Some background.
I keep our bikes in a low ceilling cellar which is good. The cellar, when the rain is biblical, floods. This is not good. The water comes up to about 18″. It would come higher if it kept raining. In 11 months, it has done this 5 times.
We have on going dialogue with United Utilities but for now, they’d rather pay us £100 each time it happens than sort the drains out.
The Bikes are currently stood on bricks and breeze blocks. So far so good but I love our bikes and I’d like to keep them in a manner more beffiting of their quality so I’m looking for some bike stands.
They need to be cheap (6 bikes), keep the hubs higher than 18″ off of the ground, can’t be drilled into the wall nor hung from the ceiling.
Any ideas?

Set up some scaffolding with a bar high enough to hold the saddles at the correct height?

^^ that sounds good.

hang them by the saddles off one of these?
(portable clothes rail) – £18 off amazon

Cheap workstands would do the job

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Draper-59304-Heavy-Duty-Work-Stand/dp/B0002GUOAI

I’d be very worried about damp down there affecting my bikes. You’ll get increased corrosion and mould which can damage plastic parts including seals.

Easiest way to make a stand is knock up a frame to hang them off by the nose of the saddle like you see at demo days and races.

aldi have bike lifts at about £5 each every now and then, work on a pully arrangement, got them in my shed and they work quite well.

These are the same on ebay, but £10.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BIKE-LIFT-BIKE-RACK-BIKE-HANGER-BIKE-STORAGE-BIKE-STORE-BIKE-HOIST-BICYCLE-NEW-/280883832651?pt=UK_SportGoods_CyclAcces_RL&hash=item4165fb274b

[quote=Member ]aldi have bike lifts at about £7 each every now and then, work on a pully arrangement, got them in my shed and they work quite well.[/quote]

I think Organic wins

something like this: http://feedbacksports.com/shop/A-Frame-portable-Event-Storage-Stand-P18C4.aspx

but you would want to still use some blocks to lift the front wheels off the ground or make it higher.

You could even knock a couple up using PVC tube which wouldn’t rust then.

http://www.instructables.com/id/PVC-Bike-Repair-Stand/

mmmm, doh. 😳

I think Organic wins

He would if those clothes racks were strong enough to hold a single bike, let alone multiple bikes… They’re very weak; I just about trust it with a few t-shirts!

Those clothes rails are a bit unstable (as they are) IME, but I bet you could modify them slightly to help with that.

The base of those clothes racks would be far too narrow supporting a number of bikes at the height the OP requires. A wide A-Frame would be better.

Yeah, true, however it can’t be hard to knock something similar up from scaff tubes or piping

If you cellar has a low point/drain and given that United Utilities are handing over £100 a time, you could consider an Automatic Water Pump as an longer term solution. Doesn’t get the round the problem of continual damp tho

How about something like this

http://www.sipuk.co.uk/tools/sip_submersible_pumps.html

Google “ikea stolmen bike rack”.

I’ve got one with my CX commuter and MTB on it. I’m sure you could get two bikes on high enough to be out of the water.

It doesn’t need to be drilled into walls or ceilings, it’s fairly cheap and it looks a bit nicer than scaffolding.

I have a clothes rail looks just like that one Organic links to but it came from Argos. They are fine for clothes, but are not strong, i have put mine in the loft to hang out of season clothes on to free up space in the wardrobe and i tied to prop my snowboard against it and it fell down.

I’d go with druidh’s sugestion.

I’m sure i have seem some bike racks that have rails that sort of wedge between the floor and roof and you hang the bikes off them but i have only seen them for 2 bikes so it may work out quite expensive to get enough to suport all of the biks you have.

+1 on the damp being a concern.

+ another 1 on the damp

That’s why I don’t keep my bikes in the cellar despite it being much more secure than the shed.

Damp a concern? Really?

18 inches of water is a concern, but a bit of damp on something that spends it’s entire working life (in theory 😉 ) outside? Get a grip boys! 🙂

Buy some pieces of 2×4 and knock up 2 A frames and a cross piece. Then you can hang the bikes from the saddle as said above and I’ll be cheaper than doing it with scaffolding poles. That way you can customize the width and height. And then just make sure you don’t ride your bikes outside to protect them from the ‘damp’ 😉

Agreed that the bike is built to be ridden in the wet and all that but I would not advise riding it and leaving it wet and then putting it into a bike bag for an extended period. I have not seen the cellar but I can imagine that if it gets that much water in during a down pour it will be damp for days if not weeks after the water level has gone. I guess if security was not an issue you may as well leave the bike outside in all sorts.

for the people who are going on about bikes being used outside – that is all very well but there is this thing called ventilation which cellars don’t normally have much of. The spores and bio activity will also change the pH of the moisture on the bike and any ferrous materials will rust very deeply, aluminium will oxidise into white powder, rubber parts will get pitted from bacteria and mould growth.

I’ve lived in a flat with damp and seen what damage it can do and I’ve had equipment in a damp coal store that rusted very quickly.

I can understand why you want to use the space but I would run a dehumidifier down there or rig up some fans to get forced ventilation if there is a vent. Then it will be a much nicer environment for your bikes and you going down there. A wooden A frame would be fine, just get some pressure treated stuff and ideally further waterproof the feet with some bitumen paint. You could get quite creative and hook up some waterproof lights and make a nice frame for working on the bikes.

edit: at very least make sure all the bikes are taken out regularly and wash them even if they are not dirty from being used.

Thanks for the replies. Lots of ideas. Just what I was hoping for.
I’m going to have a chat with some people about pumps and dehumidifiers as well.
It would be nice to have a more pleasant enviroment to keep the bikes in if nothing else.