Freestanding Bike Rack

[zourtney]

When I got home today, I went to find my guitar amp. This, of course lives in the back room in the closet, behind the bikes. The bikes are always in the way but I do not want to store them outside. So, I think I should try to make a freestanding bike rack.

I found several manufactured and several DIY projects of this sort.

Here is what I know:

• I have two (2) bikes
• Length: between 5ft and 6ft
• Height: between 42" and 48"
• Weight: between 15lb and 20lb each?
• I have limited space, so the smaller the better
• I should be able to take it apart (and put it back together)
• I like metal
• Tube support beam should be between 16" and 20" horizontal
• I might like it to suspend the bike over my unused couch in the back. The top is about 32" from the ground.
• Current ceiling is about 7'6" tall

I think I'll draw up some plans now.

[Nick]

Yes
We should do that. Or more you should and I will help/take some pictures.

[Cody]

I agree. This could be a fun and also very handy project. Certainly Randomland worthy! Common crapsmanship or "Horribly overbuilt but somehow still rickety" though I wonder.... 

[Brad]

How will the bikes sit on this rack? Are they going to sit horizontally or vertically? Right-side up?

Vertically would give you more room but your sealing would have to be tall enough for the bikes to sit that way. Or if you do it horizontally you could have one bike hang directly above the other one. This would give you more as well. Of course this all depends on your ceiling height...

Ah, I see that you did write out your ceiling height. Well the horizontally position bikes on top of each other idea wouldn't work then, too tall.

I'm looking forward to see what you come up with.

[zourtney]

I am fairly positive I am going to model my version after the Bike Tree I found on the Instructables site,  here. Check it out. It's a bit ugly, but it is a functional design and will use the least amount of floor space. I might sheath it with plywood or scrap carpet.

There are only a few things I dislike about the design:

• He uses ballast to sturdy the base. My engineering brain says "build a wider base and lose the ballast."
• The palette design requires a lot of wood-on-floor action. This is fine on a hardwood floor but is sure to draw moisture in the old, carpeted room I am building it for. We live in a fairly moist climate, here, and I don't need a moldy bike rack.
• Oh, and it's not very disassemble-able (reassemble-able, actually)

We stopped by Lowe's during lunch and I grabbed up a few lumber prices. If I can find someone's discarded palette, that would be a good start. I figure about 4' sq would be a good size. (What is standard palette size?) If I need to build my own base, I might need a few pointers, though surely I can nail a half-dozen 2x4s together in a manner.

Here are prices, round up using my pessimistic rounding function (up to the nearest whole dollar, usually):
6"x6"x8' ~ $7
2"x4"x10' ~ $2
2"x4"x10' ~ $3
1"x2"x8' ~ $1
2"x2"x8' ~ $2
3/8"x4'x8' Plywood ~ $9
Post support bracket ~ $18

I did not have time to look for bike hooks or ballast.

[Nick]

Use carpet! Like a massive catpole.

[zourtney]

A second look at the British dude's palette makes me think it is much smaller than 4' square. He calls it "2x square wood decking." Being British and all, I figured that was not referring to imperial units, though now I am not sure. It looks as if his bike tire just barely fits on there. Maybe it is 2' square; bike tires are usually 26", I do believe.

[zourtney]

Bike Tree.dwg

Here is a sketch of what British-dude did in his aforementioned tutorial. Interpreted through my bad AutoCAD skills. Common overbuilding sense would conclude that I should embed the post in the palette to reduce strain on the deck attachment point. This is probably totally unnecessary. I tend to build things to withstand the 40mph crash test. It really just needs to be able to steady the bikes vertically -- it does not need to be a bike hanger, per se. But...if I can make a chin-up bar attachment for it, all the better   I didn't include it on there, but I would probably sheath the top in plywood. Please excuse the ugliness of the lines; AutoCAD exported that strangely. What needs changed?

[Nick]

Coolio. Make a 3d one! And what do you mean by sheathing the top?

[zourtney]

I mean covering the top with plywood (and possibly scrap carpet over the top, if I find any lying around). With a plywood base, I could attach the vertical member using post anchor (like so).

What should I make a 3d model in?

[Nick]

So there is a big flat spot on top of the post?  Like ' T '? By sheathing all I can think of is you making a plywood box the encompass the vertical wood post....

[zourtney]

Here, this is a more 3D model I tried to make (click for gallery page). This model's base is 36" square. The previous one was 48" but I think that would be way too big.


Bike Tree 3D.3dm

• The bottom is made of (4) 2x6s lying flat. There are (4) 2x4s stacked vertically on top of those. The whole this is covered in plywood to create a nice, flat surface and to add rigidity.
  
• The post is a 6' tall 4x4 embedded into the palette. I was thinking I could use a post anchor on the bottom (example), screwing it into the doubled-up boards (see image). Then, use another steadying bracket where the plywood and post meet (example).
  
• The top horizontal member is to hold the hooks. This is where the front wheel will sit. The horizontal member in the middle of the post is a backstop for the rear wheel. The placement of both are very rough estimations.

I figure I will need

• (1) 4"x4"x8' post (they might come shorter, but probably not)
• (2) 2"x6"x10' boards (or one 12' board, though less practical to haul)
• (2) 2"x4"x10' boards
• (1) 3/8"x4'x8' sheet of plywood (with a lot of waste)
• (2) multipurpose hook dealies
• (10) skills I do not have

Are there any glaring stupidities in this design? Do I need to framing the bottom with 2x6s instead so I can fit some ballast in there? Should I ditch the spendy metal brackets and frame the post support with 2x4s? Should I just go buy a $50 one that someone has already made and admit I have no carpentry skills? And finally, does anyone care?

[Nick]

Make it. Then you will have some carpentry skills. But as video games have taught me, you will need to make 15 of these before you will be able to learn to make anything new.

It might take some tweaking to gets the bikes to hang right, but I think it will work.

[zourtney]

I've got a free Sunday coming up...

[Nick]

I might too. Make a stand and do some riding (time permitting) Now I need a bike rack for my motorcycle.