[Help Needed] Bike storage at home

[AliB]

Hi, I was wondering i fyou would be so kind as to take a few minutes of your time with helping me withmy final major project.



Just a brief introduction as to who and what I am doing:

I’m a Product & Furniture Design student currently in my third and final year at Kingston University, within Greater London. My final project is themed ‘Living with cycling’. In short, I will tackle the problem with storage of bike(s) within urban/city/town households.

The following questions will help me gauge and channel into whichever direction it takes me. Further development and insight will then follow and, finally a full working prototype. I order to make this project as successful as possible; I will need YOUR knowledge and first-hand experiences in order to do this.

This information willbe invaluable towards my project and any information you give out, it will bean extensive part of my overall project.

Please answer the questions as fully as possible. The questions are as follows…

1) What do you useyour bicycle for? I.e. commuting, fitness, enthusiast, or all of these

2) How many bikes do you own?

3) What type of dwelling do you reside in? I.e. house, flat, studio etc

4) Is it a rented property?

5) Where do you store your bike(s)?

6) Do you use existing bike storage solutions?

If not, why is that?


7) What are the problems/pain in the backside/hassles do you deal with when storing your bikes?

8) Imagine you have arrived outside your home, what are the step-by-step motions do you go through?(In as much detail as possible)

If you feel comfortable, you can email your answers to: lazyperfectionist@btinternet.com


Thank you very muchfor taking your time out to fill this in, and again all of the informationgiven will pay dividends towards my final major project.




Alex

 

[DTD]

1/ Cycle for commuting, fitness and pleasure
2/ Own 2 bikes – partner also has one, she's getting a new one next week.
3/ Semi
4/ No
5/ 3 in the cellar, latest 1 in the kitchen!
6 / No. But the one in the kitchen is now on a Revolution stand from Edinburgh Cycle Co-op (it was leant up against an exercise bike which has since moved to the cellar.
7 / Getting them down the cellar steps
8/ Open door go in turn off the alarm, if needed clean bike outside front of house, lift bike and carry through hall to the kitchen (carpet in the hall), carry down cellar steps, lean against the wall.

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

1) Commuting, some fitness

2) 2 one each me and wife

3) 2 bedroomed new build link house

4) No

5) In a shed in the back garden

6) The garden shed is fine for 2 bikes

7) Security I guess.

8) Put the bike(s) in shed, and lock with 3 padlocks.

 

[gbb]

1. All of them
2. 8 (in the family)
3. House
4. No.
5. Shed and in garden (2 bikes kept at work as well)
6. No
reason..no room for alternative solutions
7. Too many bikes in the shed. Bikes left in locked garden are vulnerable.
8. Enter back gate, lean bike against fence (out of sight of back gate), go indoors, usually lock bike in shed sometime later. This is laziness and stupid. I cant lock the gate because others will use it after me...i'm asking for my bike to get stolen, but i've never had one taken yet !!! Thats fate tempted

 

[AliB]

Thanks to everyone who has filled out my questions, much appreciated. More the merrier

 

[mark barker]

1) What do you useyour bicycle for? I.e. commuting, fitness, enthusiast, or all of these
Commuting & work

2) How many bikes do you own?
3 (including 1 trike)
3) What type of dwelling do you reside in? I.e. house, flat, studio etc
Bungalow (semi)
4) Is it a rented property?
No
5) Where do you store your bike(s)?
Shed and garden
6) Do you use existing bike storage solutions?
No
If not, why is that?
Never really seen the need

7) What are the problems/pain in the backside/hassles do you deal with when storing your bikes?
My shed door is narrower than the width of the trike, so getting that in and out is a hassle.

8) Imagine you have arrived outside your home, what are the step-by-step motions do you go through?(In as much detail as possible)
For my everyday bike, I open the front door (holding bike with one hand), lift bike onto rear wheel and push through the hall way and lounge to the back door. Unlock back door and push bike outside. I lean the bike against the frame of the swing seat and go back inside for a well deserved coffee!
For my trike I leave it outside the front door and unlock and open both front and rear doors before carrying it through the house, trying not to knock anything over on the way! Once in the garden I head back and close front door before opening the shed and sliding the trike in sideways through the door.

 

[punkedmonkey]

1) Commuting/Enthusiast

2) 1 (there are 2 in our house though)

3) Terraced House

4) Yes

5) Under the stairs/the main hallway

6) Nope
6a) Because they don't work/fit in any of our small storage locations and external ones tend not to be secure enough to put at the front of the house or are quite expensive to install

7) General inconvenience of having a bike in our hallway!

8) Enter the door... leave bike in hallway. Squeeze round handlebars to get into house.

 

[brokenbetty]

1) What do you useyour bicycle for? I.e. commuting, fitness, enthusiast, or all of these
commuting, local transport


2) How many bikes do you own?
4


3) What type of dwelling do you reside in? I.e. house, flat, studio etc
house

4) Is it a rented property?
no

5) Where do you store your bike(s)?
daily ride in locked store in front garden, others in garden shed or on loan to friends

6) Do you use existing bike storage solutions?
don't understand the question. I can't use non-existent ones!

If not, why is that?


7) What are the problems/pain in the backside/hassles do you deal with when storing your bikes?
space, access to back garden is through terraced house, security in front

8) Imagine you have arrived outside your home, what are the step-by-step motions do you go through?(In as much detail as possible)

1. park bike on kickstand
2. open front door
3. unload all luggage into porch (for security I keep minimum in bike store, not even bike toolkit etc)
4. open bike store - padlocks top and bottom. keys on house key keyring
5. wheel bike into store, stand on kickstand again
6. unwrap chain from seatpost, put through front wheel and plug into frame lock
7. lock frame lock around rear wheel
8. lock both padlocks
9. open inner house door, switch off alarm and carry all bags etc in. dump on couch.
10. depending on how knackered I am, put bike bags etc away or leave in heap til told off by boyfriend

The detail about the bags etc and having to lug them around is important. External bike storage may be less secure than inside the house so you need to consider what you'll leave on the bike. You might want to consider whether your bike storage solution is actually two parts, one outside for the bike and one inside for the kit.