Foldable Bikes Party: Stowaway stakes claim to being the ultimate bike storage solution

Thursday, 10 December 2015

Stowaway stakes claim to being the ultimate bike storage solution

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Run out of space in your garage, shed, spare room, hallway or bedroom for storing your bikes? Us too, so we're always on the lookout for new storage solutions. Stowaway is the latest crowdfunded project to catch our eye, allowing you to store your bikes at home up near the ceiling. Perhaps unsurprisingly, its creators claim it's the ultimate bike storage solution.

The Stowaway storage device was developed by Sinead Geraghty, who – fed up of tripping over her various bikes and without enough walkthrough space to mount them on the wall – decided that hanging them above head height was an ideal way to use otherwise wasted space.

Stowaway is a wall-mounted system that uses pulleys to hoist your bike up above head height so it lies parallel to the ceiling. It's wall mounted, so the weight of your bike isn't hanging from your ceiling, and can be adapted to take different sized bikes up to a maximum weight of 20kg. Such hoist systems do already exist, although nothing we're aware of that lays the bike flat in such a way.

The hoist arm is adjustable to 1.3m, so it can be extended or compressed to suit the height of your bike. One of the main selling points for a lot of cyclists is the fact that, because the bike is hanging off a frame, you won't end up with those annoying and messy black tyre marks on your walls that happen with so many other wall-mounted storage systems.

In practice, the Stowaway system looks quite easy to use, but with a learning curve. The first straps go around the bars and saddle to raise the bike off the ground, then a second strap attaches to the wheels and is used to pull the bike parallel to the ground. The various straps are colour-coded to ensure you use them in the correct order.

Adjustable neck length, so you can adapt the frame to suit different sized bikes.
Counterweight pulley system.
Integrated brakes, to prevent the bike slipping and falling.
Adjustable straps that can adapt to many different bikes.

You can read more at BikeRadar.com