unicycle storage concept

With 3 (soon to be 4) riders in the house, the unicycle situation was getting out of hand. I had planned on building a storage system when I came across the FastRack system by Rubbermaid. They have all sorts of storage devices / hooks that hang off a common rail. By alternating a bike-tire hook (to hang the uni’s upside down) with a hook designed to hold shovels (to hang them by their seats) I can squeeze the uni’s close together.

It must look funny when all of you climb out of the tiny car! :smiley:

Sorry, I have never seen so many unicycles. Neat and clever way of hanging them tho.
Todd

With 4 kids I have no use for a tiny car - but our home circus seems to continually amuse the neighbors!

I cant tell exactly how the hooks support those unicycles, but I’d be wary of hanging the unicycles by their wheels. I had hooks similar to that and I hanged a unicycle by the wheel one. Hanging by the wheel put constant stress on a single spoke and that eventually weakened the wheel, causing need for extensive repairs eventually.

Those metal prongs on the bottom could be displacing the stress, but in one of your pictures it looks like all of the unicycle’s weight is on a single nipple.

That’s not how it works, though. The weight is actually on the rim, not a spoke. I’ve hung bikes & unis in similar fashion for years, with no adverse effects. But I like the way this system looks, and will investigate it. It seems an easier way to keep the unis close together. Mine are more spread out currently (but I only have 8 to organize).

That looks far too organised and neat. And surely must take the fun out of finding the unicycle you want to ride. I much prefer the approach by John Foss. I can’t find the photo of the ‘pile’ on his workbench, but it’s a work of art in itself and demonstrates that you can’t have too much of a good thing - even if you’ve not got the space for it!

STM - hoping John can find a link to the photo(s) I’m talking about

That is correct. In the photo, it looks like the uni is resting on the spoke nipple - but, in fact, the nipple is above (very close to but not resting on) the hook. All the weight is on the rim

A word of caution, the tire hooks don’t work well for big tires (29", 36") or fat MUni tires. If you look closely in my photos, all the big-tired Uni’s and all the Muni’s are hanging from the seat. So, if your collection of 8 is made up exclusively of big wheels and muni’s, you may not be able to alternate right-side-up and upside-down storage.

No argument from me on that point. Big messes are the story of my life. In fact, after I completed the project, my wife said, “Who are you and what have you done with my husband?”

But it was my wife who prompted this unspeakable act of neatness. She couldn’t get to her car in the garage without tripping over stray uni’s. She actually threatened to cull the herd (the herd of unicycles, not the herd of children). She also was getting pretty unreasonable about adding to our one-wheeled collection. She had some silly notion that 14 uni’s were enough for any family. So in the interests my marriage, the current unicycle collection and the ability to acquire future unicycles, I decided to be noble and focus on her concerns to the exclusion of all other considerations. “Yes, Dear” is a phrase with which every (still) married man is familiar.

Does your wife ride? If not, why not?

She will be much more reasonable if some of HER unicycles are hanging up on the wall. :roll_eyes:

Good concept, I got the same thing in my shed, but for the bikes, all my unis are in my house:P

Having her learn to ride a uni has long been part of my master plan. She was going to give it a go when she became pregnant with our fourth child. Kiddo #4 is now 1.5 years old, and my wife just hasn’t found the time to learn to ride the unicycle. I just can’t imagine what she does all day long with her time! :stuck_out_tongue: Obviously, she doesn’t have her priorities straight.

Woah, that is not my usual storage method! But you probably get Uni Magazine so you know that. I don’t know if this link will work; you may need to sign in to the Kodak Gallery to see the messy picture. I’m not at home so I can’t upload a copy…

That was when we were getting our garage roof rebuilt. Normally they hang on http://unicycling.smugmug.com/gallery/609380_cYn5J#25742168_tnDfq
. And the same is true; fatter wheels don’t fit in the common-sized bike hooks; you have to find oversized ones to fit Coker/36" and other wide tires like Trials or MUni.

That Rubbermaid system looks great for a reasonable number of cycles to fit. Long as you have enough wall space… They look great and are easily accessible while not being all tangled together; an improvement over hanging them all in the same orientation.

Woah, that is not my usual storage method! But you probably get Uni Magazine so you know that. I don’t know if this link will work; (end of album if you get there) you may need to sign in to the Kodak Gallery to see the messy picture. I’m not at home so I can’t upload a copy…

That was when we were getting our garage roof rebuilt. Normally they hang on bike hooks like this. And the same is true; fatter wheels don’t fit in the common-sized bike hooks; you have to find oversized ones to fit Coker/36" and other wide tires like Trials or MUni.

That Rubbermaid system looks great for a reasonable number of cycles to fit. Long as you have enough wall space… They look great and are easily accessible while not being all tangled together; an improvement over hanging them all in the same orientation.

These pictures (playing with my then-new wide angle lens) show the wide vs. regular hooks, and more views of my garage ceiling.

l l l l
l l l l

I have rack that looks something like the above in plan. Made from a wooden central bar (2x2 IIRC, about 6 or 7 ft long) with 4 wooden cross peices (1x1 , about 18 inches long) It is fixed to two rafters in our garage, it holds 9 unicycles, 8 hang from wheel on the wooded cross pieces ( 4 each side) and the 9th hangs by saddle from the central bar . Our 10th uni is a coker , it lives on teh floor. Unis 11 and 12 have been rehomed.

The unis need to be off the floor, they share the garage with the club uni hockey kit, 5 bikes, a bike trailer and soon a tandem.

Ah, that’s the one(s). Yeah, I remember the article in Uni magazine, but I prefer to think of this photo instead though;

It’s just got that ‘it working so don’t touch it’ look about it :slight_smile:

STM

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Semach: That is a truly wonderful photo of Foss’s unicycles! Did you notice all those old fashioned seats? I still have my first uni from the 1970s with one of those seat styles. Seeing a whole bunch together - It made my tender areas hurt just to look at them! :astonished:

John Foss: Nice photos of the unicycles hanging from the ceiling. How many Uni’s do you actually own??!! Do you ride them all? Really?? A nice (but rather foggy) old lady up the street keeps acquiring stray cats. You seem to acquire stray unicycles. I wonder is the similarities end there?

I know what you mean. I keep them as curiosities, and as part of my “unicycle collection”. Also, many of those seats are okay for novelty cycles, the ones you don’t ride for any great period of time.

You asked:
How many Uni’s do you actually own??!! - About 40
Do you ride them all? No.
Really?? - Yes.
A nice (but rather foggy) old lady up the street keeps acquiring stray cats…
My garage doesn’t smell like cat pee. :slight_smile: Very few of them are strays, though there was a period where people were bringing me these crap unicycles they’d pick up at garage sales or from friends that had them laying around. I kept the unique ones, but got rid of others. So I have a Rutledge, Iverson, Fmsa, Stelber, etc. But the Loyd, the Univega and the Panasonic I bought on purpose, on eBay. Also the little pink Japanese unicycle with the kickstand.