Bikes are amazing. Quiet, lightweight and fast, they are the real future of sustainable transportation. But for those of us who have our bikes crowding our small apartments, stacked alongside a wall, waiting for people to trip over them, they can sometimes get in the way. Luckily, a number of designers have tackled this problem.
Ways To Hang Your Bike On The Wall Like A Work Of Art
by Lloyd Alter Design / Interior Design
Knife and Saw
All the blogs are agog right now over Chris Brigham’s Bike Shelf that we showed on TreeHugger a while back. It is one of a number of designs that we have seen recently that kill a couple of birds with one stone: They give you an elegant way to store your bike inside in small spaces;
They display your pride and joy artfully;
They often have additional storage for your helmet or your keys;
They just look lovely.
Available from Knife and Saw for US$ 299 in walnut.
Cycloc
Perhaps the granddaddy of all the simple, elegant designs is the Cycloc, designed by Andrew Lang and a hit since 2006 when Warren showed it on TreeHugger. The UK Design Council gushed: “The Cycloc is a minimalistic triumph of form, function and social awareness”. It is so minimal that Lang was worried; according to the Guardian:
Despite citing his creative vision as one that celebrates design simplicity; “paring products back to their fundamental elements,” he wasn’t initially convinced the idea had legs. “At first, I thought that’s too simple, so I explored a few options before coming back to it as the most elegant.”
Being mass-produced out of plastic, is it relatively cheap at £59.95 at the online store and is available in America as well.
PedalPod
British Designer Tamasine Osher has integrated a lot of storage into her PedalPod; there is room for everything. She takes her design seriously:
The intention is to rekindle the human relationship with objects, encouraging an interaction of the visual with the tactile, expressing the simplicity of materials and honest construction – perhaps to stimulate curiosity and awaken emotions using contrasting forms and elements.
No indication of price. More at Tamasine Osher Design.
The Bike Valet
The Bike Valet is a new design from “Steven Tiller, Stephanie Birch and baby Bennett” of Reclamation Art + Furniture. It recently made a splash at Kickstarter, where the designers describe the problem:
We live in a small downtown apartment, and if we happen to be dense enough to leave our bikes outside they wouldn’t last more than a few days, even with the priciest lock around. We lost a beautiful, vintage, hand-made Kleine in just such a way a couple years ago. So we bring our bikes inside. Given our storage issues, this makes navigating the entry hall difficult. I personally have tripped over or snagged a pair of dress pants on an awkwardly placed bicycle more than once. The solution? The Bike Valet.
The design works on the same simple principle of leverage as the Cycloc, but the metal is, I think, a little more elegant. Available on Etsy for $75.
Pallet Bike Rack
Chris Meierling recycled old shipping pallets into a lovely home office and bike storage system that I showed on TreeHugger here. The pallets provide an interesting background for the bikes (as does the red paint) and can also support other types of storage. He writes (without explaining exactly how the bikes are hung):
The pallets shelves were rough and dirty. I picked 4 pallets up off a nearby street, made the shelves, and screwed them directly into my drywall with drywall anchors. Each pallet had about 10 screws across the pallet to distribute the weight; each anchor had a 40 lb hanging capacity.
More on Flickr.
Bike Rack Birdhouse
I must confess that I am a soft touch for humour in design; that is why my personal favourite is the Bike Rack Birdhouse from Lauren Thomas and Jennifer Karam of Dimini , seen on TreeHugger here. The designers write:
The bikerack birdhouse mounts on the wall easily and securely offering a innovative indoor storage solution for your bike and helmut. Made of Mahogany plywood and finished by hand with all natural non-toxic beeswax and linseed oil, this piece will lighten the storage load and brighten your home.
Available for about C$ 200 from Dimini
