Cycling UK Forum

Anyone have any experience of 6ft bike stores? I'm looking at wooden shed-type stores with double door side entry. Externally would rather keep to 6ft rather than 7ft but am a bit worried that 6ft sounds a bit tight? Yes I'm lazy and want access and egress to be as quick and painless as possible!

Thanks

I have an 8ft x 5ft and find that I can only fit an adult size bike along the long edge (athough I can get the kids bikes and a full size BMX across the 5ft edge).

I think 6ft may be a bit tight - but not impossible, as you can always turn the handlebars accordingly.

Measure your bikes? At least one of mine is longer than 6ft (long wheelbase plus rear mudguard bumper rail).

Can you make up a test space ?
May give you some idea of the area and size required.
Another option is to hang bikes up. I have one hung up on a hook in my shed. Gives more floor space for other bikes.
Are you going to use the shed as a workshop etc? I have fitted a narrow "shelf" which acts as a bench for small jobs.

Beware that the dimensions may be external, so smaller inside. A usual sort of 40" wheelbase bike with 26/27" wheels adds up to 66 inches so logically fits into a 6 feet space, but not if that space includes timber frame etc.

parked horizontally, 6ft abut the minimum you can get away with. Use hooks and park verically,and it becomes spacious.

I have a 9x7, with 7 bikes inside (3 in rebuild, 4 parked and rideable), one of which is on a Turbo, and I use the shed to train, again, when not in use I roll the bike upwards on its back wheel and park handlebars against wall so it's parked vertically to make space. I also have a work bench, and a work shelf with a bike stand built in. Also includes boxes of spares and other bits and bobs (Wetsuits etc)

tatanab wrote:Beware that the dimensions may be external, so smaller inside. A usual sort of 40" wheelbase bike with 26/27" wheels adds up to 66 inches so logically fits into a 6 feet space, but not if that space includes timber frame etc.

Just to add to that, beware the external dimensions also.

I bought mine - thinking I could fit it width-ways in my back yard, only to find it's 9 feet wide (thanks to the overlap of the roof)

Depends on how many bikes, my shed is 8ft x 6ft and I have had 2 bikes parked on one side, and tandem + 1 bike parked on other side, with a central aisle free to get to the gardening at the back of the shed, keep most required at most accessible point.

My son gets 3 bikes and several sets of wheels into his 6x4 shed but there's no room for anything else!

Hung vertically by hooks for the front wheels along 1 wall of ours (Actually 8'x8') the space 4 solos & a tandem take up, from the wall to the furthest handlebar, is ~170cm (67"). They stick out ~1m (39") from the wall (that measurement is basically dependent on the highest saddle height).

The heights of the hangers are staggered so the handlebars don't clash, therefore allowing more overlap, & so bikes can be at ~31cm intervals centre-to-centre. The hook for the tandem is more-or-less aligned with the point with the most vertical space. The shed is "Dutch barn" shape so has a quite a wide high section so positioning of the tandem wasn't quite so crucial.

It matters where the door is relative to the apex and, as other answers show, it matters what the width is as well as the length.

In a 6'x6' store, with entrance facing one apex, you have easy access to the whole width of the wall below that apex. So, you can fit vertically a trike and two bikes, and then horizontally two more bikes (just), and still have room for shelves and a (folded) folder. I don't normally do this because I have better storage elsewhere, but it's possible.

If the entrance was in the "side", so that the apexes were to left and right, you'd find hanging more difficult because that has to be on the walls with the apexes (they are taller), and the front bikes would probably block access to the back ones.

Hope that makes sense!