Hanging Up

Here we are on the outside of Easter.  The Mr. and I are still "recovering" from a weekend off enjoying some much needed down time.  The weather has become less than pleasant in the last week and cold rain seemed to be the main feature of the weekend.  We originally planned to take the bikes out on Sunday and them take the dog for a 14mi hike Monday around the town of Echternach in the Mullerthal (Easter Monday is a holiday here).  But as the weekend progressed, it became clear that the weather would be too nasty on Monday to do much of anything.  Riding is the cold rain isn't very pleasant, afterall, and we certainly weren't going to make the dog trudge around in it for 14mi.  So, the hike was shifted to Saturday and instead of 14mi in Echternach we'd stay close to home and do a local loop.

It was just as well, since it rained off and on anyway.  But, the dog made some more friends along the way.

Speaking of sheep, we picked up one of these traditional cakes at the Bakery for holiday.  It went very nicely with coffee.

The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out and relaxing.  Despite any guilty feelings that may come from doing absolutely nothing, it was definitely needed.  Sometimes you just need to chill.

Anyway.

Yesterday, we finally hung the bikes up.  It took two days to get the racks from UPS.  Apparently, the folks they hire to deliver packages aren't very familiar with their routes, which is a bit odd since the whole country is smaller than Rhode Island and there's only one Ettelbruck.  I ended up wandering around town looking for a guy in a brown uniform carrying packages and looking confused.  Found him.  He wheeled up three enormous boxes on his dolly and watched as I hauled them off and juggled them through the door. I was not impressed with the service.  Nor was I impressed with their packing skills when I opened the box.

All three racks were packed this way.
I'm pretty sure they could have come up with a more efficient method.

Cat 1, however, enjoyed the cardboard extravaganza.  He was happy to hold the boxes open for me so I could photograph the Ultrasport rack for you.

That's the main structure.  Two arms with adjustable hooks attach to the rod and can be moved and rotated to fit just about any frame structure.  They were a bit of a beast to install.  It was definitely a two person job.  One person has to push the rod up against the ceiling as tight as possible, while the other has to tighten the quick release screw.  They can be permanently installed by screwing the base and top into the floor and ceiling, or they can be temporarily installed with just the tension.  We opted for that method, since drilling through the tile floor isn't an option.  Thankfully, it was a cinch to hang the bikes and adjust their placement.

The Mountain Bikes are used the least, so they were hung first in the back corner.

Before long, all six bikes were finally off the floor and taking up less space.  I labeled each arm with which bike goes where along with their tube size and tire pressure (easy reference for the numerically challenged).  All this organizing is almost too much.

I'm very pleased with the results.  So, if you have a bunch of bikes you want to store properly and you can't attach anything to the walls or floor, this rack style seems to be the best option.  Even after we move to a place where those hindrances are no longer present, we'll keep using these racks.  After all the trouble we went through to find them, they're certainly coming back to United States with us!