It’s Security and Storage Week on road.cc, and we’re kicking things off with ideas for bike storage within the home (or outbuilding). There are many ways of storing your bikes, whether it be outdoors, in a secure bike shelter, or even leaning against the oven in the kitchen – but for those of you who are tight on space and would rather save the kitchen for cooking, we’ve rounded up some of the best and space-efficient ways of keeping your bike securely stored indoors.
Not everyone has a garage they can store bikes in, particularly those of you who might live in city centre apartments. Plus, even if that apartment block has some form of bike storage, if your bike is very valuable you might still prefer to keep it securely inside your home. That might even be the case if you do have access to a garage or large shed, because both are less secure than inside your actual house in most circumstances.
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A few weeks ago we asked you lovely readers who prefer keeping their prized two-wheeled possession(s) inside how they go about it, about how you store your bikes at home, and we’ve been inundated with responses. Most included innovative storage solutions, while some bemoaned the fact that bikes inside their house is a no-go.
Without further ado, here are some of the best solutions we’ve seen for storing bikes at home.
The best seat in the house…
Once you have more than one bike, storing them indoors can become something of an art. And some people take that quite literally by hanging them on the walls in pride of place – just like Veronika Simonova, who kindly sent us a picture of her Merida hanging in her downstairs bathroom.
“I live in a two-bed end of terrace and this was the best solution,” she added. “It’s an old school carbon bike, can be lifted by a finger, I wouldn’t leave it in my shed.
As owners of many a carbon bike at road.cc, we can appreciate that sentiment, Veronika. And Veronika isn’t the only one storing bikes in the bathroom. road.cc member, ‘sl2000’ shared a picture of their bog-storage solution below.
The toilet roll resting on the pedal certainly adds a certain je ne sais quoi to the overall aesthetic. We won’t ask what the box labelled ‘boxes’ is storing, though.
Steve’s homemade wooden hanging solutions
Elsewhere in the country, Steve Fox emailed in to show us his homemade wall hangings, made entirely from wood.
“The bikes are on my garage walls but could easily be stored on a living space wall. Two support brackets screwed to a base plate then fixed securely to the wall.
“Removing the front wheel allows handle bars to be turned so the bike hangs upright. As the brackets are wood the bike frame paintwork is not damaged. The wall bracket can also be adapted for step through frames. They work great as the bikes do not take up floor space.”
As our loyal readers have pointed out, hanging your bike on a wall is a great way to reduce the floor space that they take up. And for those of us that own more than one bike, we know just how quickly they can take up an entire room or hallway.
Which leads us onto our next solution…
You’re a wizard, Tony
Our big boss man Tony Farrelly shared his rather ingenius method of storing some of his bikes inside a cupboard under the stairs. Rather Harry Potter-esque, if I do say so myself…
“I just had a door put into the panelling on the stairs,” he said. “So I could wheel bikes in there. Before that it was just a panel with some inaccessible space behind it.
“In theory it means no complaints about wet bikes blocking the hall. In practice…it’s where the bikes you don’t ride, but might want to at some point go to live, along with a load of old wheels.”
We love the fact it’s hidden and blends into the interior design of the house. I mean, we’re slightly biased (if you’re reading this Tony, it’s the best idea we’ve ever seen).
But speaking of blending things into other designs…
I’ll have a pint of lager and several hundred watts please
Clive Chalk, owner of Chalk Tables, sent in pictures of his table/bike storage unit which also works as somewhere to put your indoor trainer setup. And, dare we say it, somewhere to hide a new bike purchase you didn’t quite get approval for?
“It’s a bar height table that can be used to store bikes out of sight and could also be used to hide away an indoor training bike… sounds a bit strange I know, but my wife & I have been using these tables for the last 12 months and love the speed that the set-up can be converted from sweaty workout station to elegant table!
“We also have an outdoor version just for bike storage which is effectively a small shed that can be used as a bar table.”
This isn’t an advertorial, but they do look pretty cool – and they’re available to buy from Chalk’s website, if you too want a bar/Zwift/bike storage unit in your house.
And now one in the outbuilding…
Simon Schofield sent us a picture of his rather conscientious hanging-bikes method that he uses in his outbuilding to house seven bikes.
He said, “I realise this photo is in an outbuilding rather than in the house, but the method of hanging applies anywhere really. Here I hung seven bikes in a 2.1m width wall.
“Spacing the wall hooks 26cm apart and fitting every other hook 30cm higher allows the handlebars to interleave without any bikes actually overlapping, so they’re all directly accessible.
“Worth having a tiled/waterproof floor/tray underneath if you’re bringing bikes in from the rain.”
Let me just check if we have any in the back…
Max Bloomfield sent in this simple yet ingenious method of hanging his bikes – and it’s something that makes choosing between bikes as easy as choosing between shirts on a rack.
“I’ve been happy so far with some fairly robust, metal curtain hanging hardware from Amazon, coupled with some giant, rubber coated hooks, such that the bikes in my “library” can slide left and right as needed….. not sure I’d want to test it with an e-bike though……”
Perhaps an e-bike might be pushing it too far, but we’re fans of the selection of bikes Max already has up there.
Into the realm of giants
Ben Molyneux shared an ingenious method of using upwards space rather than hanging bikes off of walls or shoving them in cupboards. We would like to know how tall Ben is, or if there is a particularly long pokey hook used to retrieve the bikes.
“I have a single garage which became pretty much a bike store and nothing else …yes my family has 11 bikes between us. I kept it simple and put a scaffold pole in the rafters.you can hook the seats over the pole and store the less used bikes up and out of the way. So the garage is now a workshop and gym.”
The toilet is just past the Bianchi, then turn left when you see the Merida
For some, bikes take such a pride of place that they don’t even need a specific storage solution. They are simply part of the aesthetic. They are there to be tripped over, used as clothes horses, or even as a show of dominance that says, “look kids, this is what I spent your university money on” when they come home with subpar GCSE results.
We particularly like the submission from road.cc user ‘rich22222’ above, who just uses “a combination of a well placed radiator, wall and door frame.” Simple, yet effective.
Another road.cc user, ‘OldRidgeBack’ admits bikes are just part of the furniture in their household.
“We have bikes scattered all over. There are three BMXs in the cellar along with my Trek MTB, plus the Specialized road bike (still in bits) and various frames and wheels. My son’s bikes, a hybrid and a fixie, are in the living room.
“My wife’s hybrid and my ancient MTB are in the garden, propped up against the kitchen wall. Sadly, we don’t have a big garden so a shed is out of the question. When we moved into the house we did have an outside loo that quickly became used for bicycle storage, but that’s long gone now.”
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Not all of us are fortunate enough to have our bikes in the house with us, and some commenters took umbrage with that sentiment, like user ‘yupiteru’…
“Keep my main bike in the bedroom. leaning up against the dressing table.
My partner does not mind. If you have a partner who objects to this type of arrangement, then you are with the wrong person, it is as simple as that.
Find someone else ASAP.
Love me love my bike, or take a hike.”
A strong message. Perhaps not an ideal Tinder bio though for anyone looking for a partner tolerant enough to accept a bike in the house.
Drop your own ingenious indoor bike storage solutions in the comments below, and they mught just make the next update of this article
4 thoughts on “How to store your bike indoors: tips from road.cc staff and readers on the best solutions for secure home bike storage”
This is my bike storage, main
This is my bike storage, main bike and two Brompton slots.
That’s very neat.
That’s very neat.
That’s VERY nice looking.
That’s VERY nice looking.
“As our loyal readers have
“As our loyal readers have pointed out, hanging your bike on a wall is a great way to reduce the floor space that they take up.”
You learn something new every day.