Author Topic: Bike storage  (Read 1665 times)

drobots

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
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  • Posts: 56
Bike storage
« on: August 19, 2018, 07:25:02 PM »
Hello! I just moved to a new house that is biking distance from my new job, and have an alley now instead of a garage (city row house). Right now we have 3 bikes (mine, wife, kid), a bike trailer, a bike seat (usually attached to my bike) and a pedal-bike attachment (kid is 4 and SUPER excited about this brand new addition) but after a month outside they are all looking worse for the wear. The alley varies from about 6-9 ft wide and is plenty long, there are houses on each side, and ours has new stucco we've been advised against penetrating. What would you do to protect bikes from some weather without a) bringing them inside or b) attaching stuff to the houses? A pop-up canopy tent with legs cemented in some 5 gallon buckets? I still want the bikes to be super easily accessible, and I'm not afraid of building something myself. Thoughts?

skeptic

  • 5 O'Clock Shadow
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  • Posts: 58
Re: Bike storage
« Reply #1 on: August 19, 2018, 11:01:50 PM »
Best solution: bring them inside. I know you have ruled this out and you may have very good reasons, but I'll just encourage you to double check. Maybe just the bikes inside and not the trailer? It's not actually even necessary between the other kid-transporting options you have, but I digress. I know a lot of times "there's not enough room" but there can be creative solutions to that. Our house and plenty of our friends' houses have a bunch of bikes there when you come in and that's just how it is.

Leaving them exposed to the elements will definitely wear them out fast, especially in the winter (at least if you have snow).

Any coverage is better than nothing. I'm a little confused about what space you have to work with, but the best thing for protection would be to build or buy a shed. The pop-up canopy tent idea could be workable (would it have walls though? Walls would make a big difference), though the material may wear out with constant use, and if the sides don't go all the way to the ground, I find just the humidity and/or rain splash can cause damage over time even if they are mostly covered.

They're kind of a pain to put on, but those individual covers like people put on motorcycles would go a long way toward protecting them.

If you are determined not to bring them inside, the least you can do is frequently clean and lubricate the drivetrain, and make sure you attend to the paint job and/or any small rust spots.

Good luck!


vhalros

  • Bristles
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  • Posts: 308
Re: Bike storage
« Reply #2 on: August 20, 2018, 01:43:19 PM »
I would buy/build some kind of storage shed in that alley. It's a little hard for me to visualize what would fit exactly, but maybe a glide top one like this: https://www.amazon.com/Suncast-BMS4900D-Glidetop-Slide-Shed/dp/B006G66YSY/. You would need to anchor it to the ground some how and build a concrete base if the alley doesn't have one.

 

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