# College Bike Storage



## pilotkid424 (Aug 8, 2010)

I leave for college in less than a week and was wondering if anyone has any advice on where to store my trail bike. Obviously my junker bike will stay outside but im not leaving my nice bike outside. Does anyone have any experience storing a bike in their dorm? Im not taking my good bike at first but eventually i want to take it to college to do some riding with the university bike club


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## Bro (Dec 20, 2010)

This is mostly specific to each college's campus, so you may want to try posting this again in the local area forum, and maybe you can email the university cycling team as well.

I'm moving off to college in two weeks also, and I think I've got it figured out. I've got a road bike, a mountain bike, and a fixed gear do-it-all bike. The fixed gear will be my commuter, so that's out during the day, locked up when I'm not riding it. My university's team meets on campus for mountain rides (trailheads are up the street from campus), so I figure I'll keep my mountain bike in the dorm with me. There's a loft bed in our dorms, so I'll lock up bikes underneath my loft bed. Keeps it out of the way of the roommates too. At night, I'll bring in the fixed gear bike too, so that I have two bikes locked up under my bed. I have one u-lock for each bike. I also have a cheap cable lock, so I figure I'll lock up the bikes to each other, and then to my bed as well. I have an aunt who is a professor at the university, and she lives somewhere in the outskirts of town. I'll be keeping my road bike at her house, and then I figure I can ride one of my other bikes to her house to pick up the bike for road rides. I use Eggbeaters on all three bikes, so shoes/cleats among bikes isn't a problem. I'll also have all my tools and **** in my dorm too. 

I won't be bringing my car to school.


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## Nenbran (Dec 7, 2010)

I chained by bike to my bed frame. Problem solved.


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## futurerocker1 (Sep 16, 2009)

build a loft. made mine out of a few 2x6's to fit the mattress provided to me. used it for 2 years and now its been converted into my bike work bench with a saw and sheet of plywood. made it about 4-4.5 feet tall to fit 2 bikes and some storage bins. I also took the bed brackets off of the supplied frame and used the rails and springs. you might have to get creative with this part by using some deck hangers and 2x4s if the brackets dont remove. ill try to find a pic for you


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## SpAgetttt (Jul 19, 2011)

I keep my bikes in my house.


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## Berkley (May 21, 2007)

Raised my bed up and constructed a hanging system underneath out of zip ties. Kept it in my dorm room all freshman year


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## futurerocker1 (Sep 16, 2009)

*dorm bed*

heres a few pics of mine:

can see height here, and using college supplied hardware. 2x6 in back of fridge to add support.









and here as a work bench. i made the 2 ends at home and brought to school my sophomore year, I knew the dimensions of the beds in my dorm. just used 2 bolts in each corner for lateral stiffness









and an end view as the work bench, also note how the top support is roughly 6" lower than the top of the frame, leaving some extended board to keep the mattress in place. can see to convert to the work bench I just added some hangers and trimmed the boards going across the width of the frame then reassembled 









UNH engineering at it's finest!


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## pilotkid424 (Aug 8, 2010)

Thanks for the ideas. I really like the under the bed idea, probably nothing as involved as involved as futurerocker, did any of you have problems with the room mate or did they just deal with it?


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## m85476585 (Jun 7, 2007)

I hang mine from the ceiling. The ceiling is cement, so I had to rent a hammer drill to make holes for the anchor bolts. I think it cost like $20 to rent for a few hours, and the drill made quick work of it. My regular cordless drill was just ruining bits- it has plenty of power but without a hammer mode it simply will not get anywhere in concrete. The rest of the materials cost just a few dollars. 

When I move out, I fill in the holes with some spackle.


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## mtbtacolover (Dec 29, 2010)

i got a u-lock and cable combo. hopefully that will be good enough. i have not decided if im going to take my mountain bike first or not. if not i still need to find a backup haha

ill be keeping it in my room at night and obviously on the racks during class


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## futurerocker1 (Sep 16, 2009)

you might be able to check your housing info website to see if you can request extra bed pieces to loft, or if they loft on their own. I didn't like sleeping 2 feet from the ceiling with the provided "bunk" ends, so i made mine high enough to jump into and store the bikes. If you don't mind sleeping high up you will probably be able to loft it into that bunk height and have plenty of storage space. that's the way to go.

as far as locking in your room, that is probably a safe way to start, but your room should have a locking door too, which I always preferred keeping mine locked and my roommate didn't mind.

be careful if you do alter anything on the walls/ceiling though, housing departments charge an arm and a leg for damage. I'd be cautious to drilling cement ceiling too cause it could crumble if not done right.

don't worry about your roommate as long as you can find a way to keep all your **** on your "side" of the room. he'll probably have his own hobbies too. Only time i felt like I was invading his space was when tearing a bike down in the middle of the room when he was watching tv or something


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## Drew69 (Aug 3, 2010)

m85476585 said:


> I hang mine from the ceiling. The ceiling is cement, so I had to rent a hammer drill to make holes for the anchor bolts. I think it cost like $20 to rent for a few hours, and the drill made quick work of it. My regular cordless drill was just ruining bits- it has plenty of power but without a hammer mode it simply will not get anywhere in concrete. The rest of the materials cost just a few dollars.
> 
> When I move out, I fill in the holes with some spackle.


+1 I just graduated and this worked fine for me when I lived in the dorms, all dorm ceilings are not created equal though, some are metal!


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## p0is0n0ak (May 17, 2007)

I just kept mine under my bed. The roommates didn't seem to have a problem since my bike didn't infringe on their space.


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## Berkley (May 21, 2007)

Pics...

Both wheels came off, fork dropouts rested on a towel on the floor, frame was hung from bed rails (with zip ties and a cheap carabiner) so the chainring didn't hit the tile floor. 

Kind of a pain in the ass, but so is being a freshman


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## AndrwSwitch (Nov 8, 2007)

Nenbran said:


> I chained by bike to my bed frame. Problem solved.


When I was in college, I had a relatively cheap mountain bike and good luck. So I was okay locking outside with a good U-lock.

People lose bikes from dorm rooms all the time. I think this is a really good suggestion.


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## Berkley (May 21, 2007)

AndrwSwitch said:


> When I was in college, I had a relatively cheap mountain bike and good luck. So I was okay locking outside with a good U-lock.
> 
> *People lose bikes from dorm rooms all the time. I think this is a really good suggestion.*


Truth. We had resident advisers (dunno what your school calls them) that did room inspections during breaks, and they were not always the most honest.

Our buildings did have key cards for security, so we were pretty well off in that respect.


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## pilotkid424 (Aug 8, 2010)

Do you think i could get away with just removing the front tire? or does the back tire keep the seat post to high?


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## firefox90 (Mar 20, 2009)

Best college "decoration" purchase ever. Seriously. LINK


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## bme107 (Jul 23, 2008)

Freshman: used horizontal frame hanging rack for single bike (cheapie that can be found at hardware store), mounted it to a board and hung that board from metal poster tray rail that was embeded in the block walls.
Sophomore: knew the drill so woke up early on first day of classes to buy/rent a bike locker for the year. Locker was immediately outside my 1st floor window so it was easy to monitor and convenient to use.
JR: bike locker
SR: bike locker
Grad apartment #1: built my own telescoping rack like shown above, but with vertically hanging bikes on either side.
Grad apartment #2: telescoping rack plus horizontal frame hanger for total of 3 bikes. 4th bike wedged in between TV stand and wall behind couch. 5th bike stashed under loft bed.

This is all before the advent of digital cameras at college kid income levels so you'll have to imaginate.


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## mtbtacolover (Dec 29, 2010)

this is good info...im gonna be riding my bike to class. has anyone had any problems with parts getting stolen and they leave the locked up pieces? im probably going to lock the wheels to the frame and the frame to the rack so it will probably be fine but just wondering


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## AndrwSwitch (Nov 8, 2007)

stripped bike by Andrew183, on Flickr

The silver bike in the background is mine.


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## mtbtacolover (Dec 29, 2010)

haha okay thats exactly what im afraid of...is your rear wheel not a quick release?


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## Berkeley Mike (Jan 13, 2004)

There is a huge blackmarket industry of stolen bikes at college campuses big enough to put pot dealers in the dirt. Storage in a spatial sense, and security are two very different things. College communities are fairly free flowing and open so storage, security, and community make for a very dangerous combination if you have valuable bike.

I always encourage my high school riders to find beaters and keep them very well-tuned but these are used as transport, not as recreational bikes the way most of us use them. If you want to know how to secure valuable bikes, make contact with college racing teams and see what they do.


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## bme107 (Jul 23, 2008)

Given the choice, try not to lock it in an out of the way place. Mainly I locked mine along with 50-100 other bikes at expansive rack locations with lots of traffic during the day. I had an entry level bike (~$350) back in 1994 when I used to commute around campus. U-lock through rack, front wheel and frame was sufficient. Added a thin cable permanently from seat stay up seat post, over saddle rails and down seat tube to thwart a quick release snatch-and-bolt. Rear wheel was unsecured and relied on congestion of bikes on rack, chain grease and tight rear U-brake clearance from allowing a quick get away. Had a 2nd lock for rear but with all the other stuff I was hauling around it got ditched real fast for time and convenience sake.

My $750 and $1000 bikes didn't come until later and I never commuted on them and locked them up outside. Only rode to friend's places and buildings where I could bring them inside with me and lean them up against the wall.

My brother went to the same school and commuted on a similar bike for 5 years. Month before he finished grad school someone taco-ed his wheels while it was locked up at his apartment one weekend. Salvaged everything except the wheels. We had a pretty good experience with over 11 years of exposure.


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## AndrwSwitch (Nov 8, 2007)

mtbtacolover said:


> haha okay thats exactly what im afraid of...is your rear wheel not a quick release?


It is. And I really should back the bike into spots and pull the front wheel - it's a bonded aluminum frame with 126mm spacing, and I don't know if it's magical thinking to be nervous but I don't want to try to stuff a contemporary road wheel in there. So I built that wheel myself. Cheap parts, but a lot of my time in it.


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## dth656 (Feb 12, 2009)

in undergrad, and in grad school, i always kept my bike in my dorm room, and never propped the door open unless i was within sight of the bike. the few times i rode to class or a review session, i'd always take the bike in w/ me. same w/ labs.


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## monzie (Aug 5, 2009)

That's how I roll. I let them take up all the usable space in the dining area. Just 'cause.


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## Ironchefjon (Mar 23, 2007)

Well I went to school at Umaine, not exactly a crime ridden area high in bike theft. I just kept my bike in my dorm during my freshman and sophmore years. Junior and senior year, I wised up, and got an apartment, so storage wasn't an issue at all. I don't know how expensive apartments are in your area, but I highly recommend moving out of the dorms. Dorms and meal plans are an absolute ripoff compared to living on your own (here anyway).


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## OmaHaq (Jun 1, 2010)

There is strength in numbers... if you require a nice bike, you better keep it on lock-down. If you are just riding around town... get the cheapest, least blingy thing you can find and lock it in between a dozen other bikes.


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## drelyt (Oct 23, 2011)

I guess i go to a bike friendly campus. I took my Litespeed to ride to classes and never had any issues. Even my saddle bag remained untouched. Some kids even just put a u-lock connecting the frame and rear wheel and then just lean it next to a tree and its still there when they get back.


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## RaptorTC (Jan 22, 2012)

I half-lofted my bed so I was able to slide my bike underneath my bed. My Resident Adviser said I was the only person he'd ever seen keep their bike in their room and thought I was a genius for it. Now I'm in an apartment so my bikes go right next to the bed.


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## og-mtb (Sep 23, 2018)

Ancient, dead, thread brought back to life by a spammer. Nice.

In case future generations are searching for college bike storage options, these worked great for my kid.









http://www.amazon.com/dp/B075MQHYNC


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## scottmontes1 (Apr 29, 2021)

> customwritingz said:
> I half-lofted my bed so I was able to slide my bike underneath my bed. My Resident Adviser said I was the only person he'd ever seen keep their bike in their room and thought I was a genius for it. Now I'm in an apartment so my bikes go right next to the bed.


Funny, I can see why your Resident Adviser told that! I never seen that on my campus but I am going to try fitting my bike under the bed as soon as I am back to college next year. Not sure about this idea, though...


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