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The best thing about a garage is that you can store a lot more bikes then you can cars. Mine’s filled with bikes and no cars. But that’s not the usual garage where storing a bicycles has to compete with two cars, washer and dryer and all the other things people put in garages.
Let’s start with places in the garage that are a bad idea to place a bike. If you have a washer and dryer, the humidity coming from them can cause severe damage to bicycles. Even if your bike frame is made of non-metal materials as composite or carbon fiber, the bolts and screws of the derailleur and other components are not. They will rust or corrode. Light coming in a window will fade paint and heat sections of the bike unevenly, causing stress fractures to form from the difference in temperatures. The other factors to watch for are the cars that go into the garage, putting a bike in front of a car or at its side are a bad idea no matter how careful you plan to be. Accidents happen and you’re setting it up for a good one by placing them where a car door can bang into the frame or pulling up to closely can cause damage to the car and bike. You want to store your bike so that you don’t have to drag or pull on it to get it out or in. Storing in the rafters where you have to push and pull the bike against wood or other objects will cause damage. That doesn’t leave much space does it, if you have cars to consider but there is still spaces left.
If you just don’t have any floor space, which is the easiest way to store a bike, you can use the empty space above. Either hooks in the cross beams to hang the bike by the front wheel or you can buy a bike storage rack that mounts to the rafters with pulleys and ropes to hoist the bike up.
Another prospect is to mount quick releases to a board secured to the wall. I use this very effectively for holding bikes. It works only if your bike has a quick release system however. They sell quick release mounts for truck beds with the hardware ready to screw into metal or wood. This takes up your interior space no more than the height of the bike minus the front wheel with the rear wheel resting on the floor.
If you plan storing the bike for the winter season, use a cover that will breath, something not plastic. Moisture buildup can corrode the metal screws and bolts of the components. Even though bikes are sturdy machines, laying things on them is not a good idea when in storage. Cable wires might become pinched, seats distorted from displaced weight pressed into them and finishes rubbed off. The chain should have a fresh coat of oil or wax before storage.
If storage in your garage is of a minimum, break the bike down for storing and hang the sections on the wall using plastic coated hooks. Take the front and back wheel off; they can hang together on the wall, now the handlebars with the front fork can turn safely to the right or left so that the handlebars are alongside and against the top tube. This is how bicycles are transported in luggage carriers. You may have to loosen the bolt on the stem that holds the handlebars to position it and to give you optimum storage of the bike.
No matter how you store your bikes, when it comes time for you to bring the bike out to ride, check the tire pressure and conditions of the tire. Smog, heat and just age alone will affect the tire. After you pump the tires up to their recommended air pressure, look for splits in the tire that will expose the inner tube and explode. Sometimes brake pads get hard on the outer portion from age. Take sandpaper and rough the area up that will contact the rim. That will keep the brakes from squealing when used. Check the chain and see that it moves freely without noise and that it has a coating of lubrication, now your ready to enjoy another season of great riding.
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