Bike Storage

For those of you cycling enthusiasts who live in small apartments or homes (like me), it can be difficult to find enough room for all the necessary bicycles. Of course you need your commuter to get around or to get to work, but you also need your cross bike, mountain bike(s), road bike etc etc etc. Each of these bikes has a specific purpose, and needs to be readily accessible at all times.

In my previous apartment, I was living with fellow bicycle enthusiasts, so bicycle storage wasn't a huge issue. We would either leave our bikes in a sort of bike pile in the entrance or use the hooks from home hardware that you screw into the wall:

While these hooks are cheap and relatively easy to install, they leave huge holes in the walls and it can sometimes be difficult to wrangle your bike up into the hook (especially with MTB tires 2"+). It's also hard to find a suitable spot to thread the hook into the wall in some old apartments where the walls have 6" of plaster and no studs to be found.

There's also the issue of having your bike hanging in a direction it wasn't intended to be stored in, suspended by the wheel. For mountain bikes with hydraulic brakes, hanging a bike like this can be less than ideal as bubbles can head up towards your lever, resulting in squishy brake syndrome.

So as my beautiful fiance and I were preparing to move into our new place, I decided it would be a good opportunity to come up with a new bike storage idea. I heard from a friend of mine that he had built a bike shop style rack from pieces he got at IKEA, and he sent me the link to the instructions. Here's a few photos pulled from there (IKEA Hackers):



The Hardware

Despite the inconvenience of having to go through IKEA looking for individual little pieces, I managed to get everything I needed for the rack and put it all together in one Saturday morning. It ended up costing me about  $75, including the hardware and aluminum rod from Home Depot. Here's the first trial of the rack, with the miyata as the guinea pig:

The length of the post can be adjusted for a large range of ceiling heights, and there are three holes in the top allowing you to screw it to the ceiling. The post is very solid without the screws, but I guess they just ensure that the post doesn't get pushed over.

I like this rack because it supports the bikes by the top tube, holding them horizontally, and doesn't require you to drill any holes in the wall. It's also super adjustable and you can actually adjust the height of your two bikes, and rotate them around the post. You could also have two more bikes on the backside of the post, if you had the post further away from the wall, or any number of other helmet/tire/tool/shoe holding hooks and accessories. Plus, I'm not much of an interior designer but it definitely makes the room look nicer (we've gotten lots of compliments so far).

So, if you're looking for an alternative bicycle storage method, I would recommend giving this one a try.

His & Hers cross bikes on the rack