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the 80mm-wide storage rack, where it is then lowered into place on the pallet rack horizontal spans and the stacker withdrawn.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

 

Understoood.

There are a few "fleet" owners on this forum who could benifit from this idea.

 

Hello JZH!

Just now saw your thread (I don't get out much from the 2nd Gen sub-forum ) and I think it's a great idea.

I have a fairly large "accumulation" and have been racking my brain how to better utilize the space I am currently paying for at my storage units.

I really need to thin the herd but that takes time (in theory) so in the meanwhile I was thinking of using an electric hoist to simply raise them above head.

I hate the whole idea of having so many bikes, I'm 'forced' into this kind of thinking but it is what it is.

Here's an example of how my storage units are constructed. You can see they have these very sturdy steel beams overhead to which a hoist could be attached.

Use straps to tie off the bike once it's up?

Then relocate the hoist for the next bike.

I have 2 units...each 15'x30' with electric.

Good friend of mine said to me if I sell 3 bikes per year --- in 10 years my problem will be gone....lol....

I'm also working on something at my property that would work but that will take a little more time.

I don't mean to hijack your thread - just trying to brain storm and get some feedback - and then I will leave.

Thanks!
Bazza




And the hoist would be something like this.......

 

Looks like you may have enough room to stack some bikes, but it will be close. But if you can use an electric hoist all you'd need is some heavy duty shelving capable of supporting ca. 300kg per bike.

I had initially considered building an overhead gantry system inside my garage space, but I decided I'd need to commission an engineer to design it so that I didn't inadvertently pull down my 250 year-old Dutch house!

Ciao,

JZH

 

Thanks - but trying NOT to have to build any shelving. Thinking I'd just hang the bike up by itself, providing I can strap it without doing any damage to it's components. Then there's the concern about damage to the suspension with the wheels left to dangle.

I have quite a few parts I could do this for, even if I don't use it on bikes. I have wheels, tires, frames, exhaust systems, - stuff that takes up room that I wouldn't need on an "urgent" basis I could hoist up there. I'm going to give more thought.

Thanks for your thread - it helped nudge me in a direction I hadn't been before......

 

No problem. Suspending heavy stuff from a roof can be a dodgy proposition, because most roof supports are designed only to do that: support the roof!

Sure, in theory floors have the same issue, but most floors are a lot more "overbuilt" than roofs...

Meanwhile, I've been pricing up the steel I need to buy and I've been very pleased to find a Dutch company (van Delft Staal) that stocks "b-grade" and even used metal in all kinds of shapes and sizes. Assuming it's not too "second-hand", I should be able to save a lot of money vs. buying everything all shiny and new. Now I just have to find a source for Argon/CO2 this side of the puddle, and I'll be ready to melt some metal.

Ciao,

JZH

 

https://www.gasflessen.nl/lasmiddelen/

John, this company sells both cilinders and refills and is very close to Leiden.

 

Thanks, I will check it out. After some research, I have purchased a pre-filled Finnish mixed Argon/CO2 gas cylinder from a Polish company via Amazon (like you do, living in the EU).

NL has a weird standard for the valve thread on its Argon gas cylinders. It's not the same as Germany's (nor the UKs, nor the US's...), but it is the same as Finland's! (Specifically, for Argon NL uses DIN 477.10, as opposed to DIN 477.6, which are W24.32 x 1/14" and W21.8 x 1/14", respectively. Yes, these DIN specifications are indeed British Whitworth imperial thread forms...) The larger thread is actually the regular European DIN standard for Nitrogen gasses; no idea why NL and Finland decided to also use it for Argon gasses. The bottom line is, if I want to get a cylinder re-filled in the Netherlands, it will be easier if it has the correct thread on it.

So, I've now got the gas, I've got the correct fittings for my regulator, I've got the steel, I've got the MIG welder, I've got the Fireball Tools welding tables, etc. And ten motorcycles clearing NL customs in less than two weeks...

(So I rented a storage unit.)



I realised a couple of weeks ago that I wasn't going to get the racks built in time. Too much to do, and no extra room in which to do it.

I brought the blue bike over from the UK, though. It's strange having two almost identical bikes (Y2k and 2001) in the same place--but I've found it is very useful to have an immediate source of spare parts I can swap between them!

Ciao,

JZH