Simple DIY Vertical Bike Holder

I have two mountain bikes stored in the basement. They take up quite a lot of space and are a pain to access or put back (they fall over all the time etc..). So today I found a simple solution for that, which might be useful for others.

This reduced the space used on the ground by about two thirds and it’s very easy to put the bikes up or take them down. I just push the front wheel in up there and it sticks! To get them down I pull the back wheel back and the front wheel pops right out. And the thing takes just an hour or so to build.

Anyway, if you want to make something like this you’ll need:

• some planks
• a saw
• screws+screwdriver / drill or hammer+nails

That’s it!

So the first plank you cut off just about as long as the handlebar of the bike. You might want to make it even longer to make it more stable (not a problem for two bikes).

Now, before sawing these two, try balancing the bike in question on the back wheel. They need to be at least as long as the horizontal gap between the front and the back wheel while balanced. Same thing as with the previous one – the longer the more stable. And if they’re too long you can always cut them shorter later. Once they’re cut screw or nail ‘em together.

A no-brainer. Cut it long enough so the front wheel can touch it while the bike is vertically.

For the pads I found some planks just about as thick as my tires. Put them right where the front wheel touches the main plank. After securing the first one, put the other one with a gap just a bit smaller than the width of your tire. My tires are about 5cm wide so a 4.5cm gap was perfect to hold the front wheel safely. I had to do some experimenting with these tho.

By now hopefully your enjoying sticking the front tire between the pads. Now for the tricky part. You need to add this bar so that the bike is just a bit off-balance to the back (so that it rolls forward if you let it go) and the bar should stop it from doing so.

Last but not least: the main plank in the back was bending too much for me, throwing the bike off-balance easily. So this last bar holds the whole thing together. A bit hard to saw off the plank in those angles without any measurements but it turned out fine somehow in my case. Mine is about a forth of the board in the back in length and it still holds great, so it doesn’t really need to be long. You might also want to take a wider plank than my bar so you can “drive up” the bike on it while putting it in place.

And you’re done! Just be sure not to get a flat, it might be a bit hard to make it stick in there then ^^;