How To Store Bicycles In A Garage?

Bicycles stored in a garage can take up quite a bit of room and can cause a real obstacle course. What can you do to get your family’s bikes organized and out of the way in your garage? Luckily, there are quite a few solutions to this problem. In this article, we share smart ideas to help you get your bicycles and cycling gear safely stowed out of the way. Read on to learn more on how to store bicycles in a garage.

Do you have to store your bicycle indoors?

If you value your bicycle, it’s smart to store it indoors. Leaving it out, exposed to the elements is a good way to cause your bicycle to develop lots of mechanical issues and shorten its life.

Furthermore, even if you lock it up (which you should always do) leaving it outdoors makes it a lot more likely your bicycle will be damaged or stolen. If you absolutely must store it outdoors, at least purchase a good bicycle cover to protect it from the elements.

Is your bicycle safe in your garage?

It is certainly safer to store your bicycle in your garage than to leave it out. Even so, when you put your bicycle in the garage, lock it up. If you accidentally leave your garage door unlocked or open, it’s an easy matter for a thief to ride off on your bike it it’s not locked up.

Smart Ideas for Storing Your Bicycle in Your Garage

Hang it! One of the best ways to store a bicycle is to hang it from the ceiling or the wall by one (or both) of its wheels. While you might think hanging it would hurt the wheels, the fact is it doesn’t hurt them at all, and it protects the tires.

Having your bicycle stand on its tires for extended periods causes flat spots. Standing on concrete is especially bad because it draw the moisture from the tires and causes dry rot.

If you have no choice but to store your bicycle standing on its wheels, be sure to put something protective (e.g. rubber mats, wood, insulation, rugs) underneath the tires.

Check on your tires at least once a week when your bicycle is in storage for an extended period of time. Spin them, and air them up as needed. This will help prevent bulges, flat spots, weak spots and cracks from developing.

9 Clever Bike Storage Ideas

Use Hooks For Bike Storage

Simple, multi-purpose vinyl coated J-Hooks, which you can find at any home improvement center or hardware store can be used to hang your bike from the ceiling or the wall by one wheel.

This is a very easy, cost effective solution. You simply drill a hole into a ceiling joist or wall stud where you want to hang your bike, screw in the J-Hook and hang your bike.

Use specially designed bicycle storage hooks to hang your bike from the wall. You can choose whether you want to hang your bike horizontally or vertically.

Some bicycle storage wall hooks are just hooks with no fancy features. Some have a smaller hook attached to hold your bicycle helmet. Some can be folded back against the wall to get them out of the way when they are not holding your bike.

Still others include a tray that holds your bike’s tires firmly in place and protects the wall. This may be one extended tray that accommodates both wheels, or it may be two trays.

Choose the Right Storage Rack for Your Bikes

For horizontal storage, you may want to purchase a wall mounted bike rack that has a pair of hooks designed to hold your bicycle by its frame.

You could also use bicycle floor racks to hold your bicycle up off the cold garage floor. These specially made racks often have extra features, such as built in storage for your cycling gloves, helmets and water bottles. Some bike racks are freestanding and some must be mounted to the wall for support.

If you don’t have much space, you could just get a wheel stand to hold one of your bike’s tires up off the floor. This is a simple, portable solution. Some wheel stands even have their own little wheels so that you can move your bicycle without having to take it off the stand and move the stand separately.

If you have lots of space and lots of bikes, you can get a standard bike rack like the ones you see in public places. This will get one wheel of your bike off the floor, but you’ll still have to take steps to protect and maintain the one that is sitting on the floor during long term storage.

Suspend Your Bikes From the Ceiling

If you don’t have much floor space, and you want to get your bikes completely out of the way, you can install a pulley system on your garage ceiling or rafters.

This sort of system is commercially available to simply purchase and install, or you could design it yourself and purchase pulleys, hardware and strong nylon rope or cable separately for a DIY project.

Keeping Your Bike in the Garage in Winter Protects it From Damage

Cold on its own won’t hurt your bike, but it might hurt any electronic components you have installed. What will hurt your bike is repeated temperature changes which cause condensed moisture, leading to rust.

Dramatic temperature changes can also cause some parts to crack or loosen up. If you have some small imperfections in the finish of your bike’s frame, these could widen into cracks as a result of frequent swings in temperature.

For best results, store your bike in clean condition and in good working order. Take off accessories (e.g. electronic devices, cyclocomputer, water bottles) and take them indoors for winter storage.

Give your bike a good wash to remove any dust, dirt, mud and road salt that may have accumulated on it. Storing it dirty is an invitation to corrosion.

Take your bike to your local bicycle repair shop for a tune-up, or do it yourself.

If you prep your bike well for storage, it should be ready to go in the springtime. Even so, double check everything before you set out after having your bike stored all winter. For more garage storage ides, check out this guide about storing wood in your garage, or the following article about Peloton bikes.