An Introduction to Bicycle Storage


Providing safe, secure and sheltered storage for your bicycle is imperative for its wellbeing. This site aims to provide a guide to all different types of storage available for you, your families or your employee’s bicycles.

Bicycle storage is needed in three main areas and the types of storage that are appropriate to each are quite different, therefore each of these areas can be broken down in to further sub-categories of types of storage. The three main areas where bicycle storage is essential are:

  • In the work place
  • In the home
  • When your bike is being transported.

Bicycle storage for the workplace comes in a number of ways – depending on whether you are the employer or the employee you may have different ideas as to what storage should be provided. If you are a non-cycling employer then it may be an idea to ask your employees what features they would like to see in their bicycle storage. If you have the room you could have a bicycle storage shed or shelter, if space is limited a bicycle storage rack may be all you are able to provide. Bicycle storage racks come either wall or floor mounted neither is better, the type you choose will be dependent on the space and area that you have available.

Home bicycle storage offers the most choice in terms of ways that you can store your bike. The type of storage you will choose is more than likely dictated by your style of home and the number and size of bikes that you need to store. If you’ve got a garden or even a bit of outdoor space or a garage then you really do have a lot of options available. A home bicycle shelter can be made from many materials and the material that you choosed will be somewhat matched to the value of the bicycles you intend to store in it. A home bicycle shelter made from steel for example will provid the most security but will also cost the most. Bicycle storage sheds offer without a doubt the best type of storage you can get if this isn’t an option though and space is limited there are a number of innovative ways to store your bicycle(s) on the wall or ceiling.

If you do a lot of cycling abroad or would at least like to, then the storage of your bike when it is in transit is very important. The aim of the storage when your bike is in transit is to protect it from damage and theft – not the elements as in the case of the bicycle storage options – so the considerations are quite different.

The bicycle storage guide will hopefully provide you the information you are looking no matter what requirements you have – whether it is one or multiple bikes that you wish to store.


Wall Mounted Bicycle Storage


Wall mounted bicycle storage is a popular method for keeping your bike safe from accidental damage and keeping your home tidy and organised. Providing you have a brick wall to screw in to installing wall mounted bicycle storage is easy. If you want to hang a bike on a plasterboard wall the task is much more difficult – you will need to find either the joists in the wall or strengthen the wall by inserting a piece of plywood behind the pasteboard.

Wall mounted bike storage comes in two flavours. The most common type is the sort that has two arms that come out of the wall so that you put the arms through the frame of your bicycle and the top tube of your frame sits on the arms. The second type of wall mount bicycle storage  is where a hook comes out of the wall and you hang the front wheel of your bike from it. Personally I don’t like this second method for these four reasons:

  1. It’s awkward to hang your bike on it.
  2. It must put unnecessary frame on your front wheel bearing, headset bearing and fork. 
  3. The bike sticks out perpendicular to the wall and takes up floor space.
  4. The bike can still be knocked by accident – and in the case of some of the hooks I have seen, your bicycle could easily be knocked off the hook and then some damage is going to occur to your bicycle and more than likely the person that knocked it off.

You’ve probably gathered by now that I don’t like this method of hanging your bike on the wall at all so if you want to get a bicycle rack that fixes to the wall get the sort that has two arms coming away from the wall as shown in the image below:

 
The best type of ‘arm’ type bicycle rack that you can buy are the sort that have individual arms. The individual arms will allow you top position the arms of the rack so that your bike can be mounted with the wheels parallel to the floor. It doesn’t really matter if they are not, but it does look much tidier if they are. Having individual arms will also cater for far more bicycle types and you will easily be able to wall mount BMX’s, roads bike, mountain bikes and hybrid bikes.

Which ever type of wall mounted bicycle storage type you decide to buy, do make sure that the arms of the bracket are well padded to not damage the frame of your bicycle.

If you want to mount your bike on the wall but don’t have the cash to buy an expensive wall mount bicycle storage solution take a look at how to make an economical wall mounted bicycle storage solution.