Inside or Out! Cyclists dating non cyclists

All indoors, even my fairweather cyclist fiancée insists on keeping her bike indoors.

Asgard shed in garden with four bikes and Bikmo insurance. GF is nice and I can keep commuter in hallway when it’s being used, I always make sure it’s clean and as out of the way as possible. I also built her up a really nice bike which she would be devastated to lose, so understands the security concerns. Two way street...

My GF is not even close to being a cyclist (she only learned to ride a bike by the time she turned 27) as it’s not very common to use a bike where she’s from. It might be a bit different for me as I work in the cycling industry so she knows bikes are an important part of both my life and our income. She never complains about any of my bikes. I always make sure the bikes are clean which probably helps. I’ve “sacrificed” one of our bathrooms to store the Baum and any other bike I get in from work. The daily commuter (Bombtrack) is kept in the downstairs garage which is part of the house.

So far we’ve lived in three different houses in two different countries and I’ve always been able to come up with a solution. It’s a matter of willing to listen and understand each other. To be fair, I did make her a walk-in closet in every house so far. I wouldn’t call it a comprise, I’d rather go for an understanding .

She's wrong.

New partner time. New bike too while you're at it.

I'm also more stubborn than normal people. I told the missus since the early days 'bikes were here before you, deal with it'. Two of the bikes in our bedroom are now hers. She even has spare wheels. #youknowyouareacyclistwhen

It's not like you're asking to bring your gamer chair in her Art Déco living room.

Thats mine and @6pt ‘s relationship

She sounds like a bitch, fuck her off...

Having bikes outside drastically reduces their functionality. If you secure your functional bike out front you need so many locks that it adds about 10 minutes to popping down the shops with all the unlocking and locking. If you keep them out back then you have the hassle of dragging them through/round the house to go out for a couple of hours' exercise.

I can see grubby bikes and piles of bike stuff being an issue, but if you wan't to have a nice bike it has to go inside in London, there's really not that many alternatives.

Make a deal - you get to have bikes inside but they have to be reasonably clean and perhaps stored out of the way?

explain you will wash the bike in the shower/bath every day to keep it clean

I only have the one fairly expensive bike, it currently lives above the stairs on a wall mount.
This will be tricky once we extend in to the loft as this space will disappear.
The turbo lives in a cupboard in the bathroom, that also houses the boiler. I use the turbo in the bathroom, this works well as its a wipe clean area.
My advice would be don't expect it to be indoors but work hard on finding a way that it can be, if that's what you really want. This might be choosing a more elaborate decorative bike hanger that looks better when your bike isn't there or perhaps a location that you might not immediately consider. It might be in your next property...?

No bikes, no hugs.
Should be fairly simple for her.

Mine go in the garage. I’ll rent you space for your bike and a camp bed and you’ve solved both of your problems

On a cycling forum, it's unanimous.
Now try asking on a women with clean carpets and walls forum and see what they say.

Let mumsnet decide

Let mumsnet decide

Mumsnet overrule LFGSS

The 'what tyre pressure' thread on mumsnet is particularly good

I think you misread “what pram pressure”.

When I had a one bed flat I kept it inside. This was before I properly started getting into bikes though & only had one! Was a bit of a faff squeezing it in a very small lift though.

Bought a house this year, & when we were looking for a house earlier this year, a room for bikes was a vital on the list. Never kept them outside - nearly all of the bikes are steel so wouldn't feel happy knowingly keeping them in a potentially rusty place.

Current bike room in our three bed semi in Leeds. Hoping to extend into the redundant driveway for room for more bikes (maybe even a cargo bike) & a workshop in the new year.

When my girlfriend lived in her flat, she used to keep bikes in the hall - upstairs behind two locked doors (requiring different keys) & she still had two nicked. Kept them in the second bedroom after that, even with the inconvenience of carrying a bike up stairs & through five doors, it was better than risking leaving them outside. Became a bit of a pain when I got into riding off road & had to do that trek with a muddy bike. Thank goodness for our outdoor tap these days.

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you get to rule out one of her items from being allowed inside?

I'd start with her.

Please tell me you're planning to sort that room out and its current state is temporary...

The plan is to at least double the width of the room, then figure out a neater way of arranging the bikes (hooks maybe). In the meantime it's a lot neater - the knack is in the tessellation.

add more bikes.

A friend in our group of cyclists has an even bigger room for bikes. This from a post-alleycat BBQ/houseparty a few years back. I think tyres marks on walls are a standard in LSF.

Edit: spoke card at the bottom is the brevet card for the alleycat, heh.

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Tesselation is my new word of the day :-)

First thing I thought was high shelf on the back wall, with hooks (alternating front wheels and rear wheels), that's at least 4 bikes (maybe 2 with the washing machine), then using the left side side was to store at least 2 bikes horizontally, and maybe one of two more on the right using pedal hooks. Ikea Ivar is a good base to hack for vertical bike storage.