How Do You All Organize Your Gear?

I put everything in my helmet 😉

What is this 'organization' of which you speak?

The bike stuff is everywhere. So it's caused a couple of divorces...what with the sports cars, the motorcycles, the farm equipment, the guns and the tools and 45 years worth of cycling [censored] accumulated in two houses. Priorities, man! Priorities!

@CampyBob, I laughed myself silly reading your post. I have cycling equipment issues too, and judging from the photo of your Park racing stand and trainer, you are neat as a pin and incredibly organized compared to me. I think I'm going to have to find some kind of system that will yield readily accessible cycling equipment combined with an atmosphere of...hmmm...happiness in the house.

Bob

I have bike stuff everywhere. I don't think there is a room in the house without something in it.

Most of the tools are in the basement. 2 of the bikes are in the mud room, another in the useless room (that's what we call it as it has no real function in the house) along with a spin bike. More bikes downstairs along with 2 trainers and a set of rollers. Water bottles are everywhere, helmets, shoes, garmin heart rate straps everywhere...

Maybe i should store my stuff in an outdoor locker of some sort.

Bob

One of the bedrooms in my house is nothing but bikes, tools, gear, apparel, etc.

My organizational motto has always been "A place for everything, and everything everyplace." I have parts, supplies, tools and other gear in various boxes and sacks around the house (mostly in closets). But . . . for the stuff I use all the time (helmet, gloves, chain oil, adjustment tools, etc.), I have a plastic storage container that I keep by my bike. Everything I need for a ride is right there, waiting to go.

gloves, arm/knee warmers, shoe covers etc in one drawer.. gels, bars, NUUN, drink mix in another. helmet on top of that with sunglasses and 1 set of gloves inside, all put in a bag so i can throw other stuff in on my way to the car. shoes on the floor next to that. I have a tool box/ drawers in the basement for repair/maintenance tools etc

Tons of Sterilite plastic shoe boxes like you get at Target. Clothes in the bedroom closet. Socks in one of the plastic shoe boxes. Gloves and Croakies in one. Shorts in a drawer. Jerseys hanging in the closet. All tools and bike supplies/parts sorted into the plastic shoe boxes on shelves in the garage.

My mechanical stuff (tools, etc) is in the garage.

My clothing is stuffed haphazardly into one big drawer in the bedroom, which makes my wife antsy. When it's time to ride, I rifle through the drawer until I come up with a jersey, shorts, and two mostly matching socks.

Every few months I organize the drawer, and my wife thinks I've done something fantastic, so that buys me some points. The points last a few months, before she gets antsy again, at which point I organize the drawer again.

It's a pretty good formula and it's been working for almost ten years, so I'm not messing with it.

"I have bike stuff everywhere. I don't think there is a room in the house without something in it."

Young men, take note: This is how it's done.

When I croak the auctioneer's prep crew will curse my name for days: "WTF are all these faded yellow boxes marked "Campagnolo?".

I just leave my bike gear in a back pack that always goes with me on long rides. Just hang it up in the closet. Whenever you head out you're going to put it on anyways, so might as well carry all of your gear with you so they don't get left behind in a jungle of mess.

I don't have a small condo or a small house, but I like to save space because it puts everything into one small neat location. I keep my gloves in my helmet and my helmet rests on top of my shoes which I then place on a bookshelf when not commuting like in the summer, otherwise it all goes into a backpack including my two jackets (one rain jacket and one regular), pant straps, helmet rain cover, and lock, it doesn't have to be complicated. I have more small gear which I simply keep in two filing cabinet drawers reserved for biking and other stuff related to repair in one of the tool chest drawers reserved for biking.

"...one of the tool chest drawers reserved for biking."

Young men, take note: This is NOT how it's done.

One drawer? One?

Unless a man uses a school bus foe a tool box and by "drawer" he means 2 cubic yards of tools...this is entirely unacceptable. You are hearby instructed to procure at least a 60" wide roll-around chest of at least 8 drawers with matching mid, top and dual side cabinets.

Fill it with tools. All kinds of magical, wonderful tools.

You destiny will be fulfilled!

Hasten to your task!

@CampyBob, reading your posts is becoming one of my great evening pleasures because you know how to write humorously! The school bus analogy brings back the memory of a high school buddy whose father did buy an old school bus, which he converted into a recreational vehicle. He did a rather good job of the conversion too. It must have cost him quite a bundle. And I'm sure his tool collection overflowed.

Yes, dear cyclists, buy yourselves a Ridgid job box, fill it up with tools, and hoist the whole thing to the topmost branches of a convenient tree for theft protection. (Smile.)

Bob

CAMPYBOB said:

"...one of the tool chest drawers reserved for biking."

Young men, take note: This is NOT how it's done.

One drawer? One?

Unless a man uses a school bus foe a tool box and by "drawer" he means 2 cubic yards of tools...this is entirely unacceptable. You are hearby instructed to procure at least a 60" wide roll-around chest of at least 8 drawers with matching mid, top and dual side cabinets.

Fill it with tools. All kinds of magical, wonderful tools.

You destiny will be fulfilled!

Hasten to your task!

LOL! I have a good size tool chest, and I only buy tools as I need them, so tools and some other assorted stuff fits easily into one drawer in my tool chest.

Don't forget too I have some larger stuff I put into 2 drawers of a filing cabinet and my lubes, grease gun, solvent, wax, cleaning stuff, etc are on a old bookshelf in the basement where my bikes are kept. So I have more stuff than it sounds but not as much as some people that I've known and probably a lot of people here have. I don't have a lot of waste or junk just setting never getting used, so I don't store anything but 2 sets of tires, 2 tubes, 2 pair of new Suntour brake pads, and brand new never used Suntour Superbe Tech RD and a Superbe Pro FD that has sat unused since 85 or so when I heard Suntour was about to go bankrupt, so I got back up derailleurs thinking those would break in time on my Trek 660, they never broke so I still have the derailleurs. I don't have a complete set of bike tools because I only buy what I need or feel is worth buying vs just taking the bike in. For example I don't have a truing stand with dish tool because the price to get all the right stuff is about $500, I can true my wheels quite simply by using the brake pads on a bike, then about once every 10 years I take a bike in and have the wheels gone over professionally at a cost of $20 each, it's cheaper to take the bike in and less hassle than it is to buy the stuff to do it.

Quote by Froze:
"...and I only buy tools as I need them..."

That's just crazy talk!

A manly man buys tools in the HOPE he will one day find a job to use them on!

I'm looking at a mini-track hoe right now. No, there's no dirt on the farm that needs dug or moved at this point in time, but...

CAMPYBOB said:

I'm looking at a mini-track hoe right now. No, there's no dirt on the farm that needs dug or moved at this point in time, but...

C'mon, you know you want the real thing, not a mini...

Jason

CAMPYBOB said:

Quote by Froze:
"...and I only buy tools as I need them..."

That's just crazy talk!

A manly man buys tools in the HOPE he will one day find a job to use them on!

I'm looking at a mini-track hoe right now. No, there's no dirt on the farm that needs dug or moved at this point in time, but...

LOL!!! I have a small car classic car collection and worked on cars (not for a living) all my adult life and only bought tools as I needed them, so in the scope of a professional mechanic I have about 10% of the tools they have but it's the tools that I need for the cars that I own or have owned. I do the same thing with house tools, I don't buy a power anything unless I need it. I've never bought a tool set because those come with redundant tools that I already have or tools I'll never use.

Same with bike tools, why buy a bike specific tool kit that comes with a lot of tools I already have like flat blade and phillip drivers, hex wrenches, sockets and socket wrenches, adjustable wrench, pliers etc, most people have this stuff too so why invest in a toolset that has all this stuff a person already has? And if a person doesn't have that stuff currently then I have to question them on how much mechanical abilities do they really have if they never needed that stuff before for anything like bikes, cars, around the house, etc! And if they don't have much in the way of mechanical abilities than they've wasted money on a tool set while they looked puzzled as to how to use a chain whip...is it for their bedtime activity?