ok so Ive just bought my first flat and it will be ready in 3 months time. So ive begun the process of planning everything out, Ive managed to get a 3 bed flat so I can have a "bike Room" i.e vinyl floor and workstand in there but its only a small box room and ive got 3 bikes
so the question is....
How do people in flats store there bikes?
How do you transport them up and down stairs without getting mud everywhere?
how do you wash them?
Cheers in advance STW
We've got a couple of Saris Bike Bunks that lean against the wall, but if I owned the place I'd be putting in hooks and hanging them vertically.
As for mud/dirt - I have a dirtworker that lives in the back of the car. Wash when I get back to car, it dries out on the way home, then can be wheeled straight in clean.
Erm surely the obvious answer is to hose it down outside and dry it off BEFORE you take it inside. Only you can answer if there are the facilities to do that.
If you don't wash it first, I don't fancy the chances of you building good relations with your neighbours, or keeping your flat clean.
ball ache for me at the mo
i live in rented, with cream carpets everywhere.
the easiest thing to do, is to have a proper washkit that you can put in the car when you go riding, and do it before you come home.
tbh, its easier overall, as it forces you to clean it while its wet, before the mud dries and welds itself into all the hard to reach bits.
when i lived in a room with wood floors though, it was not a problem, just hoovered up the dust, wiped up the oil.
up and down stairs is pretty easy.
take out the seatpost (unless its a jump bike sized bike), and walk up the stairs backwards, pulling the bike up below you on its back wheel (with the bike standing on end.)
careful not to scuff the walls.
if there is a low celing, you may need to take the front wheel out too, but that makes it two trips which is a faff (a bit)
I put mine in the lift. Mud? That's what i paid my service charge for.
Nothing in my contract said I couldn't have the bike in the flat and there was no way it was being left in the communal "bike storage" - which incidentally flooded three weeks after i moved in.
Storage? Leant it against the wall.
Maybe wheels off?
1. Walk-in cupboards.
2. Poke with a stick outside and then carry (think of it as the final sprint to the finish if you live higher than the 2nd floor).
3. Balcony/shared garden/pavement/bathtub.
A picture rail and a hook turns it into an excellent 'installation' too 
Your lucky your going to be able to have a dedicated room for them 
I currently have to store my bike in the hallway, right behind the front door, much to the annoyance of my GF!
Fortunately, I have a Dirtworker so I take that with me in the car when I ride and wash the bike after as so to not get all crap in the lift and flat when home. Been a god send over the winter as I would not of been able to see to clean the bike in the car park, and the last time I tried to clean it in the bath it didn't go down too well!
no balcony or lift im afraid I aint that rich, there are no facilites for washnig outside as its just car park - walkway - building no open space to speak of.
Ill go look up the saris stuff cheers
bit of a bugger with the stairs as i'm on the 3rd floor and internal stairwell floors are carpet
Sometimes I'll go up without cleaning first and then do it with a bowlful of soapy water and a brush at my convenience... or I take my bike round to a mates to wash before I go home..
If you've got pale walls that are in good nick in your stairwell.. be really careful cos a tyre only has to brush against the paint REALLY gently to leave a nasty stain..
If you've got perfectly good and secure storage space under the stairs.. that doesn't cause an obstruction or hazard of any description.. But you've also got a crazy old lady in the bottom flat who despite the pleas of all 5 other flat owners in the building REFUSES to agree to bikes being stored there.. and can back it up with small print in the lease.. then pray for her early death each day as I do.
Been a while since I did this.... but as others have said do whatever you can to get it as clean as you can outside, let it dry and then put it in a big bag for the trip from the front door to your flat (keeps residual sh!te off the carpets and is easier to carry upstairs to boot). If you've done a good cleaing job it should then just be a case of a quick wipe down and lube and you can keep it nice and tidy in the bag until next time.
I keep mine in a bike bag, doesn't drop mud anywhere, and I don't HAVE to clean it the second I've finished riding.
If the stairs are tight it's much easier to carry a frame separately to two wheels than a complete bike.
How big is the box room, the storage options are standing the bikes up on their back wheels with some form of hook in the wall to keep them there, a one on top of the other bike storage device or you could fashion some form of 'bar' across the room and hook each of the bikes saddles onto it and store them that way.
I carry mine upstairs including the tandem!- 106 stairs.
Claen them - if there is a jetwash available I use that or round at my mates house or I wait until its dry and brush the mud off.
put it in the shower / bath and hose it down with a universal tap connector and hose? Put it inside an old double duvet cover to get it upstairs? Not tried it on a bike but it certainly worked on sandy / wet kitesurfing kites in my old top floor flat.
I rarely bother cleaning mine - I live in an Edinburgh tenament flat, so mud in the stairs isn't a problem (although rarely is my bike so muddy that it falls off everwhere during portage). Cream carpets and white walls in the flat, so tarp down in the hallway and a rag/hankie to stop the bars scuffing the wall.
Admittedly, after 3+ years in the flat, the carpets and walls in the hallway and livingroom could look a little, er, fresher but not bad considering at one point I was regularly riding and storing 3 bikes in a small one bedroom flat...
Storage; Hooks on the wall and hang them if it's your wall
Cleaning; find an unlocked hosebib somewhere on the ground floor (there will often be one in the carpark if you have one) and use that. Washing your bike in the bath is fine for students but IME wives tend to object
Up and down stairs; I don't worry too much but if it's a problem you'll just have to clean it first
when i say box room it is big enough to fit a full size single bed and drawers in it,(2.5m*2.6m) and i'm not planning on having anything other than my bikes and ski gear in it so the idea would be too have them all in there, maybwe wall mounted.
dirtworker sounds like a great idea, also thinking of wood floor in hall now as was planning on carpet but then wood can be loud and carry noise
i used a floor to ceiling bike stand in my rented flat http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/ebwPNLqrymode.a4p?f_SortOrderID=1&f_WebLinkID=12369&f_bct=c012372c012369&f_page=6 stops any tyre marks on floor and walls. also put a mat underneath to catch any water/mud dropping off. If i'd bought i'd definitely fix up something more permanent.
Tyres do mark walls easily though its pretty easy to clean off with a soapy water.
if it wasn't for cleaning up bike mess i'd hardly ever get the hoover out, so really, having a bike makes the house/flat cleaner (sort of).
i have 4 bikes and a unicycle , the girlfriend now has 4 bikes
we store our two commuting bikes locked up to a drain pipe at the back of the flat (where my gary fisher was nicked from !! ) but using really good locks !
we have 2 in a small shed and have 4 bikes split between the hall way and the living room , unicycle next to the tv :d
Remember the mad panic when i was phoned by landlord saying " coming round to see the broken cooker tonight if thats ok"
CRAP my bike from the puffer was in the living room - unwashed and unloved (this was the day after the puffer)
but then wood can be loud and carry noise
That clearly didn't occur to the couple upstairs. ****. Well done on thinking about the neighbours!
I have one of these which is handy for putting the bike in the back of the car with one wheel off, and storing one bike in the flat with both wheels on. Keeps the worst of the carpets.
The other bike lives in the hall or on the communal landing, and the fiancee's bike is in a cupboard with the front wheel off since she never rides the darned thing. Carrying up and down the stairs is easy with both wheels on and the bike on your shoulder.
If you have a whole room free, you should be grand!
what tyres for carpeted stairways? 
i reckon its going to be another surface that racekings excel on?
conti claw 240
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