Storing bikes, outside :(

[Tj Poseno]

I have to store a couple bikes outside now that they wont fit in my grandparents garage. What should
I do with them? I have them covered, and under the overhand of the house, but the rims are starting
to rust (AHHHH!) should i wipe them down with some kind of lube or something, then i dont knwo what
to do when i take them out, use a degreaser?

Any suggestions?

 

[Douglas Landau]

They will, in fact, fit in your grandparents garage. Look harder. As long as you're storing them,
they don't have to be easy to get to. Buy some plastic coated hooks and when your grandparents
aren't looking, hang the bikes from the underside of the roof so high that you need a ladder to get
the front wheel down.

-dkl

[email protected] (TJ Poseno) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> I have to store a couple bikes outside now that they wont fit in my grandparents garage. What
> should I do with them? I have them covered, and under the overhand of the house, but the rims are
> starting to rust (AHHHH!) should i wipe them down with some kind of lube or something, then i dont
> knwo what to do when i take them out, use a degreaser?
>
> Any suggestions?

 

[E & V Willson]

I think Dougs suggestion is a good one. Remember to lightly coat all the metal parts with a film of
oil or silicon though, and to redo the coating every so often (say twice a year). Even though the
metal is not out in the rain, in an unheated shed, condensation will form on the metal, and
corrosion will result. I have just had to do major surgery on to remove the corrosion on two bikes
which had been stored in a dry barn for thirty years.

Ernie

Douglas Landau wrote:

> They will, in fact, fit in your grandparents garage. Look harder. As long as you're storing them,
> they don't have to be easy to get to. Buy some plastic coated hooks and when your grandparents
> aren't looking, hang the bikes from the underside of the roof so high that you need a ladder to
> get the front wheel down.
>
> -dkl
>
> [email protected] (TJ Poseno) wrote in message
> news:<[email protected]>...
> > I have to store a couple bikes outside now that they wont fit in my grandparents garage. What
> > should I do with them? I have them covered, and under the overhand of the house, but the rims
> > are starting to rust (AHHHH!) should i wipe them down with some kind of lube or something, then
> > i dont knwo what to do when i take them out, use a degreaser?
> >
> > Any suggestions?

 

[E & V Willson]

I think Dougs suggestion is a good one. Remember to lightly coat all the metal parts with a film of
oil or silicon though, and to redo the coating every so often (say twice a year). Even though the
metal is not out in the rain, in an unheated shed, condensation will form on the metal, and
corrosion will result. I have just had to do major surgery on to remove the corrosion on two bikes
which had been stored in a dry barn for thirty years.

Ernie

Douglas Landau wrote:

> They will, in fact, fit in your grandparents garage. Look harder. As long as you're storing them,
> they don't have to be easy to get to. Buy some plastic coated hooks and when your grandparents
> aren't looking, hang the bikes from the underside of the roof so high that you need a ladder to
> get the front wheel down.
>
> -dkl
>
> [email protected] (TJ Poseno) wrote in message
> news:<[email protected]>...
> > I have to store a couple bikes outside now that they wont fit in my grandparents garage. What
> > should I do with them? I have them covered, and under the overhand of the house, but the rims
> > are starting to rust (AHHHH!) should i wipe them down with some kind of lube or something, then
> > i dont knwo what to do when i take them out, use a degreaser?
> >
> > Any suggestions?

 

[E & V Willson]

I think Dougs suggestion is a good one. Remember to lightly coat all the metal parts with a film of
oil or silicon though, and to redo the coating every so often (say twice a year). Even though the
metal is not out in the rain, in an unheated shed, condensation will form on the metal, and
corrosion will result. I have just had to do major surgery on to remove the corrosion on two bikes
which had been stored in a dry barn for thirty years.

Douglas Landau wrote:

> They will, in fact, fit in your grandparents garage. Look harder. As long as you're storing them,
> they don't have to be easy to get to. Buy some plastic coated hooks and when your grandparents
> aren't looking, hang the bikes from the underside of the roof so high that you need a ladder to
> get the front wheel down.
>
> -dkl
>
> [email protected] (TJ Poseno) wrote in message
> news:<[email protected]>...
> > I have to store a couple bikes outside now that they wont fit in my grandparents garage. What
> > should I do with them? I have them covered, and under the overhand of the house, but the rims
> > are starting to rust (AHHHH!) should i wipe them down with some kind of lube or something, then
> > i dont knwo what to do when i take them out, use a degreaser?
> >
> > Any suggestions?

 

[Ant]

[email protected] (TJ Poseno) wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...
> I have to store a couple bikes outside now that they wont fit in my grandparents garage. What
> should I do with them? I have them covered, and under the overhand of the house, but the rims are
> starting to rust (AHHHH!) should i wipe them down with some kind of lube or something, then i dont
> knwo what to do when i take them out, use a degreaser?
>
> Any suggestions?

i stored a bike outside for a few years in college. my first bit of advice is this: put them inside.
unless you need quick access close to a door, any house can make room for more bikes. if you are
stuck for space, hang them from a wheel from an attic rafter, a garage above the cars, wherever.
with their handlebars poking into their neighbor's wheels, i think you could get three bikes hung in
about a yard square of space.

if they Must be outside, i found that regular maintenace keeps things fairly good. but by regular, i
mean regular. and you have to oil everything. make sure your inner cable are coated with oil inside
their sleeves, the springs on the brakes, the chain is soaked, threads, seatposts, and all the other
bits and pieces too. standard, stuff i suppose. be prepared to overhaul things more frequently, but
then again- my bike was uncovered rain and shine.

and if you care enough to not want the inner crevices of all your bolts from going rusty, a drop of
oil in each woudlnt hurt. nothing special. 10w-30 got me through four years of functional outdoor
bike. wd-40 in a spray can, though more solvent than oil, will allow a less maintance prone person
to keep a bike alive outside.

cheers

 

[Werehatrack]

On 24 Jul 2003 15:50:31 -0700, [email protected] (TJ Poseno) may have said:

>I have to store a couple bikes outside now that they wont fit in my grandparents garage. What
>should I do with them? I have them covered, and under the overhand of the house, but the rims are
>starting to rust (AHHHH!) should i wipe them down with some kind of lube or something, then i dont
>knwo what to do when i take them out, use a degreaser?
>
>Any suggestions?

A couple of coats of car wax will help to deter the corrosion, but may not do good things for brake
effectiveness. On the other hand, car wax is probably less likely to foul the brake pads than lube,
so the tradeoff is probably in favor of the wax. A plastic ground cloth *under* the bikes will
reduce the amount of moisture to which they're exposed. Creating a stiff-sided enclosure for the
bikes, to keep the tarp from being in contact, will improve ventilation and reduce moisture problems
some more. If the budget is tight, consider fabricating the enclosure or lean-to from those
abominable plastic roadside signs that advertise "we buy houses" and "make money in your spare time"
and "free satellite dish" and such. (In virtually every part of the US, those signs are illegal
anyway, so collecting them is smiled upon by the local authorities. I regularly harvest them as a
ready source of packing material for my products.)

--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail. Yes, I have a killfile. If I
don't respond to something, it's also possible that I'm busy.

 

[Werehatrack]

On 24 Jul 2003 19:09:55 -0700, [email protected] (Douglas Landau) may have said:

>They will, in fact, fit in your grandparents garage. Look harder. As long as you're storing them,
>they don't have to be easy to get to. Buy some plastic coated hooks and when your grandparents
>aren't looking, hang the bikes from the underside of the roof so high that you need a ladder to get
>the front wheel down.

Make sure it's where they won't foul the garage door when it opens, and won't obstruct the path of
the car's drivr and passengers to wherever the door may be. (This presumes that there *is* such a
place that will work. There may not be.

Second suggestion: Dismantle the bikes as completely as possible to reduce their size, and stash
the components in whatever locations of opportunity may exist. If the *complete* bikes won't fit
on hooks screwed into the garage ceiling or rafters, perhaps the *components* might. I know that
while a whole bike won't fit above the tracks of my garage door, the various *parts* would, and
that's where the bits of my ex's Schwinn will be ending up once I'm done with the cleanup of the
storage damage.

--
My email address is antispammed; pull WEEDS if replying via e-mail. Yes, I have a killfile. If I
don't respond to something, it's also possible that I'm busy.

 

[Tj Poseno]

There is no more room in the garage, bcuase ive already got three in there, and my grandfather seems
to keep EVERYTHING. But I think that if i dismantel the other two that i was going to store outside,
they will fit. Surprised i didnt think of that. They will probably fit dismanteled and in a box or
something.'

Thanks for the ideas!!