Is it bad to hang a bike from the ceiling by the front wheel? Does it put stress on the fork and headset that they are not designed to withstand? I’ve been hanging my bikes by the back wheels, but it would be easier to swap out rear wheels if I hang them by the front wheel.
Is it bad to hang a bike from the ceiling by the front wheel? Does it put stress on the fork and headset that they are not designed to withstand? I’ve been hanging my bikes by the back wheels, but it would be easier to swap out rear wheels if I hang them by the front wheel.
It’s not terribly bad unless, like many triathletes, you use CO2 cartridges to inflate your tires. Since CO2 is heavier than ambient air it sinks to the bottom of the tire and the resultant imbalance, if severe, can lead to high-speed shimmy. This isn’t so much of a problem for the rear wheel since it is held in a rigid structure and does no steering, but the front is more sensitive. Even if one does not attain speeds high enough for shimmy to manifest itself it is well known that an imbalanced wheel is slower. Some who opt to fill their tubes with CO2 hang their wheel with the valve stem at the 12 o’clock position so its weight can help counter the effect. This is, at best, a stop gap. So, too, is simply riding the wheel hoping its rotation will redistribute the CO2 evenly; since the tube is a toroidal structure with no internal baffles no appreciable mixing occurs. A far better solution is to unscrew the valve and drop in a small BB or two. The BBs will roll around inside the tube and thoroughly mix the gases. A side effect is a pleasant “shoop shoop” sound as you brake.
that’s pretty funny.
Have I missed somthing about filling up tubes?The only time I use CO2 is when I’am out and I get flat.
I would hang it off the rear wheel.
If your steerer tube is steel, you should be ok. I wouldn’t hang a bike with carbon steerer by the front wheel.
.
I heard it pulls the wheels out of true
.
I have been doing it for six years with the same carbon wheel. That wheel is still just as true as the day I bought it. I even hit a hole in the ground at 70kmh and it is still straight.
I have been doing the same with an open pro wheel too.
The carbon wheel hangs there for all but 100 hours a year. The open pro wheel spends all week there an has a 6-12 hour break once a week 
Jay
What about the warts that hanging your bike can cause?
WTF people…you guys for a second think that hanging a bike is ANYTHING compare to riding it? Jeesh…
Mike… Your bike will be fine… send it to the chiropractor… (aka LBS) for regular tune-ups and it’ll ride well.
“you guys for a second think that hanging a bike is ANYTHING compare to riding it?”
No, I don’t. That’s why I asked the question.
If your QR is loose, or gets knocked the bike will drop. If you have vertical dropouts on the rear and the same happens the bike will not fall. This is the only reason I hang the bike from the rear.
Holy crap that is hilarious. Where’s Paulo when you need him?
AP
If your QR is loose, or gets knocked the bike will drop.
Um…no…there are lawyer tabs on forks now to prevent such a disaster - unless you are like me and file them off.
Um…no…there are lawyer tabs on forks now to prevent such a disaster - unless you are like me and file them off.
Not on my Easton EC90 SLX fork. I found out right before I hung the bike above my wife new MB…close call.
It’s just harder to hang a bicycle by the front. Go out and try it. When you hang the bicycle by the rear, you just have to hold it by the frame and hang. To hang the front wheel, you have to hold the front wheel and steady it up near the ceiling.
If you’re worried about it, if you turn one of the hooks sideways, you can place the stem on it, and then place the other hook under the saddle. Works for me…
“Some who opt to fill their tubes with CO2 hang their wheel with the valve stem at the 12 o’clock position so its weight can help counter the effect. This is, at best, a stop gap. So, too, is simply riding the wheel hoping its rotation will redistribute the CO2 evenly;”
That is well done. Someone has a little too much time on their hands that would be better spent training?
Brad
In the “older” days, when headsets were free bearings instead of cartridge, you could always tell the guys who hung bikes by the front wheel by thier “notched” headset (we called it indexed steering). I’m not so sure that w/ a cartridge h/s this would happen as easily, but i still hang by rear wheel to not take the chance of developinga pit in my h/s races and indexed steering.
Thanks all for the helpful, and some not so helpful, responses. By the way, bigadam, yours is one of the helpful responses.