Adjustable Free-standing Indoor Bike Stand

Biking is a fantastic way to get reduce your environmental impact by taking a car off of the road! Unfortunately, bikes can be unruly to store. If you're a student or young professional living in a compact space such as an apartment, it can be challenging to find a good solution for storing your bike. I hope this bike stand made from renewable resources inspires you to ride to school, work, or just for fun!

This is a free-standing bicycle floor stand designed with an interchangeable beam to support a conventional hanging hook (wall-hanging style) or reverse (seatpost) storage position for your bike. This design can be constructed with standard 2 x 4 dimensional lumber. This was a quick project to build some indoor storage for a new bike. It could use some improvement...I welcome your feedback! Have fun making!

Material

This can be made entirely with 2 by 4 lumber. I used about 15 linear feet. Even if you skip the tall beam (for hanging) and stick with the seatpost stand, you will likely use just under 10 feet. For the fasteners, you can use anything you have on hand. I used black oxide 18-8 socket head cap screws because I like the look. I recommend the following material:

1. qty. 2 2" x 4" x 8' pine lumber
2. qty. 2 5/16-24 x 3.0" bolt (I used a 2.5" lg. because that's what I had on hand)
3. qty. 2 5/16-24 nut
4. qty. 2 standard flat washer for 5/16 size screw
5. qty. 1 utility hook (I used a 4" hook)
6. qty. 8 felt furniture pads (if desired)
7. qty. bulk wood glue, as required
8. qty. bulk fasteners, various, as required during assembly:

~15 #9 x 2.5" wood/construction or decking screws

~ 3 #8 x 1.25 " wood screws

Equipment

You can (mostly) do the entire project with hand tools. I used the following:

1. hand saw
2. 1/4 in chisel
3. 1 1/2 in chisel
4. circular saw (7 1/4 in)
5. trim router
6. drill

These standard tools are very helpful:

1. speed square
2. carpenter square
3. utility knife
4. tape measure
5. pencil

Tooling

I used several drill bits, including a few pilot holes for the more critical screws and an appropriately sized clearance drill to drill holes for my selected fasteners.

1. drill bits, various (see above)
2. countersink drill bit for #8 screw
3. countersink drill bit for #10 screw
4. straight router bit, 1/4 in dia.
5. Forstner bit, 1 in dia. (optional) (due to my selected bolt length)

"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."

Fusion360 is your best friend when it comes to these kinds of projects. It's a great design tool, and it's free for hobbyists. I also love having a print-out of my dimensioned assembly drawing once I hit the shop floor. Feel free to reference these drawing throughout the project or even design your own version.

As you follow along, look at the numbers marked on each part. You can reference this against the second sheet of the drawing which shows you the entire assembly and which parts go where.

Cut the first piece to length (22 in). Don't drill any holes for now. We'll drill those once we are ready to cut our slots.

Cut a new piece to length (24 in). This is the lower cross beam. We want to cut out what is more or less a dado joint. Don't get confused by the drawing which assumes your beam is exactly 24 inch. The cutout width (which should be a close fit to the vertical beam) is the most critical dimension here. Use the lower vertical beam as a gage for this step.

Cut out the profile you just marked. I recommend using a hand saw and chisel to make this cut.

Make a cut the same width as the cut made in step 4. The depth of cut should be one half of the thickness of your wood (3/4"). I used a couple of passes with the circular saw to start the cut and finished with the chisel.

1. Cut a new piece to length. Use the overall length from the drawing, 26 in. Don't worry about that 30º draft angle on the piece for now. We will cut that later.
2. Gage the length and depth of your lap joint you just cut in step 5. Mark that same distance on your new piece. Then check the fit.
3. Make the cut. I used the hand saw and the chisel to clean up.
4. Check the fit in the assembly so far. I ended up having to take down a little bit of end grain with the chisel to get a good fit after making my cut.

Cut a new single piece to length. We are going to make a beveled cut to cut two pieces out of one. This profile is calculated to split the piece exactly in two to make two identical beams.

1. Mark a straight line along the length of the piece one inch from the edge.
2. Set your circular saw bevel angle to 45º. If you're making this cut by hand instead, I assume you know what you're doing :)
3. Make the cut down the length of the piece, taking the line. For the most even cut, keep your kerf centered on the cut line if you are able.

This is one of the more tedious cuts on this project. We will be taking a corner off of the v-beams to accommodate the lower vertical beam.

If you do not wish to make these cuts, you could skip this step entirely and just cut off the excess in a later step.

1. Do your best to center the two pieces on the lower cross beam. We will be marking where the lower vertical beam comes through. I put the pieces side by side after marking and split the difference to get a more exact line. You can also try to measure and mark with a square.
2. Next, use the 45º beveled edge (the surface of the cut we made in step 7) as your datum, and mark a line straight through that is normal to that cut plane. In other words, mark the vertical line where the beam will go through.
3. Mark the depth (1.5 in) along the length of the beam.
4. Once you have marked your cuts, go ahead and cut using the hand saw.

Cut a new 18" piece for this beam. We will be cutting two slots in this beam to have a nice adjustable height for the seatpost rest. If you are going with the wall hanging option only, you can skip this step.

Next, drill holes to mark the ends of the slot. Follow the drawing. This should be your clearance drill size for your fastener of choice. I used a letter drill Q to make this hole.

I made quite a few passes with my router to cut this slot. You could also cut this with a chisel if you really wanted to, drilling lots of holes in one side, chiseling out enough to get a saw in, and then finishing the cuts with the hand saw.

Now that we have our slot cut, we can get a better alignment on these holes. These will be supporting our upper vertical beam.

Note: if you want to do it the smart way, just use threaded inserts like this. You can get them from a local hardware store. I didn't use these because I wasn't able to find them in my size of bolt.

I took the caveman approach instead:

We want to make a hexagonal hole in the backside of the lower vertical beam so that the nuts don't freely spin when we are loosening or tightening our bike stand.

Note: Since I had shorter screws, I cut a large counterbore into the back of this beam so that I could get the correct depth for my nuts.

Drill the holes using the same size drill as step 9. Next, put your bolt through the hole and thread on the nut. What you want to do is mark the hexagon shape so you can chisel it out. Use a chisel to cut a profile as deep as your nut into the wood.

You can very easily make the upper vertical beam by drilling two holes in another long piece of lumber. You can use the holes you just drilled in step 10 as an alignment gage. Drill them the same size. I actually did not even cut this piece to size. I had a perfectly sized piece of scrap that was just about the right height.

Install your nuts and bolt the vertical beams together to check the fit. You can remove them. Next, use wood screws and glue as required to screw all your pieces together, drilling pilot holes as needed. I chose to screw everything from the back and bottom so that no screws were visible.

Once the glue is dry (next day...), set a 30º bevel angle on your circular saw. You can flip your piece upside down and cut the end off to make a nice ramp for rolling the bike easily into the stand. It's a nice cosmetic touch as well. My saw did not cut through, as it is a 7 1/4" circular saw, so I finished the cut with a hand saw.

At this point it's helpful to do a dry fit with your bike on the stand to gage the best shape for your seatpost cutout. I sadly broke my jigsaw blade about 1/8" into my cut, so I ended up doing this with multiple passes on the circular saw and finishing the profile with a rasp. It looks pretty rough. I do recommend making this cut with a jigsaw for the best result.

I added felt furniture pads to the bottom of the piece. Now is a great time to see whether the seatpost or hanging mount will work best for your space.

Grab your bike. It's time to get a custom fit on your stand.

1. Install the seatpost vertical beam and lower it slightly.
2. Roll the back tire of your bike backwards all the way onto the stand.
3. Tilt your bike backwards until it leans backwards- just over center.
4. Raise the vertical beam until it meets the bike seatpost. Have a friend tighten the screws for you once you have the perfect position.

I bought a vinyl coated utility hook to hang the bike on. The height here is pretty critical. If it's too low, the handlebars may twist and the stand won't be the most stable. (I made this mistake). If it's too high, it may be a little more challenging to lift the bike up to install it. Once you get an idea for the right height for the hook, drill a pilot hole and screw in your hook.

Have fun!