Storage ideas for wheels

[One-eyed Sailor]

The local Bicycle Collective is looking for ideas to store three storage units FULL of wheels and rims at their new location.
They have a two story wall space that is about 16 feet wide.
I'm picturing a contraption kind of like how they store spools of wire at the big box stores (Lowe's, HD).
Can't quite wrap my brain around that but something like this.

Rings, cogs, lots of chain and rider-operated rotation of the rack.

I've seen what you fabricators can do... a little help for a good cause??

Thanks Rats!

 

[Wildcat]

I had a ton of rims and kept them on a chain, but always needed the one that was in the middle, so it wasn't the way to do it. I think something like a clothes rack with a hook for each wheel with four vertical rows to hang them, and the rack could be as long as you have access to both ends. Additional racks could be spaced to give space for access. Then you could look through all of them easily and take out the one(s) you want without having to sort through a lot of them. And store the most wheels for the space provided.

If you had the space, a conveyor sysytem like drycleaners use would be great to have. You could number the wheels and use a remote to bring it right to the front.

 

[Captain Awesome]

Back in the day one of my DOD jobs was installation of storage systems (amongst other things) at major military installations and we had units called Versa which I think became Rotomat later. Theirs are overly complex but I always thought about using garage door track and hardware to do something similar

Just some inspiration

 

[ingola]

I'm no help here I just pile them up in various spots around the basement till I trip on one and throw it in the other pile

 

[One-eyed Sailor]

I always thought about using garage door track and hardware to do something similar



Just some inspiration

Cap'n Awesome to the rescue again!
Garage door track.

Fire!

 

[idiotboy]

I'm no help here I just pile them up in various spots around the basement till I trip on one and throw it in the other pile View attachment 254149

that's how I store mine too!

 

[ingola]

that's how I store mine too!

Proven system

 

[One-eyed Sailor]

At this point I've given the concept drawings to the Collective to have a fabricator or engineer work out the details.
Thanks!

The Sketchup file is HERE if anyone wants to play around with the design.
Peace!

 

[Captain Awesome]

At this point I've given the concept drawings to the Collective to have a fabricator or engineer work out the details.
Thanks!
View attachment 254255View attachment 254256View attachment 254257View attachment 254258

The Sketchup file is HERE if anyone wants to play around with the design.
Peace!

Very nice design concept

 

[rickpaulos]

Impressive design. But not advisable if your coop is renting the space.

Wheels at our local coop.

Piles by sizes (24, 26, 26odd, 27)
Boxes of small wheels <20"
Hooks on 2x4s.

Just finished making a rim rack as well. Will post photos once it's assembled in place.

If you remove quick releases, that makes the wheels narrower and you can fit more.

alternate hook lengths by a couple inches and you can stagger the height a bit and get more side ways with the axles not hitting.

On the hanging bars we put the hooks in at 9 inch spacing. Good wheels get tagged with specs & price before hanging. mostly 700c roadie wheels. 700 c hybrid are still at a shortage as they just aren't strong enough.

3 storage units? Well storage units vary in size a lot. Take the time to cull the masses. I dismantle wheels all the time. A few each week in my spare time. Freewheels/cassettes removed. Tires removed. Intact rim tapes saved by size. Rusty spokes are cut out. Stainless are unspoked and the spokes and hubs saved. Oversize spokes are saved. Spokes are measured and taped in bundles by size with green painters tape and the size and count written on the tape. I have peanut butter containers of nipples sorted by steel, brass, long, short, medium, etc. Bent or cracked rims go in a separate pile for artists and sold for $1 each. Good rims are marked for size and spoke count. Many rims don't have sizes stamped on them so a sharpie helps. I write the size and spoke count on the inside of the rim next to the valve hole. The majority 0f the rims go to artists, very few are used to rebuild wheels. Hubs are saved intact as it's much easier to find a matching cone/axle for a hub than to try to sort and store the 100+ different cone specs.

26 mtb wheels are much stronger than 700 wheels so we have far more 26ers. Too many more. So I often will toss the older steel rim wheels from USA made mountain bikes of the 1980s and 1990s. I once sold 68 steel wheels in 1 shot to an artist. A heaping pick up truck load strapped down. There was no noticeable reduction in the piles. PS, welding steel rims is easier than aluminum for sculptures.
See those 60+ wheels here at #1

Piles in the basement:

 

[One-eyed Sailor]

View attachment 254284




View attachment 254288

Thanks Rick, all good information!
In their old, rented space they used the 2x4 plus hooks method. Their new space is owned outright and have room for a better storage solution!
They probably should (and probably will) cull their collection but, yeah. Take that photo of your 26" wheels and multiply it by 20 at least.
Tires have been removed and the wheels are paired up.
I helped move their them by box truck and it took four trips with the truck loaded full.

Old space

New space

 

[rickpaulos]

Thanks Rick, all good information!
In their old, rented space they used the 2x4 plus hooks method. Their new space is owned outright and have room for a better storage solution!
They probably should (and probably will) cull their collection but, yeah. Take that photo of your 26" wheels and multiply it by 20 at least.
Tires have been removed and the wheels are paired up.
I helped move their them by box truck and it took four trips with the truck loaded full.

Old space




New space

built yesterday , installed today. of course anything built is immediately not big enough

 

[One-eyed Sailor]

built yesterday , installed today. of course anything built is immediately not big enough

Time to cull a few, eh? lol

 

[rickpaulos]

Nah, just need to do more builds.

I tried out my "portable" spot welder on these. The smaller orb is painted rims and the spot welder didn't work through the paint so I used my previous method of drill and pop rivet using chain links as rivet washers. The larger with chrome rims spot welded okay. I did blow a couple of fuses. First I turned off the clothes dryer but realized I left the space heater and tv on. Second fuse blew for no apparent reason.

 

[Son of Kradus]

I think your storage rack looks grand mate!

 

[ingola]

View attachment 254328
built yesterday , installed today. of course anything built is immediately not big enough

That's what I'm building my wife for our anniversary a place to store my tires. Sounds selfish no she walks past my mess every time she does laundry (I'm not aloud to do laundry no more wrecked the washer) and always comments on my chaos.