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Vertical Motorcycle Storage

rick

rick

New member
Joined
Aug 26, 2002
Location
Ojai
Moto(s)
Too many
I'm out of room in the garage again and this time I'm thinking of going vertical. I've got a narrow and space along one wall that I'm currently storing a bike length-wise. Ideally I would lift and store one dirt bike up high and then put another bike underneath it.

I've seen some 4-post options for sale that are way too wide for my space but, I could make one out of unistrut and maybe an electric winch to do the lifting. It would theoretically be the perfect size and excuse top break out the welder but, I am a little concerned about cable routing/cutting/crimping.

Some options:
* thestoragelift.com - neat, expensive and my space won't allow loading form that end.
* loft-it.com - the platform is too deep but, that could work. It's even more expensive.


Then I saw a bunch of stacker lifts on amazon similar to this (hot linked):

the small platform should fit right under the engine on a dirt bike just like any other dirt bike stand. It'll raise the dirt bike high enough to fit another bike underneath. I can bolt the entire stacker lift to the wall so I don't have to worry about it tipping and I can add some eye-bolts or whatever to the platform to strap the bike too as well. I might add a motor to the winch so it's electric and I won't need to get behind it to operate it. It'll be easy to take along with me if I move to a new place.

It would be low effort and some of them are even eligible for amazon prime so I could have it by tomorrow.

Why would this be a bad idea?
 
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Here's something I saw at advrider.com:
attachment.php

Although, then I'd have to store the engine hoist which doesn't solve my problem.
 
gravity is your biggest problem, and earthquakes setting gravity on it's capricious rampage.

costco has some pretty heavy duty racks for somethig like 200. they're a little short to accomodate a bike but that's pretty easy to remedy. cut one rack in half height wise and put them next to each other, bridge the gap with some heavy ply wood or something: blamo, packrat's dream.

use the stacker to put the bikes on top of the rack. once you have a lifting apparatus they're suuuuuper handy
 
That thing in the photo looks like it would work but........

1. As you mentioned, it would have to be bolted to the wall.
2. I wouldn't just use it as is, I'd weld some features on the flat plate to more securely hold the bike.
3. I'd also strap it to the wall somehow after you lifted it so that quakes or something would knock it off.

And finally, it appears that the mechanism for lifting is on the wrong side of the apparatus. You couldn't operate it while it was bolted to the wall. And I sure as hell wouldn't lift the bike on the thing and try moving it around while it's up in the air.

But, you're on to some good basic ideas. If you've got strong enough ceiling rafters, you could reinforce them, perhaps with another heavy duty beam to attach a block and tackle to. Use a couple straps through the top of each wheel with each strap attached to a beam which is then attached to the block and tackle. Simply pull it up and out of the way. Pad the wall with something to keep it from scratching the bike. Or?.....
 
Yeah, like you said, the hand-cranked winch would have to be moved or replaced with an electric winch. I'm also thinking I might even remove the wheels completely. Without the wheels it looks like it might sit a little closer to the wall which should make securing it to the wall easier.

I suppose I'd like some sort of mechanical lock to prevent the platform from dropping if the winch/cable failed for some reason.

The sling straps and overhead winch is another idea. langeoriginals.com sells a kit w/ the winch for a little under $300:

I don't like the idea as much for some reason. It's not as dorky ...er, polished. And going back to earthquakes, I don't like the idea of it swinging around.

BTW, there's some photos of a homebuilt unistrut 4-post lift at gargejournal.com but, you have to create an account to see the photos.
 
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Hooli said:
Or you could just sell some bikes. :)
Click to expand...
Crazy talk!
Actually, I don't have that many motorcycles any more. It's a two car garage with the pickup truck parked in it. That leaves me about a car's worth of space. Half of that is taken up by the table lift, work bench and tool boxes which leaves me with about 1/2 of a car's worth of space for motorcycle parking. ...and I still need to be able to move around a little in there.

I can store one bike on the table lift. The dirt/track bike are the biggest production to ride at all so, they can be stored the least accessibly but, I'd like to street bikes to be easy to get in and out.

The dirt bikes are the lightest and I don't care about scratching them or anything like that so, they're the leading candidates to go vertical with.
 
That's basically what I was talking about, though you could position it next to the garage wall. And removing the wheels ain't gonna make it sit closer to the wall as that's not the widest part of the bike. 'Also makes it a pain in the ass to put up and take down if you have to remove and reinstall the wheels. You should be able to drop it down and ride.

As for swinging around, a couple of properly positioned ropes and a rope wrench to snug them up will take care of that.
 
Ha! Thank you - I meant remove the wheels form the blue stacker lift. Not from the bike. I am completely with you on wanting it to be as easy as possible to pull the bike down and ride it!
 
And if you want to get fancy, you could make some special hanging brackets that would engage the bike in the same places that some quality stands would. Either under the steering stem and the swingarm or maybe just the frame with some clamps to hold it. Then you can drop it down a little to work on it.

And if the hoist point is mounted on a slide in some manner, you can then pull it out from the wall to work on both sides.

And maybe design it so that all your bikes can be hoisted in the same manner and now you've got a nice way to work on them.

'Just thinkin'.
 
rick said:
Here's something I saw at advrider.com:
attachment.php

Although, then I'd have to store the engine hoist which doesn't solve my problem.
Click to expand...

You could probably do something like that if you used a ceiling hoist instead of an engine lift. I'll probably end up doing that myself down the line. I buy but I never seem to sell. :laughing

http://www.harborfreight.com/110-volt-440-lb-capacity-electric-hoist-with-remote-control-40765.html

use a slide rail or something along those lines to move the hoist the length of the racks and side to side enough to pick a bike up without slinging it into the racks. :thumbup
 
I've had a strong irrational desire for one of those hoists on a 1 Ton Telescoping Gantry Crane for far too long. I'd have almost no use for it but it would be so cool.

I thought about bolting an I-beam above a simple table like in the photo so , I could slide the hoist out, pickup the bike and then slide it over the table. It's a little more permanent than I'd like and I worry about the ceiling height being enough for the hoist, slings, etc and still having enough clearance to stack over another bike. I think my lifting mechanism has to be below the top of the bike just to have enough clearance.
 
A friend of mine needed to install the freshly painted body of his Model T on the chassis with minimal help. I suggested he buy an electric winch from HF and use straps and blocks to protect the paint.
He winched the body up, rolled the chassis under it, and real slick lowered the body right over the mounts. He used the 120V 1500lb capacity model.
Depending on your mounting points and ceiling height, that might work.
 
That gave me another thought. Maybe some sort of statically mounted winch, but instead the rack is mobile. That would be harder to do with it being so top heavy so the table or rack or whatever would need to be fairly wide and long to stabilize it unless it was mounted on slide rails on the wall or something. It certainly couldn't be the width of a bike or I would think that would be too prone to fall over sideways.

If you went the engine hoist method, you could probably store it right behind the bikes with the arm beside the one on the top shelf. It would only stick out the width of it as long as the legs could straddle the bike on the bottom and a bit on the back where it goes verticle.

Either way, I'd be interested in seeing what you do with this or maybe even helping develop something. :thumbup I have a gut feeling I'm going to end up needing something like this myself. :laughing
 
if you used the bench idea, you dont need a hoist, position the benches on an open wall where you could use a ramp to roll the bikes up and strap them to the tables, then the tables are bolted into your concrete pad. If its MX bikes, take the bars off and walla more room!
 
Wicked4Racin said:
if you used the bench idea, you dont need a hoist, position the benches on an open wall where you could use a ramp to roll the bikes up and strap them to the tables, then the tables are bolted into your concrete pad. If its MX bikes, take the bars off and voilà more room!
Click to expand...

FTFY :teeth

I'm not sure how well benches and ramps would work. The benches would have to be pretty high to have bikes under them and that would make the ramps pretty long as well. OH OH OH!!! I gots eeeet

How about something like old school car lifts just smaller. I used to work as a welder so I can help fabricate if we had a welder and torch. But here's kind of what I mean....

http://www.revolutionlift.com/RFP9-9000-Pound-Capacity-Four-Post-Lift-P2C4.aspx

Granted that's spendy but it is also made for a car. I couldn't find anything like that made for an MC on a quick search but... that might be exactly what you need. :thumbup
 
iv got a mig and gas! what about storing the moto high above and the other misc stuff under it? or get one of these, install on your bike, and drop it like it hawwt!
 

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Put the bikes in the house.

My buddy and I went up to SF to buy a vintage Triumph Flat track race bike off a guy, and he had a vintage Indian in every room except the kitchen and bathroom. He had twenty more in the garage and at least one more at the Isle of Mann at his freind's house. He had two in office, and one was hanging from the ceiling.
 
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