How to Build a Bike Hoist
A simple bike hoist--an installation allowing for the lifting and storing of a bicycle by hanging it near a ceiling--is inexpensive and easy to build. Such a hoist takes only a few tools and parts to assemble and mount. Most people mount hoists from garage or basement ceilings with exposed beams.
Other People Are Reading
Things You'll Need
- 42-inch-long 1 x 4-inch plank of wood
- Three 3/8-inch diameter-by-2 3/4-inch wood-threaded wire eye-bolts
- Eight No. 10 wood screws, 2 inches long
- Drill with 3/16-inch wood bit
- 30 feet of 3/8-inch three-strand nylon rope
- Pencil
- Stud-finder (optional)
- Matches (optional)
Instructions
-
Building a Bike Hoist
-
1
Measure 8 inches lengthwise and 2 inches width-wise along the board from both ends and mark the measurements in pencil.
-
2
Drill holes completely through the plank at marked measurements.
-
-
3
Screw one eye bolt--turning clockwise--into each hole until the tips protrude roughly 1/4 inch.
-
4
Hold the plank against the beam in desired mounting location and press slightly to mark indentations in the mounting beam with eye-bolt tip protrusions.
-
5
Drill guide holes in the beam at marked indentations.
-
6
Insert the eye-bolt protrusions in the guide holes and, keeping the plank pressed firmly against the beam, thread the eye-bolts clockwise until each bolt is in as far as possible while remaining perpendicular to the length of the beam.
-
7
Drill eight evenly-spaced guide holes through the plank and into the beam.
-
8
Screw one wood screw through each guide hole.
-
9
You'll need a suitable nylon rope. Tie a large knot in one end of the nylon rope.
-
10
Thread the rope through both eye-bolts until the knot is against the bolt eye and ensure the knot does not slip through the eye with a significant amount of pressure placed against it.
-
11
Drill one guide hole in a close wooden fixture--wall stud, work bench, etc.--roughly waist high.
-
12
Screw the final eye bolt in the guide hole.
-
13
Pull the section of rope suspended between the eye bolts on the overhead beam to create slack in which to attach the bicycle.
-
14
Loop slack rope suspended between the eye-bolts once around the bicycle seat post, under the seat and once around the bicycle stem behind the handlebar.
-
15
Pull the rope end taut slowly and carefully. The rope slack will tighten around the seat post and handlebar and raise bicycle to the ceiling as you pull.
-
16
Tie the rope off to the third eye-bolt once the bicycle is raised to the desired height.
-
17
Trim the excess from the rope if desired.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
To mount the hoist to a finished ceiling without exposed beams, find beams under the plaster--use a stud-finder--and follow all these same steps.
Melt the nylon rope ends with a match to inhibit fraying of the rope.
Thirty feet of rope may be far too much or too little depending on the height of your ceiling and the desired tie-off point. Measure the rough distance the rope needs to travel and alter this length as needed.
The continual sliding of the rope may wear the finish off bicycle components.
References
- Photo Credit bike image by mangia from Fotolia.com green nylon rope image by Steve Lovegrove from Fotolia.com
