How To Over-Build A Bike Rack

[fellsbiker]

My girlfriend had wanted to a "hybird" type bike, even before we met. After we started dating, I talked some sense into her. You can't beat the versatility of a mountain bike with street tires So now she has a kona hard tail. But it just leans precariously in her kitchen, waiting to fall over. So I built her a rack for christmas. I search for designs on the googles, and merged everything I saw into something I thought would work well, and that I could build easy enough. But I don't build many bike racks. In fact, I don't do a whole lot of building with wood at all. Not structures anyway. So the rack, as seen below, is mostly 2x4 with a few sections of 1x4. It's bolted together with 48 leg screws, plus all wood contact areas are glued together too. Once I was about halfway through, I realized I was significantly overbuilding this thing. But it was too late to change it then so I just finished up. The word "solid" does not do it justice. A bike tire looks downright silly in this rack, having 4" of wood on ether side of it. I'm fairly convinced that her grandchildren will be putting their hoverbikes in this rack many years from now.

So it functions great. And if you're interested in this kind of rack, definitely steal this design. Just do yourself a favor and use much less wood, and far fewer bolts. But I do recommend the glue though. Glue and bolts work great together.

Also I made it too wide. That is, there is too much space between the individual bike holders. My original plan had them closer together, but I kind of panicked when I was cutting the wood and made those two beams longer to make sure the bikes wouldn't fight. Oh well, next time, I'll built it even better

[Mr.Magura]

Nice work there.


Magura

[fellsbiker]

And if we break up, I'll take it back, take it apart, and assemble it as a jump :-D

[Tone's]

Nice work mate, it looks the goods, and i also think it looks like a pretty good rack like devise to handcuff her too as well......

[Mr.Magura]

Nice work mate, it looks the goods, and i also think it looks like a pretty good rack like devise to handcuff her too as well......

See, that's why he made it wider


Magura

[wyatt79m]

Looks really nice and clean... Good job.

[kjlued]

Looks like you could easily add another bike in the middle.

BTW, what the hell is that thing with the picture on it behind the bikes.
It looks kind of like a TV but very heavy.

[fellsbiker]

Yeah my bike budget has eaten up my TV budget

[CalebR]

Nice

[S2kTim]

Very nice work! Think I'm gonna go ahead and steal your design and make one myself

[fellsbiker]

The bare wood looks so nice, my gf is thinking she'll use a light stain instead of paint. I agree, I think it will look good with that, after we sand off all of the wood stamping etc.

[Learux]

I like it, I will copy it.

Can we get some dimensions please.

[fellsbiker]

the space for the tire is 2.75" and its a nice slug fit for my big tires. The space between the front and rear boards, I just pushed them cloes enough together that they would fit snug against the wood. I think it was 19" deep and as wide as you want. I think the back pieces are 2' thigh because I got an 8' beam and cut it in fourths. Then just angled a 2x4 in there enough that it wouldn't it brake rotors and derailers. So I guess no, not a ton of dimensions.

[deke505]

It is pretty good. The other thing is if you have a pick up you can use it as a rack in the back of it.

[johokessl]

it looks the goods, and i also think it looks like a pretty good rack like devise to handcuff her too as well

[yellowzx]

I had to make a rack and shelf combo when I moved in with my girlfriend. With four bikes on it it may need to hold 100lbs, but I am pretty sure I could hang my motorcycle from it without any problems. It never hurts to overbuild. I never thought about the handcuffs though.

[fellsbiker]

I don't have to handcuff her, she stays willingly

Anyway, here's the official 'blueprint' i made before I started building. I actually needed 8 extra 3" lag screws because I put 3 per joint instead of 2 on the base of the rack. It looks cool but way more strength than needed.

Oh and even though I measured and came up with 29" overall width, that was the part I felt iffy about when I was cutting so I made it I think 36" wide instead. Should have kept it 29" though.