More Bike storage issues

[adam85]

Anybody got any suggestions on how to optimise a work bike lockup cheaply? It's a wire cage built into a one car space bay in the corner of the underground carpark. There is a concrete wall along the left hand side and rear wall, and wire mesh and galpipe down the rhs and front, with a locking front gate.

Currently there are two racks (school bikerack type), one is bolted to the floor at the rear, the other down the right hand side. The racks are no good for roadbikes as the loops are very wide, and if anyone uses the rhs rack it totally blocks access to the rear rack. There is also a large set of lockers also down the right hand side which is complete waste of space, they need to be upstairs near the showers or the workspace.

At the moment the max number is around 10 and even then my bike is getting scratched by careless coworkers. I was thinking hooks to hang bikes vertically along the walls would allow a lot more than the maximum of 10 bikes that can fit in there at the moment with easy access. Staggering them would allow bikes to fit closer without bars tangling. The hooks I've seen are approx $25 each. I'll have to find out if we can drill into the concrete wall though.

I'm sure all you uber-hip forward thinking melbourne people have some pretty swank solutions! Any ideas?

 

[ghostgum]

Anybody got any suggestions on how to optimise a work bike lockup cheaply?

Start by having a look at the Bicycle Victoria information
http://www.bv.com.au/change-the-world/118/
in particular the bicycle parking handbook
http://www.bv.com.au/file/File/The%20bicycle%20parking%20handbook.pdf

 

[Duncan]

adam85 wrote:

> At the moment the max number is around 10 and even then my bike is
> getting scratched by careless coworkers. I was thinking hooks to hang
> bikes vertically along the walls would allow a lot more than the
> maximum of 10 bikes that can fit in there at the moment with easy
> access. Staggering them would allow bikes to fit closer without bars
> tangling. The hooks I've seen are approx $25 each. I'll have to find
> out if we can drill into the concrete wall though.

We have hooks here at work on an outside wall. They're in two rows,
staggered in a up/down fashion about 2ft apart vertically, 1.5ft
laterally. You just hang your front wheel on them; they're similar to
these http://www.pricepoint.com/images/styleImages/Z_250 SETHI5.jpg

Also attached to each hook is a loop of cable for locking up; BYO
padlock... some people have also hooked up their own chains/cables.

Seems to work well enough, and takes up much less space than leaving
the bikes on the ground.

 

[Donga]

Adam, recently at home, I borrowed an idea you see around some
triathlons (I was just passing by, honest). A piece of water pipe fixed
horizontally about 1.3 m off the ground. You hook the saddle over it.
You can lock bikes to it, providing the end is closed off. It's cheap,
fairly compact, easy to use etc. Can be made at minimal cost with a
small amount of welding. Far cheaper than the convoluted commercial
products that don't do the job any better.

Donga

 

[jur]

Here's my solution:

http://members.iinet.net.au/~jdekter/commute/DSCN4015.JPG

Hooks screwed into the wall (in my case, a piece of timber fastened onto the wall), 45* down, just hook the front wheel over it. Stagger these up and down, and you can space them about 35cm apart, with handlebars not interfering due to the stagger.

No lock mech, but is that what your cage is for anyway?

 

[Donga]

jur wrote:
SNIP
> No lock mech, but is that what your cage is for anyway?

I always lock my bike to the rack in the lockup. I work with a bunch of
lovely people, but my bikes are worth a deal more than most/all others
there and I wouldn't want to tempt someone 'to do a swap'; amongst 40+
users there may be someone who is dishonest. We have swipe card access,
so we can see who went in and when, but no camera to record who did
what. When we have a camera, I might consider not locking my bike.

Donga

 

[adam85]

Cheers for all the replies. It will have to be vertical storage to allow access, ruling out some of those options. I like the ned kelly BV ones the best, as it needs to be lockable, the wire mesh of the cage could be easily cut into, and I work with some dogdy MOFOs The more basic hooks look OK, but would have to have a wire loop installed to lock to. Food for thought...thanks

 

[Donga]

adam85 wrote:
> Cheers for all the replies. It will have to be vertical storage to allow
> access, ruling out some of those options. I like the ned kelly BV ones
> the best, as it needs to be lockable, the wire mesh of the cage could
> be easily cut into, and I work with some dogdy MOFOs The more basic
> hooks look OK, but would have to have a wire loop installed to lock to.
> Food for thought...thanks
>
>
> --
> adam85

Adam

Could you log your lockup with CBD BUG? We are trying to keep an
inventory of what lock-ups are around the city. Email the convenor.
http://cbdbug.googlepages.com/
Cheers mate.

Donga

 

[PiledHigher]

jur wrote:
> Here's my solution:
>
> http://members.iinet.net.au/~jdekter/commute/DSCN4015.JPG
>
> Hooks screwed into the wall (in my case, a piece of timber fastened
> onto the wall), 45* down, just hook the front wheel over it. Stagger
> these up and down, and you can space them about 35cm apart, with
> handlebars not interfering due to the stagger.
>
> No lock mech, but is that what your cage is for anyway?
>

Rialto building had a cage cut into and a number of bikes stolen over a
weekend, after that they started recommending bike sto be locked in the
cage.

 

[cfsmtb]

Rialto building had a cage cut into and a number of bikes stolen over a
weekend, after that they started recommending bike sto be locked in the
cage.

That's truly shitful, was there by any chance surveillance cameras monitoring the area in question? Hopefully the issue is followed up by building management.

 

[Donga]

PiledHigher wrote:
> Rialto building had a cage cut into and a number of bikes stolen over a
> weekend, after that they started recommending bike sto be locked in the
> cage.

The ooooldest trick in the book!