When it comes to the sometimes thorny issue of storing several bicycles in one location, you usually have to sacrifice a lot of space. There are poles that let you suspend 2 or 3 bikes, wall-mounted folding hooks and roof- or ceiling-mounted hooks. Some bike storage systems rely on novel pulley systems and there are a multitude of DIY options. In common, they all provide a fixed location once the bikes are mounted and this can be limiting when you are short on space. That’s where Steadyrack comes in handy and can give you the jump over other bike rack or mount systems.
Steadyrack started in Australia, originating out of the frustrations of a dad losing his garage space to kids bikes. David Steadman came up with the Steadyrack to make it easier to store bikes in a way that is easy for almost anyone to use. The first unit was sold in 2009 and since then the brand has steadily grown worldwide.
Steadyrack make four models: the Classic, Mountain Bike, Fender and Fat Racks. The names are very self-explanatory.
Steadyrack supplied BNA with their Classic Rack, which is for ‘standard road bikes and MTBs’ and will cater for bikes with tyre width of up to 2.4″ (6cm). The box contains all the hardware you need by way of bolts, wall plugs and screws. Also enclosed is a brief, yet rather comprehensive instruction sheet. Mounting requires some drilling, so be prepared to make holes. Two bolts at the top, two at the bottom of the rack, and also two screws for the wheel block (which protects the wall from tyre marks). You will also find different holes on the rack mount need to used depending on whether you are mounting to a brick wall or a hollow gyprock wall. It is all clearly explained and easy to get right.
If you need a non-destructive way of mounting, you may have to get creative. You can’t just cut corners and use only the top holes of the rack alone as this will cause the Steadyrack mount to twist too much if you swing it to the side.
When you are all setup, getting the bikes into the mount is dead-easy and there are demonstration videos on the Steadyrack website. Once mounted, you can then swing the mounted bike to one side or the other to minimise the footprint in storage. The ability to swing the bike around will be a major plus for a lot of people, for example you can store numerous bikes close together and to remove one bike, simply push the other ones to the side and grab the bike you need. You don’t have to think about the bike and bits getting tangled. And the bikes can all be tilted to one side and simply take up less space overall.
While the racks save space once mounted, removing or putting a bike away comfortably does require some of floor space. The alternative is lifting the bike (rather than rolling it into position) and while you can do this – one of the advantages of the Steadyrack is rolling the bike into place, lifting the front wheel and securing it on the mount. In essence, the space saving only comes when everything is mounted. In normal use you still need to be able to step backwards and roll a bike off the rack to get it down. It is worth noting that when installing multiple racks, the heights can be staggered to save space so in this case, the bikes mounted higher need to be lifted up but you still swing them around.
In comparison to a pole mounted bike storage rack with two bikes, one above the other, a Steadyrack with two bikes folded to the side who occupy about the same wall / floor space. The Steadyrack advantage in this case is more easily mounting a bike or removing it from storage. If you consider lifting a 10kg bike 1.8 meters of the ground, it can get precarious when the handlebars twist, the wheels spin and you try to and keep the tyres from marking the walls. Modern racebikes with sloping typing tubes or bikes without a traditional horizontal top tubes work easily with the Steadyrack. Just roll them on and off as you would any other bike.
But wait, there’s more! If you have ever used hooks or hinges, they are not the nicest solution for hanging your nice shiny roadie/mountain bike/repainted vintage steelie on hooks. With hooks, you sacrifice your rims to the gods of rubber or plastic coatings, that can peel or crack over time. Sooner or later, a bolt head, metal part or spoke will get in the way and your pride and you will no longer be in mint condition.
The hinge mechanism is useful and is capable of 180° of swing angle. Despite this, you’re not going to get bikes flat on their side against a wall. Pedals and handlebars are naturally going to limit this angle. While testing the rack I recorded about 70° left or right (i.e 140° total). This is enough to get things tucked out of the way and appease a lot of people.
Although I mentioned that it is easy to grab one bike by moving the others out of the way when you have multiple Steadyracks set up, in reality you are moving each bike individually to get to the one you want. In reality it is still easy and quick but it is not necessarily a case of pushing one and the rest all move. Think of it as flicking through the pages of a good coffee table book on bicycles to find the one you want.
You could mount the rack without the wheel block for the bottom wheel if you were only going to use this as straight-on mount. As you swing the bike sideways, the back wheel drifts unless you have the block in place. The block at the bottom is wide enough to cater for the angular movement and keep the bike aliigned. With the narrow road cycling tyres, I had to rotate the bottom wheel so then when I swing the bike it allows the block to protrude between spokes. Bigger tyres should not be a problem.
The Steadyrack is also suited for commercial facilities and mass bicycle storage. Whether retrofitting a space for bikes or installing new, it saves the cost of custom fabrication of metal frames or ‘off the shelf’ racks that don’t necessarily suit a broader range of different bikes. As a commercial bike storage option, this also provides the advantage of more compact storage and catering for more bikes in the same space. The ease of installation also comes with benefits for riders in easy storage securing along with keeping the bike safer from scratching.
A bike storage pole can be $70 at the cheaper end, rising to well over $120. Likewise a hanging hook might range from a simple fixed hook to a hinged wheel hook, from $10 to $30 depending on your preferences. These options, however, lock your storage into one fixed area or position. This can take some work to lift bikes up and you lose the versatility that the Steadyrack system offers. Where space is the defining factor, particularly for two or three bikes, being able to move bikes aside is an advantage that makes the Steadyrack a great option.
RRP: $79.99 – Classic Rack / $89.99 – Mountain Bike, Fender, Fat Bike racks
Available from steadyrack.com.au, also online and bricks and mortar stores.
