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 To keep bikes from taking up valuable
floor space and the likelihood of their being damaged, we have
suspended the majority of our bikes from the ceiling of our garage.
We also have a couple bikes located in a "bonus" room
that sits over 1/3 of the garage that we've configured as our
exercise room:
Depicted above is my Phase
II suspended storage system. It incorporates a more robust bracing
system and a lowered rear wheel hook bar that were not in the
original system (See Below).
The added bracing was required
to handle the additional weight of a 3rd tandem and 4th single
bike. The 18" framed rear wheel brace that replaced the
flush mounted brace (2x4x10) was adopted to lower the rear wheels
which, in turn, allows the front ends of the bikes and tandems
to be suspended an additional 18" higher than in Phase I.
For reference purposes, our garage has a ceiling height of nearly
10' and 3 bays that are 20 - 24' deep.
All Bikes: Floor to rear wheel
= 6'2" above my bicycle workbench
Single Bikes: Floor to front
fork = 7', and floor to chain rings 6'7"
Tandems: Floor to front fork
= 6'9", and floor to chain rings 6'6"
The rope and pully system is
essentially unchanged in Phase II beyond the relocation of the
rear pully.
The following is a detailed
description, drawings and pictures of my Phase I System:
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My suspension system was made
from materials that are commonly found at home improvement stores
like Home Depot and Lowes. Each one uses:
- 1 Bicycle Hook (use a heavy
duty one for tandems)
- 2 Awning Pulleys (use Utility
Grade for tandems)
- 3 Screw Eye Hooks
- 2 Snap Hooks
- 1 Steel Welded Loop
- 1 16' piece of heavy duty
braided nylon rope
- 1 Cleat
As you can see from the photos,
I've used two 2"x 2" s and 1 1" x 2" as the
attachment points for my pulley system's hardware. These stips
of lumber are all attached to studs and rafters using lag bolts.
A simple diagram of the system is shown below.
This set up has worked well
for me. With the bikes off of the floor I'm able to convert that
free floor space into an in-home bicycle workshop.
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Stem Loop Detail
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Stem Loop Attached to Bike
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Tandem
Fully Suspended  |
Rear Wheel
Hook & Pullies |
Note Heavy-duty Hook for Tandem
Note: One of the snap-hooks pulls double duty; it works as
a limiter on how far the bike will swing when it is released
AND it sets the height to which you pull the bike for storage.
This is more important for the tandems than the single bikes.
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Detail of Snap-hook
& Cleat  |
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A final note: I always
recommend that anyone using bicycle storage hooks slip a small
section (2") of auto heater hose over the hook to protect
the rim from being mared by the hooks.
Invariably, if you hang a bicycle
wheel from a plastic or rubber coated bicycle hook the weight
of the bicycle being concentrated on the edge of the rim and
the plastic or foam-coated hook will split the plastic or foam
and put the anodized finish of the rim in direct contact with
the metal hook.
That, in turn, will leave small
little permanent marks on your rims. The heater hose is tough
stuff...
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