It’s a rented apartment, so no holes in walls, does anyone in the singletrackworld hive mind know of a bike storing solution to keep the mrs happy ( even though two of the bikes are hers!) bikes in corridors are ok, but my ‘ bike art’ idea of keeping bikes in lounge was met with a staring glare and the prospect of no access to her bumpy bits until a satisfactory solution becomes apparent ( I suggested her getting rid of her bikes, which was responded to with stony silence)
Help me singletrackworld-wan, you are my only hope.

Put the mrs in separate accommodation?

😉

how did you get to move into an apartment with 4 bikes and at no point in the process discuss bike storage?
She must, at some point, given her assent, or by lack of saying it would be a problem, accepted this would be the case?
ie: it’s a bit bloody late to complain about it now! You must have some leverage here? 🙂

Get her pregnant, gives her sonething else to worry about
edit – just seenthe flaw in my ‘logic’, see CFH

I’m in exactly the same position. I’ve got 4 5 bikes now.
The stand can take 1 above and if you remove the lower arms you can neatly slide in 3 bikes.

Could always buy two of the stands if you have the wall space?

Old pics…

I’m on 5 at the moment in a flat, 1 in each bedroom, 2 in the hallway and one in the living room. It’s less than ideal.

This is a good “no holes in walls” option. Still needs a fair bit of space for 4 bikes though!

http://www.topeak.com/products/storageanddisplay/dual-touchbikestand

Pop a few of them in those Duff Bags that are currently on offer?

ska 49. thought i over cleaned my bikes after a ride but yours make mine look dirty again

( even though two of the bikes are hers!)

Put your foot down!
If she gets rid of them then that leaves room for n+2 for you 🙂

I’m not sure if this would work…but I’m liking the Wilworx / superstands I’ve been buying.

http://www.willworx.com/products.html

You can get them from amazon or a german retailer (BMO BIKE-MAILORDER.DE).

I just got a couple more from a retailer on amazon and was a little miffed to see that the upper is secured via screws and not press to release catches like the ones I got from Germany. I’m not going to return them as I’ve got some “quick release” ones but I thought I’d mention it.

What I like about them is that (i) they work (ii) they are very flexible. I’ve used them for storage, maintenance, storage in a car (pop off front wheel, use rear wheel in rack), and holding the bike up whilst getting kitted up at the trail (better than the bike falling down the side of the car in my view).

For storage, I use them so the bikes overlap a fair bit, so they aren’t too far away from the wall, and if you get the orientation right, you can lift / wheel out each bike without impacting the others.

New gf?

I was going to say who the hell needs four bikes then realised I’ve got four bikes.

Shame, I have a huge house and 1.5km2 of land and only allowed one bike – not that I have the time to ride it either! Can you get a garage / lockup somewhere?

Jeez, every time I try to convince myself I don’t need an on-one fatty there is a picture of one enticing me!

If you remove pedals and wheels and use something like a duffbag then perhaps under the bed could be an option?

Get to IKEA, buy a Stolmen pole and some hooks. Then get some other bits for a few quid from a diy shop.
Then make this :

http://laura.moncur.org/archives/2008/03/13/note-to-self-make-a-better-life-with-ikea/

Similar issue here – 1 bed flat, 4 bikes. Luckily that is down from 7 when we first moved here. But it’s looking like growing by two road bikes at some point. At the moment they all live in the kitchen where the dining table would be if normal people lived here.

Seriously, a double bunk bed with storage underneath would solve all your problems.

Or two single bunk beds if it all goes to shite with the Mrs

I’ve got 10 bikes and although I have tonnes of space for them in my workshop, which is about the same size as the house, I don’t want to waste space storing largely inanimate objects, even if they are quite pretty to look at. Less room for tools and other toys etc.

So I’ve tried a few solutions and concluded that the best way of storing a bike, using the least amount of space is to get some of those front wheel bike hooks that eBay have for a few quid each and to mount them as high as possible. I quickly learned that because of the width of modern bars, 10 bikes takes up a lot of wall space, so what I then did was to remove the front wheels, turn the bars and hang the bikes from their maxles instead. This allowed me to move the hooks to within about 15 inches of each other. I then bought some large S-hooks, also via eBay, which can be hung off the headtube, with the front wheel then hung from there. So the wheels don’t cause problems. Removing pedals would make things easier, but is obviously more of a pain.

The above gets the bikes in half the space and lets you mount them higher up too. My hooks are 2.2m up, so I have space under the bikes to make a storage chest type thing to fill with biking kit, helmets etc, that can wheel out with a work-stand attached. Long-term I might investigate a winched platform to lift all the bikes up into the vaulted roof space instead, but this is a good compromise at the moment.

If you have a bit of space or some high ceilings then that could be your best bet. Two deep screw holes with decent plugs and screws to attach a batton to the wall, then the hooks screwed to the batton. I know you say no holes, but you won’t get caught and a bit of filler when you leave will sort it out easy enough. Or you could put a decorative edge on the batton, paint it to match the wall and your landlord likely wouldn’t even notice it if you left the wood in place.

Do you have a loft space at all? You could fit a winch perhaps to allow you to easily lift the bikes up and down.

paulrockliffe – interested in your approach, but trying to think of a solution for standard quick release bikes, are all yours maxles or do you have an alternative as well for things like road bikes?

We’re on 6 at the moment in our 1 bed appt. 3 each, so at least we’re even!

2 daily commuters live in the hall. 4 mtbs are in the corner of the living room, nestled on a ikea rug/throw type thing, front wheels and saddles off, bars turned, tartan blanket over the top.

They pack down quite small if you’re careful. The blanket doesn’t need to be tartan.

paulrockliffe – when you’re hanging your bikes like that, do you get disc brake problems with air in the master cylinder traveling up to the calipers?

I’ve got one hung by the QR axle, don’t know if that’s a good idea or not, but it seems OK. The hook sits under the fork leg, so the weight is on the fork and the QR just stops the bike rotating away from the wall and falling off.

Worse case it’ll bend the QR, so you could put a spare QR in there and let it bend if it wants to. Or you could hang the bike by the back wheel and still remove the front wheel to get the same space benefit. Hook would need to be lower, but the over all bike height would remain the same.

Might be a better solution as it would allow more scope for stuff to be kept under neather the bikes, but harder to get the bikes in the hooks because the wheel is more cumbersome than just the fork.

PS – I found the hooks come in two flavours, one with a fixed hook, the other the hook can rotate. Rotation is better for sitting the wheel in exactly the right place, but gravity causes the hook to drop, which makes it harder to get the axle in, so I’d get the fixed hook ones if you can.

I’ve not had them hung long enough to be able to say. It’s no different to hanging the bikes normally, whick lots of people do, so perhaps someoen else can advise for my benefit too? Brakes are ‘off’ so should be sealed well enough I’d think, but happy to be educated.

My brakes are all XT, Saint, or Magura Louise btw.

All my brake problems seem to result from pads wearing out, the very last bit of the pad seems to contaminate the disc somehow and I end up having to IPA and torch the disc to get the brake working again.

Thanks for that – going to give both those a try, so simple can’t believe i hadn’t thought of it before.
In a garage what i didn’t like about having them on the wall front the front wheel was how much the handlebars stick out into the room…mostly at head height as well, so either of the above approaches means mounting the bikes closer together and less chance of getting smacked in the head as well.
cheers

Only space I have in the hallway really and narrow so front wheels have to come off to fold the bars, thus more space to store the wheels.

Those hanger towers might work though. May have to look into that.

I do have a decent size garden and a shed that could store quite a few bikes, but it’s been broken into once, as have most of my neighbour’s sheds and keep getting warnings from the police that sheds are a prime target in the area. I’d have to build fort knox for a secure enough store in the garden. Even then I’m not comfortable with bikes being outside where people can have a go at nicking them without disturbing anyone.