Calling people who store their bikes in sheds

[Black Sheep]

Hello

mrs black sheep and I will hopefully have our own house soon, however, due to the space and the brand new cream carpet we need somewhere to store our 2 mountain bikes ( currently under the stairs) and two road bikes (dining room) and for want of a good place (no darling we can't make the downstairs loo a bike store) to store them (and the inevitable mechanical sheep) we are looking at a shed

so, anysugestions of what makes a good shed? Where to get one? What to look for?

I plan to, if the shed design allows, build a metal frame under the floor with some ground anchor loops poking through the floor to lock bikes down to and aquire some metal strips to atatch to the shed walls to scupper attempts at cutting in etc

any ideas and sugestions are welcome

getting a house with a garage I'd not an option

 

[Spinney]

Do you live in a place with particularly high crime figures??
I just keep my bikes in a normal wooden shed with a padlock on the door.

Make sure the shed is high enough to stand up in comfortably, and big enough to wheel the bikes in and out (so you need enough width for the four bikes, plus enough space for you to stand next to them, if you see what I mean.) Plus space for shelves for gear etc.

I have found that bikes are fine in the shed, but anything cloth-like (panniers etc) are best kept in the house - over the winter at least - as they start to smell a bit musty in the shed.

 

[Chrisz]

I built my shed with a nice thick concrete base and ground anchor points built in! I also have metal strips set up as a grid on the inside of the walls/roof to prevent/slow down anyone cutting in. I still need to beef the doors up a fair bit before I even contemplate storing my summer bike in there

 

[nigelb]

I've been checking insurance terms (as I'm getting a cycle to work bike).

If we keep the bike in a shed, there's a £100/20% minimum excess.
(as long as all external doors are secured by a minimum of a 5 lever mortice deadlock to BS3621 standard, or a 5 lever padlock, and the bike must be secured through the frame by an Approved lock at an Immovable Object.)
They then define an immovable object as being "any solid object fixed in or on to concrete or stone, which is not capable of being undone, removed with, or lifted under/over the bike".

Can I suggest that you need to read your insurance policy very very carefully before you decide what to do.

For me, this means digging a hole in the shed floor, plant a metal hoop, fill the hole with concrete, then try to make the floor watertight again!
Then, just go out and buy a BS3621 padlock, and try not to lose all the keys!

Nige
(Note, the above is typed in manually, because for "some reason" they don't seem to want you to be able to cut and paste bits out of their pdf ...)

 

[wafflycat]

Here you go...


Shed Shackle

 

[phil_hg_uk]

Here you go...


Shed Shackle

My insurance company told me that as long as my bikes are not worth more that £500.00 each then a locked shed was ok but any more that that then I had to use something like this -> http://www.torc-anchors.com/torc-ground-anchor.php bolted to a concrete floor and locked using a gold sold secure approved lock. Yhey said that a wooden shed was not an imovable object and so using a shed shackle attached to it was no good.

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

I like sheds. I have one for all things gardening. But I'm lucky that I have a garage. Thieves got in one night (I left a window ajar for ventilation) but they didn't get away with anyrhing because my garage is absolutely filled with stuff to the extent I'm having dificulty getting in and out . It turns out a garage in that state is a perfect prevention against thieves.

But your shed will be the perfectly organised and tidy space it should be I'm sure

 

[ColinJ]

I remember reading a while back about someone getting a bike nicked from his garden shed. The shed was in a walled garden with a locked gate, the shed was locked and the bike was securely locked inside the shed. His insurance company still refused to pay out because hidden in the small print of the policy was a clause which stated that all bikes needed to be securely locked inside a building of brick or stone construction. A definite get-out clause if ever I heard of one since it was apparently okay for the doors of the building to be made of wood!

** Make sure that you read the small print! **

 

[gbb]

Chose my shed particually with bikes in mind.
8ft wide, 6 ft deep, central door on the 8ft wall allows you to get to at least two bikes without having to shift anything, then a heavy shelf 8ft wide above seat height to stick other undesirable items...like lawnmowers and gargening equipment

 

[alecstilleyedye]

we've just cleared out our cellar, and it's a great place to secure my 3 road bikes as it's heated. it is also a laundry, but the fact that i can keep my bikes in the same place as my tool drawers and have space to work on them makes the day spent clearing the cellar up well worth it.

deffo get as big a shed as space and budget allows. after all, you can't lurk in there for long if it's too small…

 

[stephec]

Use some of these to protect it as well -

http://www.henrykrank.com/alarm_mine.html

They make a lovely noise!

 

[Arch]

A little off topic, as it's not really a shed, but...

http://www.trimetals.co.uk/bicycle-storage.php

You'd need two though, as one only holds 3 bikes...

 

[Black Sheep]

We probably won't be able to pour a concrete base, can't do anything to house that requires planning permission, was planning a patio so just be on that and bolt frame down onto flags I guess

 

[terry huckle]

Had my bike nicked from the shed. The thieves unscrewed the hinges on the outside of the locked door and simply lifted it out of the way. I also did not have the bike suitably secured.

1) Tamper proof screws (you can only tighten them) now fix the hinges to the shed and door.

2) Replacement bike now firmly padlocked to other bike and lawnmower. Anchor point for padlock also fastened with tamper proof screws.

3) infra red motion detector fitted.

 

[ColinJ]

Had my bike nicked from the shed. The thieves unscrewed the hinges on the outside of the locked door and simply lifted it out of the way. I also did not have the bike suitably secured.

There's was a report on the TV news last week about a man who is suing Google for showing a picture on Streetview of his garage with the door open, revealing his mountain bike and washing machine inside. A few days later his bike was nicked, and a few days after that the thieves came back for the washing machine!

The report went on to say that he had taken extra precautions to secure the garage and they showed a close-up of the new locked bolt that he had fitted to the door with standard Philips head screws! It would have taken thieves less than a minute to unscrew the whole thing! (Perhaps he'll then sue the TV company for showing a picture of the bolt!)