This weekend we spent a couple hours installing bicycle lifts to store 2 bikes in our garage by hanging them from the rafters. With a pulley and catch system, they are easy to lower and go for a ride, and easy to lift back up again.
Our garage is a very small two-car garage. My goal is to one day have two cars in that garage, but right now there is just too much stuff in the way, so we are slowly moving anything and everything that we can up and out of the way. This weekend it was our daughters’ bikes.
They just recently learned how to ride bikes, and we are so proud of them. We want the bikes easy for them to get so they can practice riding whenever we have time. We’re hoping that soon they will be riding their bikes to school on most days.
We found these bicycle lifts, and they are exactly what we needed. Not too hard to install. They lift the bikes up where we have more room in our garage. And they are easy enough for our kids to use.
The Bicycle Lift came with almost everything we needed. The few tools we used were:
The lift hooks onto the bicycle handle bars and the back of the bicycle seat, so we measured the distances between the two. We then screwed the two pulleys onto the 2X4 that distance apart.
We attached the 2X4 to the rafters in the garage (actually, we laid the board across the rafters and then used Liquid Nails to make sure it wouldn’t move).
Next we threaded the rope through the pulleys and the hooks.
Next we tested lifting the bike up and down with the pulley. The rope seemed kind of long when the bike was up, but when it came down, it used most of the rope, so we couldn’t shorten it.
When you take the bike off the bicycle lift, the hooks fall to the floor which is not helpful. So my brilliant husband lowered the bike to the ground, then tied a knot in the rope up by the pulley so the rope wouldn’t let the hooks fall.
My girls spent the next half hour at least raising and lowering their bikes with their new bicycle lift. Who knew a storage solution could be so much fun!
What storage solutions have you used in your garage? I’d love to hear them. My garage can use all the help it can get! Tell us about your ideas in the comments.
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