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Thoughts on this horizontal bike rack
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As I've added to my bike collection, I find myself cramped for space. My pain cave is the garage and I share with three sports oriented kids so my bike are constantly getting banged with soccer, football and baseball stuff. As we use our wall for a lot of shelf storage, I can't use any wall hangers. Lastly, I only have 10' ceilings so when I hang my bikes from ceiling hooks, I hit my head constantly walking into the tires. Soooooo, I decided to try to build a pivoting roof rack that would allow me to load my bikes vertically but pull it horizontal to the ceiling for out of the way storage.

The following is what I came up with. Still working out the kinks. Mountain bike is a bit heavy and I have to use sturdier PVC. You can see it bending but works fine for my road bike. Also need better hooks to hold the bike frame on the carrier frame.

Bikes rest mostly in on the seat and very close to the crank when horizontal. On the head tube at the front. Tried to keep the weight off the chain-stays or at least close to the downtube where the designs differ. PVC hooks that hold the bikes onto the wood frame need a little rethinking. Sturdy when vertical, swivel when horizontal.

Thoughts, comments, critiques appreciated.

http://i43.tinypic.com/33cxc9u.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/2q1tg74.jpg
http://i39.tinypic.com/10531pj.jpg
Last edited by: tmshokie: May 12, 13 19:19
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Re: Thoughts on this horizontal bike rack [tmshokie] [ In reply to ]
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Cool nice design!
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Re: Thoughts on this horizontal bike rack [tmshokie] [ In reply to ]
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Great idea, maybe us a dowel or insert a dowel in the PVC for the bike wheel support.
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Re: Thoughts on this horizontal bike rack [tmshokie] [ In reply to ]
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looks good.
for the top bike you can use 2 - 1x3's on with 1" dowel or PVC to space them. place the spacers (4 of them) so the wheels fit between the boards. prevents any side to side movement and gives a stable perch to do some work on the bike.

i've built a similar one only it was designed for 4 bikes, two on each side. for stability i had 4 legs and for mobility i put wheels on the legs. just to be able to push it out of the way or turn it around. works really well. i had intended to build 'storage box' type of base to hold gear (helmet, shoes, spare parts, tools, etc. ) but never got to it. a box on each side with the foot print of a bike (18"x65").
good luck

______________________________________
"Competetive sport begins where healthy sport ends"
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Re: Thoughts on this horizontal bike rack [timeforacompact] [ In reply to ]
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timeforacompact wrote:
looks good.
for the top bike you can use 2 - 1x3's on with 1" dowel or PVC to space them. place the spacers (4 of them) so the wheels fit between the boards. prevents any side to side movement and gives a stable perch to do some work on the bike.

i've built a similar one only it was designed for 4 bikes, two on each side. for stability i had 4 legs and for mobility i put wheels on the legs. just to be able to push it out of the way or turn it around. works really well. i had intended to build 'storage box' type of base to hold gear (helmet, shoes, spare parts, tools, etc. ) but never got to it. a box on each side with the foot print of a bike (18"x65").
good luck

Wow. That's a lot of weight. I really like mine but with the bikes, it weighs a fair amount. I'm concerned about the cord snapping. Do you have any safety catch in case the pulley gives way?

Got a pic of yours? Can't envision the wheels you describes.
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Re: Thoughts on this horizontal bike rack [tmshokie] [ In reply to ]
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Some nice work, very clever solution. Just make sure it's all secure, so it doesn't come flying down.



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Re: Thoughts on this horizontal bike rack [DarkSpeedWorks] [ In reply to ]
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I really like the idea, floor and wall space is always at a premium
.
For something like this my preference is for ease of use. I think I see a bunjee for holding the bikes on. Bungees can slip, wear, break, scratch, etc.
A humble suggestion would to be to use a 2x4 across the top for each bike, use normal wall hooks, and hang the bikes upside down by the wheels. This way you won't need the bungees, making it quicker and easier to use.

You could add another pulley closer to the wall so the rope doesn't hang down out in the middle of the garage to keep it more out of the way.

What did you use on the pivot dowel so it doesn't work its way out? Over time it could creep and bad things could happen if not restrained.
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Re: Thoughts on this horizontal bike rack [MarvinTPA] [ In reply to ]
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MarvinTPA wrote:
I really like the idea, floor and wall space is always at a premium
.
For something like this my preference is for ease of use. I think I see a bunjee for holding the bikes on. Bungees can slip, wear, break, scratch, etc.
A humble suggestion would to be to use a 2x4 across the top for each bike, use normal wall hooks, and hang the bikes upside down by the wheels. This way you won't need the bungees, making it quicker and easier to use.

You could add another pulley closer to the wall so the rope doesn't hang down out in the middle of the garage to keep it more out of the way.

What did you use on the pivot dowel so it doesn't work its way out? Over time it could creep and bad things could happen if not restrained.

There is a 2x4 at the top tube. I had two road bikes set up in the orig design. My mtb was thrown on for giggles. Need to have a more universal pat to hold dif bike. Bungee was a quick fix for the photo.

I plan on using another pulley. It's a good idea.

Pivot rod is PVC because I didn't have a large enough spade drill bit for the 3/4" iron pipe I plan to use. I have end caps for both the PVC and iron. Was surprised how well the sched 40 PVC is working. Might stick with it - lighter by far. Didn't add caps yet as I was not sure about location. I'll prob glue them on tonight.

Thanks for the feedback. I'd be happy to share how I worked out the plan and materials for anyone who want to take a stab at it.

Think the whole thing was under $15.
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Re: Thoughts on this horizontal bike rack [tmshokie] [ In reply to ]
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Boss man, do you still have the plans for this?

Miscnoah @ gmail

Thanks.
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