How to Store Your Bike Indoors Even If You Have No Room

Your long quest is complete. You’ve brought home that shiny new dream machine after months of saving, sacrificing and waiting for the perfect opportunity to buy the bike you’d always secretly fantasized about riding. Unfortunately, you got too excited. In your rush, you completely forgot about setting aside some place to store that bike, and you don’t want your house-mates to touch it in the “fresh new” bad luck stages that have haunted your past bike purchases. Of course, keeping it outside or letting it stay over in a friend’s extra guest bed is completely out of the question, so here are a few tips that can help you find a bit of extra storage space indoors.

Keeping your bike inside solves a whole mess of problems. The potential for weather damage or theft is greatly reduced, but there are some other inconvenient, potentially disastrous situations to consider indoors as well. Your bike needs plenty of space on either side so that the shifter and pedals can be free from any potential weight stresses caused by leaning up against objects. The tires should not be stored on heat-conducive concrete floors for maximum air retention and minimal expansion during all seasons of the year. Putting your bike in a place where people are likely to throw coats and other clothes over it is a great way to end up having it knocked over when it’s obscured by junk. As a final consideration, you don’t want to see your nice new bike dinged up or even completely flattened just because someone backed their car into the garage a bit too fast.

In the face of tons of adversity, the best place to store a bike indoors is on a mounted rack. Mounted racks allow you to hang your bike up using open wall space that would otherwise go to waste, or hoist it off the ceiling if you’re really running low on room. Because wall and ceiling-mounted racks suspend your bike from its crosspost with a padded rest, you can avoid having to make some of the minor maintenance adjustments that are needed with improper storage. If your handlebars, shifter cables wheels and pedals stay free from gradual pressure and weight, the parts that comprise your ride will remain straight.

Bike racks can be mounted virtually anywhere, as long as the wall or ceiling spot you pick is structurally sound enough to support the weight of your bike or multiple bikes. Like car and travel bike racks, wall-mounts vary in shape, size, color and bicycle capacity. When you’re looking for one to use, consider:

•How many bikes will you store? Bike rack capacity varies, and a multi-bike unit can really help you clean up that garage.

•Does the bike rack you fancy have an extendable arm for working on the bike further away from the mount base? A few bike racks are designed for those who like to make regular tune ups, or simply fold up to keep more out of the way.

•How easy is the rack installation procedure? If you want to move your bike storage later, ensure you don’t have to drill multiple huge holes in the wall. Most convenient racks only require a few small or medium bolts to become firmly embedded, and can be installed without help in less time than it takes to get into a fresh wreck. Remember, happy storage leads to happy riding, so get that bike up off the ground!