Holding bikes by the rims

[LEX]

Is it okay to hold a bike to the roof by a hook through the front wheel?. A lot of bike companies produce racks like this but i would be worried that prolonged pressure in a single spot would damage the rim either by warping it or loosening the spokes. Has anyone got any experiences with these sorts of racks?. If it matters i'm Holding 1 x Am bike (14kg) and a XC (10.5kg).

 

[shakes]

no drama's at all. Some bikes spend months at a time swinging like that in shops. Mine at home have lived that way for years.

Nothing to stress about at all.

 

[guitar1234]

Like mentioned above they usually don't cause any damage to wheels at all, at least until that faithful moment went you forget you've got your bikes on the roof and go under a low bridge

 

[harmonix1234]

I have 5 bikes currently hanging in the shed this very way.
No probs at all. Just make sure you get the rubber coated hooks and not plain metal ones that will scratch your rims.

Looks great having them all in a line on the shed wall, and saves a tonne of space too. Do it!

(I just used the rubber coated bike specific hooks from bunnings. Straight into the hardwood beams)

*edit* Are you talking car roof, or house/shed/carport roof?

 

[Pushie]

presuming storage and not transport ... I reckon no problem ...

For transport ... I've always worried about it as the forces are different producing lots of twisting moments. (engineers and physicists can correct me if I'm using the wrong terminology).

 

[LEX]

Like mentioned above they usually don't cause any damage to wheels at all, at least until that faithful moment went you forget you've got your bikes on the roof and go under a low bridge

I did that low bridge thing last week hard to measure ur car height with a bike haha. Lucky it wasn't my FC

Thanx for the replies guys. And to clarify it is for storage not transport.

 

[Fisher]

When you think about the amount of force you wheel would undergo whilst riding, the weight of you, the bike then multiplied due to momentum, the 15 or so kg the rim would have to support to simply hang there would really be bugger all.

Even so with transport, just as a guess, I'd doubt you could do much damage to your rim as it wouldn't be undergoing too much force from going around a corner.
Your wheels aren't as fragile as you'd think.

 

[rider124]

Hey mate, I work in a bike shop. and most of the bikes we repair and even build brand new get hung up like that. sometimes we have them hanging for weeks, months and in a few special cases a year or 2. And so far we haven't had one problem.

 

[gcouyant]

Is it okay to hold a bike to the roof by a hook through the front wheel?. A lot of bike companies produce racks like this but i would be worried that prolonged pressure in a single spot would damage the rim either by warping it or loosening the spokes. Has anyone got any experiences with these sorts of racks?. If it matters i'm Holding 1 x Am bike (14kg) and a XC (10.5kg).

Lex given the weight of the bikes and that it is a static load upon the wheels and bearings, there is no problem whatsoever hanging them up in all sorts of ambient conditions and periods of time. Relax mate - it's fine.

Problems only arise when there are dynamic or cyclic loads upon static wheels and cranks.

 

[scblack]

(I just used the rubber coated bike specific hooks from bunnings. Straight into the hardwood beams)

I hang my roadie the same way. And use the similar plastic coated hooks from Bunnings, only cost about $2 each. But I use the "S" shaped ones, not bike specific ones.

Hanging bikes like this is no problem whatsoever. I just wish I had the room for the DH bike to do the same, would clear up heaps of floor space in the garage.