Every time I think I’ve got my bike storage situation figured out, a new bike comes in, and suddenly I’m out of space. Some solutions — like this hanging rack I built — fit a lot of bikes, but the bikes are difficult to access. Others, like the wall mounts in my garage, aren’t as space-efficient as I’d like them to be.
Earlier this year, I mounted a 1UP RS Slide ceiling bike rack in my office, and it’s proven to fit a lot of bikes in a small space, while keeping each one easily accessible. Here’s how it works.
We’ve got hooks on trolleys
The base 1UP RS Slide kit ships with four Park Tool 470 storage hooks, each mounted to a trolley designed to slide inside a five-foot-long steel box rail, which is mounted to the ceiling. 1UP says each hook can support a bike that weighs up to 50lb.
I used a stud finder to locate the ceiling joists beneath my drywall before attaching the rail. I secured the hangers using the included lag bolts, then slid the box rail into place. Next, I slid the hooks into the track.
There’s a bolt on the ceiling hanger to prevent the rail from slipping, and another set of stop bolts at the ends of the track to keep the trolleys from rolling off. I misplaced that second set of bolts, but fortunately I found a couple of replacements in my random parts bin.
All told, it took me about 30 minutes to install the 1UP RS Slide hanging bike storage rack.
More bikes in a small space
My home office is set up with a bike repair stand and a workbench, leaving just a little room in the corner for bike storage. Before setting up the RS Slide, I managed to cram two bikes in between the stand and bench, but it was tight. With the RS Slide, I can easily fit four bikes in the same space.
1UP says the standard RS Slide fits up to six bikes, and you can buy additional trolleys for $32 each. They also sell wider trolley hooks designed to fit fat bike tires.
While you could absolutely fit six bikes in a five-foot span with the RS Slide, I don’t recommend it. The cool thing about the trolley system is that not only can you slide the bikes together, but you can also rotate them to reduce bar-on-bar interference. This is part of the magic that allows you to fit more bikes in a small space. And/or, you can alternate hanging the bikes by their front and rear wheels.
If you’ve got more than six bikes and extra room, just grab more trolleys and mount a second rail!
I currently have three mountain bikes and a gravel bike in the office. One of the bikes is a Specialized Turbo Levo R, which weighs 48.1lb, less than two pounds under the 50lb hook weight limit. I’m not gonna lie: I was nervous standing underneath the RS Slide when I hung that bike for the first time. I wasn’t worried that the hook could fail; I was more concerned that the lag bolts might pull out of the ceiling!
Thankfully, the bikes have been hanging securely for several weeks now, and I’m constantly moving them around, putting them up and bringing them down with no sign of any problems.
With a nine-foot-plus ceiling in my office, the bikes sit almost three feet off the ground. That might be too high unless you’re not six feet tall like me, so for spaces with a high or inaccessible ceiling, 1UP offers a $130 wall mount adapter kit that lets you set the rail at any height you like.
The 1UP RS Slide has definitely upped my bike storage game and freed up more space for the next N + 1. 1UP sells the RS Slide for $210, which includes the 5′ track and four trolleys.
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