Searching for the perfect vertical bike rack

Part of our current Studiomates expansion includes a small bike area. That means I am currently researching vertical bike racks, similar to the one pictured above. Anything that will let us store the most amount of bikes in a small space.

Are you a bike rack connoisseur? Do you own a vertical bike rack? Care to share your experience/knowledge in a comment below? Thank you, in the name of all the bicycle folks here at Studiomates.

37 Comments leave a comment below

  1. I don’t know about bike racks, but I do know that this picture gives me hope for the death of the “fixie” trend. So long impractical fixed gear bicycles!

  2. Not a connoisseur, and can’t necessarily recommend a particular brand, but one thing you may want to consider in addition to whatever rack you land on, is adding a metal plate, or strip of rubber/plastic on the wall where the wheels sit – A small thing, but will help keep you wall looking nice and tidy.

  3. Niki Brown tweeted the following suggestion: I have these http://t.co/NIFr9je from REI http://t.co/q3nQx42

  4. just screw a large (3″ diameter), rubber-coated hook into the wall at roughly 6′ height. it’s a $2 solution that works identically to the system pictured above.

  5. Give the Saris a try. I used more than 200 of these as storage in our shop. You can mount them at various spacings. If you alternate handlebars up/handlebars down they can be as close as a foot apart. Wider for greater ease of use. The plastic coating will wear off the hooks in a few years and can be replaced with cheap plastic tubing. Limitations are deep section aero rims or other oddballs. They are utterly safe for the most exotic bikes.

    http://www.amazon.com/Saris-Bike-Vertical-Indoor-Storage/dp/B000I7OZZ6

  6. We use the Leonardo at home…it’s simple, elegant and the price is right. Also advocate for their Bach storage hook–installed over 150 in an elementary school for kids’ backpacks and they’re bomb proof.

    http://theartofstorage.com/Bike_and_Sport_Storage_Racks

  7. Another vote for Leonardo! They’re so inexpensive it wouldn’t matter that you’d need to purchase one for each bike. That way you can easily expand your storage when more studio mates start biking.

    http://www.amazon.com/Delta-Leonardo-Single-Bike-Rack/dp/B000ACAM06/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1296853829&sr=8-1

  8. If the Danish Bicycle Ambassador can’t provide inspiration, then who can?

    I have a photo set of bike racks right here.

    With this tag you can see vertical and/or elevated solutions.

    The oldest version of vertical racks are almost as old as the bicycle itself. Design-wise, they are simple and functional: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16nine/466199951
    These kind in action in the 1930’s: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16nine/4204476456/

    although if everyone just had a kickstand, you just need a parking zone, and no racks: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16nine/4046289506/

    cheers
    Mikael
    copenhagenize.com

  9. It’s hard to come by a standard solution that would work for multiple bikes like that. I run a small custom design and fabrication studio in Chicago and I would be very interested in working on a custom design for your needs (or any other projects for that matter…)!

  10. Leonardo is great,(i have two for my road bikes)

    if you do purchase make sure you anchor them into a stud, or have them low enough to the ground so the back tire of the bicycle hits the ground and can support the bikes weight.

    (other wise i am sure it is quiet east to pulled these out of the wall.)

    also. i have also head complaints about the Leonardo rack accommodating wide mountain bike tires poorly. good luck.

  11. if you are looking to rack of a considerable amount of bikes – the one on the image above (your posting) actually works pretty well. i had to do some research myself not too long ago to convince my building to do a bike storage and that’s the one we ended up getting. good x the price and not too flimsy which is important if you plan on having people yanking bikes up and down all day. it also allows for security chain. :)

  12. We sell these at my work – item “C” Vertical Single Bike Rack seems like a possible solution:
    http://www.leevalley.com/US/garden/page.aspx?p=64100&cat=2,42194,40727

  13. rubbermaid has a very simple, practical solution. not very cool on the aesthetic aspect, but this is what i use in my apartment….

    http://www.rubbermaid.com/Category/Pages/SubCategoryLanding.aspx?SubCatId=FastTrackGarageOrganizationSystem&CatName=GarageOrganization

    there are vertical and horizontal bike solutions and you can even purchase baskets for helmets and what not.

    practical. inexpensive.

  14. Delta makes the Leonardo DeVinci racks and they have nice lines and a simple silver finish. There are lots of creative things you can do with them, but they look great on the wall either way.

    http://www.excelsports.com/main.asp?page=8&description=Leonardo+DaVinci+Single+Bike+Rack+wTray&vendorCode=DELTA&major=9&minor=3

  15. container store has this http://www.containerstore.com/shop?productId=10000532&N=&Ntt=bike+rack+ we have them at homw and they are great.
    you can put them on the wall or on the ceiling…
    i highly recommend them

  16. We built a vertical bike rack from pipes when we moved into a smaller apartment. We covered the pipe arms that hold the bikes with stick on foam stuff and we covered the threaded tips with pieces of bike tube to protect the bikes.

    Here’s some pics:
    https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/K_VA7mubevhaAsSRrjU_SA?feat=directlink

  17. i made one recently as well from timber to be different from all the metal and powdercoat ones available
    http://discussionordissent.blogspot.com/2011/01/bike-storage-solutions.html

  18. we have two at home, i can’t find the manufacturer right now but i definitely recommend something that supports both the front and back wheels. (ours has a grooved track that extends from the hook to where the back wheel hits the wall.) we previously just had a hook attachment for the front wheel, and it was very difficult to keep the bikes in order.

  19. Not vertical and space to bike ratio depends on your ceiling height and/ or willingness to climb but the Stolmen bike rack hack over at IKEAhacker can be mounted without screws anywhere there’s a floor and ceiling. Looks good in a minimal loft type setup, too.

    http://www.ikeahackers.net/2008/02/stolmen-bike-rack.html

  20. Be careful with leaving bikes with hydraulic front suspension vertically. In a few days the suspension fluid will start to leak and it’s not fun.

  21. Definitely this one:
    http://www.veloplus.ch/AlleProdukte/Velostaender/Velohaengesysteme/BRIKVelohaken.aspx

    You can hang it on different heights, and it looks nice in my Studio as well.

  22. I like the delta leonardo:

    http://www.amazon.com/Delta-Leonardo-Single-Bicycle-Vinci/dp/B000FGTTEW

    because you can get a tray for the rear tire. no tire smears on the wall.

  23. Ceiling hoists are nice because they raise the bike up and out of the way. For example:

    http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/181-0354933-7178723?asin=B000ME0TW8&AFID

    You can also build one on your own with a pair of pulleys, rope, etc..

  24. +1 to hellena’s suggestion.

  25. Do you need to lock the bikes? If so, there are two that work well. One is the Ultra Space Saver from Dero (http://www.dero.com/products/ultra_space_saver/ultra_space_saver.html). This can be floor or wall mounted, single or double sided and is u-lock compatible. The Bike File is a really interesting one because it actually is mounted on trolleys so the bikes slide back and forth so you can fit more bikes into your space and still get them out without a problem. http://www.dero.com/products/bike-file/ . It kind of works like a coat-hanger system – you slide the other coats out of the way to access yours.

    If you don’t need to lock your bike, the Track Rack from Dero is great. This is also on trolleys but simply have hooks. It can be wall, floor or even ceiling mounted. http://www.dero.com/products/track_rack/track_rack.html

    Hope this helps.

  26. Helena is right. All you need is a hook and a sturdy wall.

  27. So where do you put the rest of the bikes?
    Clearly this hasn’t solved the problem.

  28. you might want to place the hooks at alternating hights, so the handlebars don’t get in the way of each other and you get a lot more bikes hanging per meter of wall ..

    ;-)

  29. Agree about alternating heights so that handlebars can be staggered. We had that set-up at my former office, and it worked well with and without bikes. http://twitpic.com/14x4hl