As loyal readers know, Bike Girl has quite a stable of bikes. This stable of bikes poses a storage problem in her tiny studio apartment.
That's right, Bike Girl's job as a fearless protagonist is not a particularly highly-paid position. While some would call her co-habitation with the bikes "cozy," Bike Girl often fantasizes about the day when she will be able to afford her fantasy bike storage solution.
If Bike Girl had unlimited resources, she would expand her collection and have a climate controlled chamber for each bike. While she's at it, she may as well hire several attractive mechanics to clean each chain link of each bike after every ride, and keep less-often-used steeds at their shiniest by wiping them down with cloth diapers each day.
If Bike Girl had more realistic, but greater resources, she would get a two bedroom apartment, with one bedroom for tucking in her bicycles. This room would have hanging bike storage on the walls, and included a workbench and stand so Bike Girl could get grease under her fingernails.
In lieu of a whole room just for bikes, Bike Girl would like a living room with extremely high ceilings. If she had that, she could use her cunning to create a pulley system like this.
But until Bike Girl breaks out of the lower middle class, she will continue climbing over her Girl Bike each morning, banging her head on the touring frame behind the couch, and pretending her go-fast bike is some sort of modern art piece, hanging on her wall.
Our fair protagonist wants to know how her readers store their bikes. She encourages them to leave comments.
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11 comments:
Hi there,
It's funny you pose this question because my hubby and I were just talking about this very thing. We live in a small Hollywood one bedroom. It's just not safe to lock our bike up outdoors. Wait, we don't have bikes yet, but I'm in the market and I told him to get one too. His concern is figuring where to store it. At this point, I think I'll move a small desk that is on a lone wall and a bike could go there, and then one could go behind the couch (between table and couch-open floor plan). I figure this will work and when we have guests, the bedroom the bikes will go.
SUCKS! Storage issues suck!
HI!
I've been lurking awhile but here's a post I can de-lurk on!
We used to live in a tiny one bedroom apartment on the top floor of a converted old house (in UK). My and my partner's bikes (a grand total of 2 - we're dreaming about a second one each) were stored, hamperingly, in the hallway.
We moved into a two bedroom house that has a 'lean-to' - a tiny add-on room that is also our greenhouse. In the lean-to are lots of pot-plants, the washing machne, a basin, all our shoes, miscellaneous cardboard boxes and our two bikes, again, hampering our access to the outside!
I'd just like a garage, with big deep shelves for all our random bike, camping and climbing gear, and walls I can affix things, like a bike hanger, to - we rent so cannot hammer / screw things into walls :-(
Love your blog!
I used to keep my main ride locked up on my porch until one night I lucked into timing a last look out the front window before bed that coincided with two shadowy youths creeping up the front steps to steal it. Now my singlespeeder stays inside. My road bike and my wife's bike and my mountain bike are locked up With cable locks and ulocks in our locked garage.
The rack I use in the garage for my roadie and my wife's is the same floor-to-ceiling tension-fitted rack that I used inside the tiny one-bedroom I lived in prior to where I'm now.
Looks sorta like this:
http://tinyurl.com/owaktp
My husband and I have a total of 4 bikes in a medium sized one-bedroom apartment, and a not-insignificant desire for more. As he rides to work every day (and I ride a few days a week), the only time there is space to move around the living room is when no one is there! The road bikes get prime real estate, propped up behind the mid-room couch, and against a bookcase, so hubby can easily work on them in the evening. The other two are up against the picture window (who needs to see outside?) and blocking his giant tool chest in the corner.
We've often talked of the day one of us makes enough so we can move into a lovely 2-bedroom, one bedroom being for bikes of course!
I just stumbled across your blog.
Interesting question - No right answer.
Well, I too store some bikes inside my humble abode. I keep one in the laundry room - one in my bedroom and another one in the living room.
Keeping my bikes group together seemed to take alot of space so that is why I keep them all separated.
Hope the best for your storage situation
Before I got a bike, this was my biggest concern! I have no garage space where I can park a bike (cars only!), no porch, I can't put largeish things into the walls and I have nothing that resembles a hall, laundry room or anything like that in my 1 bedroom apartment. Now I have 2 bikes and they sit in my bedroom, against a small couch that I never sit on. The space going to the bikes is worth it, so I don't mind it too much. When my boyfriend brings his bike over, it can get a little awkward to move around the apartment.
Hi,
You can squeeze a few more into the apartment by getting folding bikes.
Seriously though, folks. Before assuming something is wrong with them because they are unconventional, try a few good ones out. They might be just work for you. No worries about theft, or loss, or space. Put under your desk, behind the sofa, in the luggage rack on the train, in your trunk for the beach... and then just unfold for a sweet ride:
Best,
-cvj
http://asymptotia.com/2009/02/24/bikes-and-the-city-2/
First year of college, I lofted my bed (like bunk beds but just the top bunk) and had between 3 and 5 bikes underneath, depending on who needed a loaner bike or what I was riding. My roommate didn't seem to mind, but he was rather surprised I could fit that many in our tiny dorm room.
I unfortunately have all 14, no all 15 of the family bikes in my living/dining room. We used to keep 3 of them outside but someone tried to steal them. We keep talking about selling some of them so that our daughter can reach her toys on the shelves, but cannot decide which ones to let go. I am only just getting into bikes but I cannot seem to stop looking at them like I look at shoes.(which I should add cost more than most of our bikes and are much larger in quantity)
where to put bikes...
i've got an average size one bedroom apartment and keep three bikes in it. two of them are hung on a rack that holds one just inches above the floor and another above it. so, if you have space against a wall for one, you should have space for two.
the other sits in a stand that holds it upright by the chain and seat stays.
my other bikes are in the garage. i could keep them all there, but i like bikes inside.
The storage of my dreams would be some sort of princess bed for the bikes. i think they should clearly be indoors and have some comfort.
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