How to Store Your Bicycle Outside Your House
In a shed: A shed will keep the rain off your bike, but many are absurdly easy to break into. If the door can’t be sprung open with a pry-bar, the thief can often unscrew the door at the hinges. Many sheds come with a raised wooden floor, which isn’t what you want: you need to site the shed straight onto concrete so that you can embed wall anchors in the floor. If you lock one bike to the wall anchor and the other bikes to that bike, you might only need one anchor point. While some anchors will fit into wood, wooden sheds aren’t tough enough to offer much security. If the shed has a window, cover it from the inside so the potential thief can’t see what’s in there.
A dedicated bike store: Unlike sheds, which you walk into, bike stores are only designed to hold bikes so they can fit into less space. They range from tinfoil-thick boxes up to business-style cycle lockers with four-figure price tags. We’d recommend supplementing is security – which isn’t bad, to be honest – with concrete-floor-embedded ‘wall’ anchors.
Note: Any padlock or D-lock that’s exposed to the elements will need oiling at regular intervals to prevent ft seizing up.
The garage
This is what non-garage owning cyclists dream of. You can now store as many bikes as you like! It’s possible, but inconvenient, to lean them several deep against each other. Ideally you want to be able to access all of them, with the heaviest and most regularly used bikes sited so they’re easiest to get at.
Wall hooks: You can buy simple plastic-coated bike hooks cheaply, but specialist hooks tend to be a lot sturdier, and as they stick out further – i.e. half or more the width of your bike’s handlebars – they offer the option of hanging the bike by the top tube. Wheel supports: These can be divided into two groups: those that support the bike by the wheel -like the butterfly-racks you get in old-style bike sheds -and those that hang the bike from the wheel. Since a bike wheel is much stronger concentrically than it is laterally, we prefer the latter. Hanging bikes vertically will get the most bikes into the least space (especially if you hang the bikes front wheel, back wheel, front wheel etc.), but they will of course stick out from the wall by the height of the bike. And it’s slightly harder to get them on and off the rack compared to hanging them by the top tube.
Security: If your rack (or racks) won’t allow a lock to be fitted, don’t forget wall anchors. Garages are more substantial than sheds, but often aren’t much harder to break into. If there’s more than one way into the garage, fit bolts to the bottom of the up-and-over door. Consider getting an alarm system too.
Note: If there isn’t any power in your garage, invest in a head torch. Careful use of hooks allows you to make the most of limited storage.
