Bicycles vs. Apartments

For pretty much any street rider out there, having to deal with bikes in a small apartment can quickly become an overwhelming and frustrating task. A recent trip to Europe made me realise that apartments are way smaller there than in North America, and as I crashed on a lot of couches in rooms full of bikes, it just made sense to me that bikes could easily be part of the indoor design. After some research, I came across a bunch of interesting ideas to easily incorporate your bike inside home. Hit the Read More link to see how you could easily make your home look better while saving yourself some space!

This is one of the most basic Wall mounted racks. As most of the produtcs I came across, it simply holds the bike by the toptube. It can be used as a Bikerack and a shelf and doesn't look too fancy. This model is made by a small design company and retails at 180$, but anyone can make something similar with a couple pieces of wood and add his touch to it in a short time. You can check out more pictures Here

In a similar approach, this one only uses 2 pieces of wood to support the bike. It's also pretty expensive, but the idea is definitely interesting.

The same kind of approach integrated with more shelfs, more info Here.

This one is called the Statement Bike Rack. The idea was to create a bike rack that looks like a piece of art when not in use. The guys raised the needed money with a Kickstarter fundraiser and their product is now available.

Another interesting approach is the "bike shelf" idea. This one nicely fits in the middle of a room and has some extra space for shoes. A product made by PostFossil, more pictures and information Here

Same approach but hanging the bike vertically which saves quite a lot of space, with some shelfs added beside it. I can't find a place that sells this one but it retails at 3 600$ so I guess none of you will ever consider buying it, and with reason.

And finally, here are my top 3 favorite options to fit your bike in a tiny appartment:

The Very Nice Bike Rack:

This one was realised by Industrial Designer Daniel Ballou from California. It was supposed to be available in early 2013 but there's no information on his Website about where to buy it.

The SLIT Bike Rack:

Does it get any cleaner than this one? Those guys took the "less is more" approach and their product came out so clean, you can even put a photo on it so it looks like a normal photo frame when it's closed. It retails for 195 euros, check out more pictures over on the Mikili website.

The Hunting Trophy Bike Rack

This one has it all: the idea is perfect, it looks dope and it can be used to hang anything you want. The beauty about this one is that you can't buy it, but you can make one with parts you probably already have at home and make it just the way you want!

The truth is that there are a lot of ideas out there to nicely place your bike in your apartment. Of course some look better than others, but it's easy to think of something smart and make it happen with a quick visit to the hardware store. Now get to work to make sure your bike isnt in the way when you come home from the Bar!