New Bike Storage
Updated the indoor bike storage situation using a Rubbermaid FastTrak storage system. Normally intended for garage use, I've mounted the main rail to the wall in a spare room in our condo to get the bikes up off the floor.
The bike hooks snap onto the rail, so adjusting/reconfiguring things as needed is easy! I can now vacuum under the fleet. Nice!
These hooks can also be mounted directly to a wall via screws through the two holes in each. Based on that, I've used 10 screws to fasten the rail to five studs in the wall, each pair of screws approximately under each bike hook. The FastTrak instructions also tell you to drive an additional screw through a hole in the rail in-between each pair of studs, but I didn't do that since it uses a fairly large drywall anchor, requiring a 3/8-inch hole drilled in the wall. That'll be a lot of nasty patching if/when I decide to remove this thing! Plus, the rail system is supposedly rated for 2000lbs, and since I only need to support under 200lbs, I figure that less screws are probably OK.
The hooks don't firmly snap onto the rail -- it's pretty easy to bump them out of position as you're hooking/unhooking a bike.
Also the bottom edge of each hook's backing plate seems to be digging into the wall, leaving a nice mark. I need to cut a pad of cardboard or thin plywood to ease the pressure on the drywall -- although the damage might already be done.
I'm also not crazy about the way each hook digs into the tire. Note that the tire on this bike is fully inflated to normal riding pressure, yet the tire deforms this much on the hook. I'm wondering whether this might permanently warp the tire -- especially on bikes that I don't ride often?
The bike hooks snap onto the rail, so adjusting/reconfiguring things as needed is easy! I can now vacuum under the fleet. Nice!
These hooks can also be mounted directly to a wall via screws through the two holes in each. Based on that, I've used 10 screws to fasten the rail to five studs in the wall, each pair of screws approximately under each bike hook. The FastTrak instructions also tell you to drive an additional screw through a hole in the rail in-between each pair of studs, but I didn't do that since it uses a fairly large drywall anchor, requiring a 3/8-inch hole drilled in the wall. That'll be a lot of nasty patching if/when I decide to remove this thing! Plus, the rail system is supposedly rated for 2000lbs, and since I only need to support under 200lbs, I figure that less screws are probably OK.
The hooks don't firmly snap onto the rail -- it's pretty easy to bump them out of position as you're hooking/unhooking a bike.
Also the bottom edge of each hook's backing plate seems to be digging into the wall, leaving a nice mark. I need to cut a pad of cardboard or thin plywood to ease the pressure on the drywall -- although the damage might already be done.
I'm also not crazy about the way each hook digs into the tire. Note that the tire on this bike is fully inflated to normal riding pressure, yet the tire deforms this much on the hook. I'm wondering whether this might permanently warp the tire -- especially on bikes that I don't ride often?
posted by jim g at 1:32 AM
2 Comments:
Jim, it looks like you could safely hack off the bottom part of that loop where the tire touches. And maybe a thin piece of plywood or similar behind the assembly will keep it from digging into the wall.
Another simple solution is to lag bolt a 2x4 to the wall and then screw in some bike hooks. Not as elegant, but cheap.
Hi Mike, Good idea -- maybe I can modify or cut off the lower wheel loop/rest. And yes, I'm planning to make some plywood shims to protect the wall.
I've done the 2x4 plus bike-hooks thing before, and it works well and is cheap -- but I was attracted to the FastTrack system for its easy re-configurability.
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