Pixelmix towers now has a garage in a separate block of garages about 30ft away, which presently holds the bikes and some junk that the previous owners left, and may additionally hold the car when we can be bothered squeezing it through the door.

The garage has no power or water, and it is probably not going to be realistically possible to run either to it. I can probably use an extension lead every now and again from the house to hoover the car etc, but there isn’t really anywhere to leave a water butt to catch rainwater.

What are your solutions to make life a little easier for bike maintenance and cleaning? I can probably live without power tools etc, but some sort of decent rechargeable wall mounted light might be useful (I currently fettle at weekends only or with my bike helmet light on), and solutions for washing bikes.

Should I bite the bullet and get a cordless power washer, or how about a water butt that I can just top up every time I head out to the garage?

Your ingenious solutions welcomed!

It ain’t rocket surgery!

Solar panel on roof for lights?

Or a car battery you can charge up to power lights and 12V stuff?

leisure battery to power a fluorescent light and a dirtworker?

when it runs out, you could carry it inside to recharge – or rig up a dynamo on a turbo trainer for the full eco effect 🙂

Dave

Get a small 1kva generator – around £100-200 and run everything off that.
Keep an eye out on fleabay as the “whisper” types pop up often.
A water butt will stink if you don’t use the water often enough so I’d get a rolling one form the caravan shop and takes 20lts as and when you need it.

only about a grand 😉

Is there space to run a hosepipe to it? I have one that leads from the back to the front of my house – it is just clipped into place using plumbing fittings and feeds from the existing outside tap then just turn it on when I need it.

Fence sprayer / weed killer sprayer type arrangement will give you a basic low powered pressure washer for less than a tenner.

Car jump start packs now often come with small inverter for main built in – won’t give you serious power (i.e. no power tools) but would let you do have the basics. Trickle charge from solar pannel or by taking back to the house and plugging in. Should be able to run fluorescent or LED strip lights off that for a good few hours.

I keep thinking about fitting a small solar panel as a trickle charger to charge a car battery that then runs a few LED lights but I haven’t been bothered yet. I’ve got SWA armoured extension lead that I run across the access road (our is fairly busy with traffic as it’s open both ends). I’m not a compulsive washer so water isn’t an issue but you can get thin, rectangular butts designed to go against a wall which might fit your needs.

park your car outside and run a light off the 12v socket

I have the ideal solution, worked out over the last 25 years of mountain biking. Don’t wash or maintain your bike.

You could look at the likes of a caravan solar kit to charge up a old car or truck battery(s). From the battery(s) you could run LED lighting, a car stereo for music and then have a 12v output to run the likes of a mobi or dirt worker.

It’d probably be a couple of hundred quid to get all the stuff but you could also use the mobile pressure washer at the trails too.

I have the ideal solution, worked out over the last 25 years of mountain biking. Don’t wash or maintain your bike.

It took me a few years but I’ve now come to the same conclusion.

DITTO – EBB and alfine.

Just gave the bike it’s 3rd wash in 4 years, discovered mildew on the frame.

Much easier.

That was quite a rush of responses – thanks!

Given the costs of batteries etc mentioned, I’m wondering if I should just bite the bullet and get an 18V rechargeable power washer. That would at least save having to run the car engine to power the 12V socket in the car.

If I got a water butt, I could refill the power washer from that, and four refills of the power washer would hopefully then also be enough to wash the car periodically. If the water butt is getting used every other week, surely it isn’t going to get too horrible too quickly? That idea appeals as I have to go to the garage every morning to get the bike out for work, so taking one bucket of water every morning is no hassle and means I’d have a good amount of water there by the weekend when I need to wash bikes or car.

I’m not a serial bike washer, but I’d rather (i) avoid jet washes at trail centres and (ii) not have to put the bike away every time I need to head back into the house to get another bucket of water. Having done the latter in our previous top floor flat, it really makes bike and car washing much more of a chore than it needs to be.

Also, any experience of these (or similar)?

We looked at a new build with a remote garage and looked into a leisure battery running some LED lighting hooked up in the roof.
In the end we bought a house with a garage attached that already had power/lighting etc.

Water, I’d just go for either a cordless pressure washer dirtworker type thing or a garden sprayer…..

I’ve had a touring caravan out in the wilds of Wales for 15+ years, no electric on the site, yet I can comfortably stay there with everything I need.

I bought 2 second hand leisure batteries, £10 each, a solar charging panel, £30 & an 800w inverter.

Hooked the 2 batteries up together with the solar panel charging them, inverter hanging off the batteries which then feeds electric to the caravan, jobsagoodun, I can comfortably run all the lights I need & a couple of hours of TV a night for over 2 weeks doing it this way.

as an added bonus the caravan uses it’s built in trickle charger to charge the batteries when it’s hooked up to the inverter.

So I’d say all you’d need is 1 leisure battery & a solar charger, then hook up a few lights to it & you’re away, or for much cheapness, just take the battery into the house every few weeks to give it a charge, or as I’ve had to do once or twice in the past hook it up to the car via one of those cigarette lighter to battery charging leads & it’ll charge as you’re running about doing your everyday things.

Water butt should be ok this time of year, but it’ll get bad quickly if once the weather warms up, then there’s the worry of kids tipping it over for a laugh, unless it was kept inside the garage & filled up daily as you mentioned.

Garden sprayer here, works well and also goes in the car with me for rides away from home. Think it was £8 from ebay…

Lugging a bucket to the garage every morning…that’ll just end up with you having wet feet 🙂

Try this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/H2GO-80-LTR-PORTABLE-COLLAPSIBLE-WATER-CONTAINER-BAG-/150479331962?_trksid=p3284.m263&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BFICS%252BUFI%26otn%3D21%26pmod%3D120853234945%26ps%3D54

Colman unleaded lamp for light, works fine in my shed. Even a little bit of heat. Although not enough for this time of year.

I use one of these

and a pair of these

in the winter

and I’ve got one of these just outside the garage door, which I don’t use.

That wheelbarrow thing looks awesome. The neighbours probably already think I’m weird though walking out in shorts at 7.45am every day, so taking a wheelbarrow of water probably isn’t going to help me fit it.

Already rocking the singlespeed rigid bike for the commute to work for minimal maintenance, but I’ll still need to do a bit of washing every now and again when this nice cold spell ends and we return to soggy mud.

you say it’s a garage in a separate block. Based on personal past experience I’d be very wary about doing anything that may draw attention to it, like power or water. bit of an advert for undesirables I found..