We own six bicycles. Yes, we ride all of them and yes, they all have a purpose. We are keeping the six bicycles (unless one of them is on the trainer) in the bicycle shop, aka. the little garage under the balcony. They are currently being stored the old fashioned way, aka. kickstands down (unless they don't have kickstands in which case they lean against stuff). Its not the best way to store bikes not only because it isn't the good for the bikes long term, but because they take up a ton of space and I trip over them trying to get to anything else in the room. So, obviously, we want to get them off the floor and out of the way.
Solution Numero Uno was to hang them from hooks from the wall or ceiling. That was foiled by the solid poured concrete walls and ceiling. "No big deal", we thought, "we'll go to the bike shops, hobby, and hardware stores. One of them is bound to have one of those nifty bike hangers that don't need to attach to the wall that we've seen in the bike shops at home. Like this:
That plan was foiled when no one carried such things, or anything for that matter except the old standard wheel stands. Ok, weird, but no problem. We'll get something online.
We've been doing most of our online shopping from British Amazon because they usually ship here and their website is in English. Oddly, they didn't carry anything to solve our problem that would ship to Luxembourg. So, it was time for Plan D, ordering something from the French or German Amazons. That, of course, brings the added fun of translating everything. But, finally, FINALLY, we found something in our price range that would use the limited shop space without requiring a cement drill.
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| www.cyclove.co.uk |
It took some digging to find someone to ship it here, but after a day of combing the Interwebs, we have success. Hopefully, by the end of the day (everything now hinges on UPS) three such storage rods will be in delivered. Then, FINALLY, I won't trip over a bike when it's time to change the laundry.
That will something to celebrate with gusto, for sure!
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| http://takuyakawakami.tumblr.com |
I've got one of the tension-rod type bike storage racks, and I've got a love/hate relationship with it. Yours may not have the same issues as mine; it depends on how the tensioning mechanism works. Some of them are like a shower curtain rod, where the act of turning one half of the rod against the other is what creates the tension. In other cases, the base that presses against the floor or ceiling (or both) acts as one giant screw to create the tension. If yours is like either of these, then that's a good thing. With mine (the brand is Minoura), the two halves of the rod are spring loaded, and the position is set by a pair of pinch bolts at the point where the two halves meet. So, in order to set the tension, you have to use two hands to pull the rods apart to the desired tension between the floor and ceiling, and then use your THIRD hand to tighten the pinch bolts. Design fail.
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