Multiple bike storage at work

I've been tasked with suggesting some new bike storage for our underground bike parking area and I would like some ideas, if anyone knows of anything good.

Currently we have the sort of stand where your front wheel sits in a kind of squashed hoop of metal that is approx 4ft off the floor and your back wheel is held in a kind metal gulley. The result is that your bike is held at a 45 degree angle, saving space etc. The only problem with this is that the hoops have clearly not been made with 700c wheels in mind. Because they don't sit in the hoop as deeply as a smaller wheel does, they are balanced so delicately that the slightest knock has the bike falling backwards and on to the floor. This usually results in at least one or two other bikes being taken with the first and on to the floor. I don't use them any more because of the risk of my bike ending up at the bottom of a pile of bikes and the same is true of a number of people that use the racks now. I want to get these changed to something more sturdy, easier to use and less likely to smash my bike up.

There are restrictions to the space we have available. We're using a car park and space is at a premium. We've been offered another standard size space to convert to bike storage so I need to find something that will allow us to store as many bikes as possible in the space. I was thinking about some hooks that hold the front wheel and then some sort of floor based storage so that a lot of bikes fit in there.

Any ideas gratefully received.

Ben

Are these threads any help - quite old, so some of the photolinks have now expired, but we've talked about it before.

http://www.londonfgss.com/thread2077.html
http://www.londonfgss.com/thread1739.html

Cheers Snowy, I was aware of those, I posted in one of them, I just seemed to recall that they were more about home storage than large scale, heavier duty type stuff.

The rotary rack found here is pretty cool though and could do the trick for the one car space: http://www.velomann.com/en/page_422.html It holds ten bikes and looks pretty beefy.

Aye, you're probably right. The Rotary looks good, but some of my colleagues here would struggle with it (frankly they struggle with many simple things, but that's a different matter). Getting a heavy MTB onto one of those might be hard for some people, so maybe give them a range of choices? And it would take more than one lock to secure it wouldn't it?

I have work with the rotary, is good, but need to be fix properly to the floor, adn
I mean properly. The first time the fix them in my work the took a month to get loose and fuck. The handy-man had to drill a proper hole and use some kind of glue with the bolt, since them very good.
About your collegues and heavy bikes, I have in mine girls with Dutch kind of bikes, they wieght a ton (bouth the girls and the bikes :p) and at the end there is always someone to give them a hand, we finish at the same time.

Yeah, this is the concern that I've been having. People find the existing racks hard to use because they require the user to lift their bike up and put the front wheel into the hoop, this demands even more effort.

On the other hand I don't really care about anyone else, or their bikes. I think that offering other solutions will be necessary for sure though.

I do lock my bike but we're in a secure underground car park with 24/7 security and remote controlled access shutters so I generally only lock to one point for the inconvenience it would cause some would be thief.

Well half the week I also use a secure underground carpark (next to MI6), with swipe card access and cameras, plus fag moking secuity guards, but that hasn't stopped someone from trying to undo the pitlock on my front wheel last week. I've had to bring an extra chain in to leave at that office.

Are you sure it happened there though?

I know what you're saying though, the tenacity of some thieves should never be underestimated.

Yeah, I realised that was all a bit negative. Wheel was fine on the ride to work that morning, and I'd hoisted it about a bit to get it to fit amongst the heaps of bikes downstairs. There's a steep slope out of the carpark and as I was pulling on the bars there was a noticeable wobble. Its a new skewer thing, so I hadn't got to the point of scratching the metal nut end, but someone else had... / Scooby Doo noises appear at this point, but I've not enabled them on this pc. :p /

I guess the advantage of the guards is that someone **had **been interrupted, but it doesn't help having an access door that stays open if there's a reasonable breeze.

http://home.trtc.com.tw/HOME92/news_img/1283.JPG (tilts for easy access.. the rack not the woman)

+

it doesn't help having an access door that stays open if there's a reasonable breeze.

Ah, I see. That is not helpful at all is it. We've got a remotely controlled metal roller shutter, no card access, so it rules out the main problem when these things are left to staff members: staff members not doing what they are supposed to and letting people tailgate etc etc.