Optimum mountain bike storage.

I have 3 my MTBs & a cross bike. Mrs has 2 MTBs plus the kids bikes…

I want to store them neatly in a rack in the smallest space.

I’m guessing this will be hanging them vertically with the wheels turned. Like the trailers used for uplifts.

Is there a better solution?

Has anyone built something like this? If so do you have any plans/suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

Will your wife’s two bikes top and tail in between yours for a narrower footprint? We hang various road and CX bikes like this

Yep. Top and tail with the road/cx bikes hanging by the back wheel between MTB’s.

Check out the rubbery plastic covered hooks at Screwfix. I’ve got the round ones holding 35mm 700c and 2.35 27.5×35 and the square hook will happily take a full fat 4” fatty. Stick a batten up and you’re away. I don’t even bother with turned wheels.

worth considering who will be getting the bikes out?

If your wife is not capable of lifting her bike off of a vertical hook or rack you may need to consider that.

I have this type, it’s easy to use and I got it for a score.

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Ours are hung vertically with front wheel on an angle with hooks from Decathlon that are sturdy and will take a 2.8 tyre and deep rim. Back wheel is resting on the floor.

+1 for kilo/vincienup – top and tail using hooks works for me with five bikes.

Top and tail seems a little difficult with wide handlebars. Cross bike is as close to a schmoad as I get.

Andy where did you get that!

So far I think Tracey is on to the winner. I like how I could leave my wife’s and kids’ bikes on the ground.

Thanks guys!

I haven’t worked out how to make photos work from my chosen host on the ‘new’ forum yet so no pic, but top and tail with hooks lets me get two full size MTB with wide bars and a CX in a shed which clearly started life as the outside toilet. It’s very space efficient.

Getting the big bikes up doesn’t take much effort, get it up on its back wheel and the wiggle through the doorframe is the hard bit and that’s easy. Hanging the CX would take a bit of shoulder power as you can’t get it up on wheel as it’s the steering front at the bottom but that’s why you use the light bike upside down! 😂 I have actually had the three in all right way up, you do need at least one of the MTB’s with a wheel at an angle then though, I don’t think this would work if I didn’t have a 4” hook on one end from the old Fatty.

I have found top and tail tricky as the bars and saddles foul each other (on my bikes) unless you stagger the heights.

I like Tracey’s solution.

I’ve hung a scaffold pole across the width of the garage & hang several bikes by the saddle (top/tail) which allows me to slide the bikes closer together but they’re easily moved when needed. Works for me as they sit over other stuff stored on the floor so no real loss of space.

I got a load of bike hooks off eBay (4 for £8 or thereabout, I think on one have the same ones to now).

Top/tail doesn’t work as you are still limited to 1/2 handlebar width spacing and it just makes it awkward.

Alternating high/low works much better, about 30cm so the bars and pedals miss each other. I have an OSB covered stud wall so could play about with spacing and have road/cx/gravel at one end then MTB’s at the other. Think I have 8x bikes in about 2.2m of wall.

OH can’t lift her bike onto it though which is a pain so that ends up living in the conservatory. And my commuter lives down the side of the shed to avoid having to go through the faff of unlocking everything.

I’ve hung a scaffold pole across the width of the garage & hang several bikes by the saddle (top/tail) which allows me to slide the bikes closer together but they’re easily moved when needed. Works for me as they sit over other stuff stored on the floor so no real loss of space.

I’ve been thinking about how to do this – means you can get them as close together as they’ll go without having to work out exactly how close that is for any given bike in advance. I was thinking of hooks sliding on a rail with bearings, which is maybe more elegant, but that sounds like a simple solution. Though if you want the bike at the back, you’ve got to take all the others out right?

Top and tail *does* work, but depends on your bikes. If they’re all MTB’s with modern setups (wise bats etc) it’s not going to be great as they’re going to get in the way of each other. If you have road/cx or others with significantly narrower setup to go between big bikes it’s very successful. It is possible to make it work with all big bikes by having two rows of hooks, one a foot or so higher than the other but it’s definitely needing brute strength to hang bikes (so useless for smaller/injured people) by then and needs a higher ceiling than many may have. As with all solutions it depends what you are applying it to.

@thenorthwind

You don’t have to take any out – just slide them along until the one you want can be lifted off. The fact that they slide means you can get round the ‘wide bars’ issue of fixed mounts.

You can even use large ‘S’ hooks to hang them vertically if you want – I do use a few for spare wheels etc but find using the saddle noses works fine for me.

I like Tracey’s solution.

I’d like to be allowed as many bikes as Tracey 🙂

Alternating high/low works much better, about 30cm so the bars and pedals miss each other.

I’ve sort of done this – old hard tail is hanging about 40 cm higher between the cross bikes which almost sit on the floor – everything the right way up. FS sits on its wheels by the hefty ground anchor, but in theory could go at a similar level to the hardtail if I had enough width / long enough chain.

but find using the saddle noses works fine for me.

Do you have to be extra careful with dropper posts?

I had a touch and got my rack from work as we were clearing out some redundant cycle storage.

Worth keeping an eye out.

One of the bikes is my Mrs, a Specialized Vita so relatively easy for her to get out by herself, her ladies town bike lives on the floor as the rack fouls the mudguard on the back.

My Airdrop Edit is actually too long for the rack so I had to make a spacer to ensure it doesn’t just fall over all the time.

Didn’t PX have hooks for a quid for a bit.

Steadyracks are a great solution, particularly for those who dont want to lift bikes on to hooks.

anyone else confused by the shock placement in nwmlarge’s pic?

Do you have to be extra careful with dropper posts?

Only making sure they’re at full extension when you hang ’em. Fox said that wasn’t even necessary when I emailed them about it.

Steadyracks are great, but not cheap. being able to move bikes aside to take the one you want out is great. I’ve got eight staggered in height at about 35 cm spacing IIRC. I wouldn’t go back to my old hooks system now.

I’ve got eight staggered in height at about 35 cm spacing

I like the idea of this. Do you mean 35cm apart. If so what’s the height spacing?

@Nobby

You don’t have to take any out – just slide them along until the one you want can be lifted off. The fact that they slide means you can get round the ‘wide bars’ issue of fixed mounts.

You can even use large ‘S’ hooks to hang them vertically if you want – I do use a few for spare wheels etc but find using the saddle noses works fine for me.

Sorry, I read your first post properly the second time. I was imagining hanging them vertically by the wheels, and thought you had a scaffold bar through the spokes (which now I think about it sounds a bit ridiculous!), but I see how the saddle would work.

Big S-hooks through the wheels and over a scaffold bar would work for vertical storage.

Hmm, also struggling with bike storage. I use my commuter daily and it needs to live in the same but of storage. Only need to fit three bikes as the fourth is a Brompton, but also have two kids bikes to use that also get used regularly. Also one of my bikes is a big dummy, which is both heavy and huge!

Garage sort out this summer

Full sus
Jump bike
Bmx