the awkwardness (probably also partly due to being somewhat vertically-challenged). However, once I installed the block-and-tackle system, it was just a matter of hoisting it up, then fastening the rope to a cleat screwed into a wall stud. For single bikes, you're right, pulleys are too much hassle - I just use hooks, but they're attached to a modular rack that fastens to the wall rather than fastened to the ceiling.