Cycling and city living go well together for a number of reasons, but ease of storage certainly isn't one of them. Hide-A-Ride is a mechanical rack designed to make things a little easier by suspending bikes against the ceiling and out of the way, leaving valuable floorspace free of their clunky frames.
- Crafted from aluminum and cold rolled steel, the 7-lb (3.2-kg) Hide-A-Ride is bolted onto ceiling joists and can be installed in spaces as narrow as a hallway. Bikes weighing up to 50 lb (23 kg) can be loaded onto the rack by way of a pair of Norprene-coated hooks, while there's also a seperate locking loop for added security.
Once it's secured, you push upwards with a handle to have the Hide-A-Ride fold in on itself and the bike locked into place against the ceiling. When it comes to lowering the bike to the ground again, there's a little help from a linear damper to make sure it doesn't come down too fast.
We have seen a couple of similar approaches to getting bikes up and out of the way recently. Those with heavier bikes that are a pain to lift may do better to seek a little hydraulic and pneumatic assistance with the flat-bike-lift rack, or the pulley-basedStowaway system.
Hide-A-Ride could also be pretty useful as a stand for changing tires, greasing chains or general bike maintenance. When lowered, the company says the components should sit at around shoulder height, but this would of course depend on the height of your ceiling.
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