Vertical Bike Storage Options
Topeak Dual Touch Bike Stand & Feedback Sports Velo Wall Rack 2D
The beginning of this year my family made a big housing change. We couldn’t be happier but it’s a very small space and the question was how do we manage 6 bikes in such a small space. The answer to any storage in a small space is to go vertical and use space that would otherwise go to waste. The vertical bike storage options I chose were the Topeak Dual Touch Bike Stand with the Third Hook as well as the Feedback Sports Velo Wall Rack 2D.
I started with the Topeak Dual Touch Bike Stand in our laundry room. The 9ft ceiling gives just enough extra room. When utilizing the third hook to add space for a third bike there are details to be aware of. Each hook on the Dual Touch Bike Stand can handle 39.7lbs and the whole stand tops out at 158.7lbs. I don’t have any bikes that come close to challenging that weight rating but I did consider hanging the Kuat Transfer 3 Bike Rack. It’s well over the weight ratings.
Using the Topeak Dual Touch Bike Stand requires consideration of vertical space as well as weight limits.
What’s more likely to be an issue for people is actually fitting three bikes on the pole. It’s got a vertical adjustment limit of 320cm (~10.5ft) but limit is going to be the ceiling height. With a 9ft ceiling I can only just fit two adult bikes and a child’s bike with a 24” wheel. If you don’t have tall ceilings there’s no chance more than two bikes will fit.
Assuming your bikes will fit setting up the unit is easy. Find a ceiling joist and expand the center of the Dual Touch Bike Stand so that it’s tight between the floor and ceiling. Next use the lock/unlock foot stepper and it’ll tighten everything a bit more. At this point everything should feel pretty solid. There is a torque spec for the center adjuster so I played it safe and tightened it to spec. That sets the main support but it will take quite a bit of adjustment to get the bikes sitting where you’d like them and at the right angle.
Because the Topeak Dual Touch Bike Stand rests against the floor it is possible to mount it if there isn’t a joist in the perfect spot.
In my case I didn’t have a joist where I needed it so I had to improvise a bit. I did snug up the Dual Touch Bike Stand against the drywall and there were no ill effects. I was being extra careful though and I wanted to get things as tight as possible. It seemed very possible to crack the drywall with the foot stepper. I solved this problem by screwing a piece of ½” plywood to the joists to spread the load out.
It’s at this point that I was pretty nervous. Everything felt solid but vertical bike storage feels scary to me. It’s been a month since that first nervous day and nothing has moved. The Topeak Dual Touch Bike Stand is where my wife’s bike and my city bike live. Those two are the heaviest in the house and it is rock solid. Three bikes in 9ft is very tight but it does work.
Next up was tackling the serious bikes. These are the bikes that get used the most and are the most valuable. Between the three bikes hanging on the Topeak Dual Touch and one bike on a Saris H3 smart trainer the laundry room was full. That left only the walls in the main house available. I looked for something made of wood with a nice shelf but I wasn’t able to find quite the right solution. Both my road bike and gravel bike have sloping top tubes and most of the nice wood designs I found have a straight top tube in mind. I also struggled to find anything with appropriate padding and space to maneuver the large frame tubes of a modern bike.
A wall mounted bike rack that can accommodate modern carbon frame shapes can be challenging to find.
The solution I arrived at is the Feedback Sports Velo Wall Rack 2D. The design of the Velo Wall Rack 2D allows each arm to move separately. There is adjustment vertically to account for sloping top tubes and the length of each arm has separate adjustment. Flat bar bikes should work just as well as drop bar bikes and steep tops tube angle are no problem. At the end of each support arm is a soft rubber cradle. The cradles can handle a wide carbon aero top tube as well as a narrower aluminum tube. There’s also a relief channel to accommodate externally routed cables along the top tube.
Mounting of the Velo Wall Rack 2D is equally easy compared to the Topeak Dual Touch Bike Stand. The big difference is that the Velo Wall Rack requires drilling into the wall. If you are renting the Feedback Sports option likely isn’t going to work. It’s also worth noting that there’s no room for fudging a solid mounting point. Make sure you find the stud in the wall. The only thing supporting your bikes are the screws into the wall.
I was nervous to hang my bikes but they have remained safe.
Like with the Topeak I was nervous to put a very expensive bike on the wall. It’s why I’ve resisted vertical bike storage up until now. This time it felt even more of a risk. The bikes involved are more expensive and the mounting seems more precarious. Thankfully this is another happy story. After a month or so of use everything has remained rock solid. The only critique I can offer is that the front wheel does sometimes rotate away from the wall. Finding the balance to keep the wheel from moving, without scratching the brake levers, takes time.
I’m definitely not the only one in the world trying to fit a bunch of bikes in a small space. There are a lot of vertical bike storage options on the market. So many that it felt overwhelming to research everything. Once I finally settled on a couple of solutions, I felt some trepidation about hanging my bikes. In the end though I was able to make it work. The Feedback Sports Velo Wall Rack 2D and the Topeak Dual Touch Bike Stand with the Third Hook are solid solutions. If you need to store your bikes vertically these will do the trick.
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