Elevated Bike Storage Thread

I recently bought an old house in the Netherlands and I'm slowly transforming my ground-floor garage (under the house) into a useful bike storage area and light workshop. However, floor space limitations mean I have to get most of my bikes off the floor, so I have decided to take advantage of the 3.5m ceiling height and store 6-8 bikes on pallet racks installed adjacent to three of the walls.

I'm going to buy an electric pallet stacker (which will store neatly with its forks going under the stairs next to the garage) and I'm currently building the first set of pallet racks. The idea is that I load each bike onto a fabricated "sled" which (a) safely supports the bike by the front wheel and (b) drops onto the pallet rack where its c-channel frame positively engages with the pallet rack's horizontal spans.

I'm not completely crazy. After I shared and developed this idea with my colleagues on VFRD about a year ago I learned of an Australian company which had probably been developing a similar idea for some time (based on its numerous patent applications!), which proves the concept, but is ridiculously inferior to mine, lol.

Here's the latest version of the sled. I've been refining the design to correspond to materials available to me here in NL and my limited fabrication equipment, skills and experience.

(The bike-holding part is not shown, because it uses the Baxley Wheel Chock knock-off parts I already have--but that works very well. I might add an extra rear wheel strap, just in case...)



So, the idea is that the bike rolls onto the sled, and the front wheel is pinched by the wheel rotating chock thingamajig (which is attached to the angled brackets on the center cross member) and blocked/braced by the front bracket (which is bolted to the front cross member), with the rear wheel sitting on the sheet metal spanning the two rear cross members. Then the pallet stacker is maneuvered into the standard forklift openings and the bike is lifted ~2m above and over the 80mm-wide storage rack, where it is then lowered into place on the pallet rack horizontal spans and the stacker withdrawn.

The sled is made from mild steel box section, in some cases plasma-cut into two c-channels. The rails are 60x60x3 (split), the bridges are made from 100x60x3 (notched) and 180x180x5 (split) and the cross members are 40x20x3. I have provided for casters, but that would complicate loading the bikes, so I probably won't fit them.

I'm pretty confident that this design will be strong enough to support all my bikes (apart from the ST1300!) but I'd appreciate any feedback before I fire up the MIG, as the bikes are now going to be delivered to my small garage at the end of July!

Cheers,

JZH

 

Thanks, Mello, and I hear the concern in your message. Yes, now that I think about it, I agree wholeheartedly that the "bridge" sections can be extended further in both directions. Perhaps 80-100mm? I was trying to reduce the bulk of the sled, but I don't want it folding like a book 2m in the air, either...

Ciao,

JZH

 

may I suggest boxing in the "bridging" with a flat member across the bottom of the opening?

 

You may, but unfortunately, the way a pallet stacker works (unlike a forklift), if the sled is sitting on the floor for loading, the stacker's "legs" have to roll through those openings under the sled before the lifting forks can pick it up off the floor. My first sled design (shared on VFRD last year) had completely missed this critical difference!

I will probably buy one like this one:


So I have to live with the openings and just make the sled strong and rigid enough to support the bike's weight, which will be located on each side of the fork opening "bridge".

But like I mentioned above (I was trying to be funny, but that obviously didn't work!), I think I will extend the bridge section (which will be made from 100x60x3 rectangular steel tubing) at least as far as the closest crossmembers. If, when I make the prototype sled, the material doesn't seem up to the task, I can instead use 100x60x5, which is also available and should be substantially stronger.

FYI, the pallet stacker is rated for 1200kg, the pallet racks are rated for 2,200kg (per span) and VFRs weigh ca. 250kg. I will be storing no more than three bikes across two spans per garage wall. I'm not worried about the racks or the stacker...

Ciao,

JZH