Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Re: Bike locker designs

[Deborah Mensch (deborahmensch]

I will be the first to say that our bike locker isn't working very well for
most users, mostly because it isn't big enough for all our bikes, but read
on for some ideas that may help.

Most of our bikes are stored in the hanging-on-the-wall fashion that the
first person below described, but we don't have any alternation, and our
hooks are farther apart. It seems like spacing the hooks a little more
widely would address the problems Eris mentions.

We also have some folks, including kids, who can't lift their bikes up to
the hooks. For them we have a standing-up bike rack against the back wall of
the bike shed (adult bikes are hung along both sides). The main problem with
this is there's not enough of it -- too many bikes for the available rack
space. (This is partly because we don't have enough hooks! We're working on
planning a second bike shed to alleviate the cramped quarters.)

I have an idea for helping with our main difficulty with the wall-hung
bikes, which is that they are able to swing back and forth, and thus can get
in the way of removing other bikes, or even damage them. Here's the idea: I
used to get to work on a shuttle bus with a 6-bike rack on the back. It was
similar to the wall-hook system, except that it also had slots down below
where the non-hanging wheel would fit in, to keep the bike from swinging
back and forth. Picture a wood or metal thing shaped sort of like a giant
tuning fork (but with wider, sturdier sides, and a little bit of a V-shape
to the opening to facilitate getting the wheel in there), sticking straight
out from the wall just below the height where the lower wheel's axle falls
when the bike is hanging. You hang the bike by one wheel (usually the
front), and then ease the other wheel into the tuning-fork slot. This might
help steady the wall-hanging bikes to make getting other bikes out easier.
Not every bike with special equipment would fit in slots like these, so you
might want a few hooks without slots. You also have to make sure the slots
are plenty wide enough for mountain-bike tires to avoid tire damage. Slots
could be cut from thick plywood and affixed to the wall with angle brackets,
for a low-budget solution.

One thing we've done that DOES work is to assign wall-hanging spots near the
door for our residents who commute on their bikes or otherwise use them 4 or
more times per week. This means less struggling past other stuff, and
perhaps less problem with improperly hung bikes, since those folks do it all
the time. If they start riding less often, they give up their spots to
someone who rides more often.

Deborah Mensch
Pleasant Hill Cohousing

On 11/16/05, Eris Weaver <erisw [at] sonic.net> wrote:
>
> > A relatively neat and efficient way to
> > organize bikes is to hang them on hooks by their wheel. In
> > such a system, bikes are alternated handlebar up/down, hooks
> > are marked with the proper orientation, and hooks need to be
> > spaced about 14in minimum w/ 14in on each end of the hooks.
>
> We have a similar system and it is NOT working for us very well. Bikes
> with baby seats on the back or touring handlesbars take up more than the
> alloted width; kids bikes and stroller tend to accumulate in FRONT of
> the hung-up bikes; some people don't have the strength to lift their
> bikes that high; the alternate spaces don't get used because of the
> width issue; etc.
>
> It works OK as STORAGE but if you use your bike every day it is a job to
> move others out of the way and wrestle your out.
>
> ANybody have any other system that works?
>
> *******************************************
> Eris Weaver erisw [at] sonic.net
> FrogSOng
>
> "The cure for anything is saltwater -
> sweat, tears, or the sea."
> - Isak Dinesen
>
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