Hang your bike from garage joists

Let’s face it: bicycles are a pain to store. They’re long from front to back. They seem narrow from side to side, but they have handlebars and chains and pedals sticking out. They have breakable parts. They tip over. And so on.

We have developed a seasonal tradition of making our bikes readily available in the front of the garage during the summer, then moving the car into that space during the winter. That means putting the bikes away around Thanksgiving. But where? In general I’ve been trying to hang as many things as possible off the floor, and that’s what I did with the bikes. I made a simple, flexible system to hang our five bikes upside-down from the garage joists.

This solution requires my specific kind of garage, namely, one with exposed joists and space beneath them. For the racks themselves, the only materials needed are 2 x 4 boards, screws, and large hooks to hang the bikes by their wheel rims. For power tools, I used a cordless drill and miter saw, though a circular saw would work (and even a hand saw could probably do the job, very slowly).

I started by measuring the distance from the front axle to the rear axle, which would be the distance to set the hooks. Each bike is different, so each of the racks had to be a slightly different size. It’s not a bad idea to label each rack when it’s complete so that you know which bike goes on which hooks.

My joists are 32 inches apart, so a bike with an axle dimension smaller than about 36 inches can’t be hung in this way. Our adult and teen bikes fit fine but a child’s bike might need a different solution.

Anyway, once I had that axle dimension, it was just a matter of measuring everything and putting it together. The rack consists of a long board that spans two joists, a shorter piece at each end for added stability and strength, and two hooks.

First I cut the longer boards, adding six inches to the axle measurement so that the hooks would be installed three inches from each end. For example, if the bike axles were 42 inches apart, I cut the board 48 inches long.

Then I cut two six-inch 2×4 blocks for each long piece. I drilled small holes near the corners for screws and a larger hole right in the center for the hook. Actually, if you’re paying attention, you can use some of the scrap pieces from the long boards for the six-inch cleats to reduce the overall waste.

I screwed a six-inch piece to each end of the long board, then screwed a hook into each of those pieces. The hooks need to be fairly large to hold the wheels, and they have to hang down enough so that you can slip the rims into them. I used these hooks with a rubberized coating. At $7 apiece, the hooks are the main expense of this very inexpensive project.

(In the picture I have the hooks going opposite ways, which I thought might make them hold more securely, but having them the same direction has worked better.)

One bike was a little short, so I had to use four-inch wood pieces on each end instead of six-inch pieces. When the rack is complete, it goes over the rafter and the hooks hang down to hold the bike.

A final caution: hoisting a bike upside-down over your head is awkward at best and possibly dangerous. Try to find a friend or unwitting spouse to help with the lift.

When the bikes are in place, they hang about five to six feet off the floor. Walking underneath isn’t comfortable, but storing things under them works fine. One big advantage is that the racks are easily movable, so I can quickly shift a bike to a different spot. Most importantly, I’ve cleared out some of that valuable real estate on the garage floor.

P.S. — This bike hanging system was not my idea. My dad got me started on it, based on something he had seen online. I couldn’t find the source when I wrote this post, but soon afterwards I discovered these instructions from Family Handyman. Check out the link for their version of the bike rack, along with several other easy garage storage ideas.