John and Cari spent their “winter break” re-imagining the storage for John’s proliferating bike stuff with a nifty storage system called Wall Control. Consider this post a follow-up to Spencer’s tacklebox Bike Hacks and Travis’ excellent Bike Hacks article he penned last year, where he showcased how to make the most out of limited available space for bikes and bike stuff. Read on for some tricks John and Cari learned along the way…
No Garage Woes
When we were looking to buy a house in Santa Fe throughout 2018 and 2019, one requisite was on our list: a garage. I’ve never had one as an adult; I’ve been cursed with apartments that had little space for my outdoors-aligned lifestyle.
The home we found that fit our budget and was located close to our trails had no garage anymore. Most of these 1960s homes had small garages, but they’ve all been seemingly converted into bedrooms over the years. Ours was among the ones that were converted.
When we moved into our home right before the pandemic in early 2020, this space immediately became Cari’s painting and work studio. She’s a sign painter and graphic designer by education, so she has an 8′ by 7′ easel that holds her Baltic Birch plywood for signs that requires a lot of space. It was the only room in the house that would fit it.
My bike storage would have to be (mostly) confined to our laundry room, which is only 8′ by 8′. Like Travis’ Bike Hacks, I’d learned to live with this space, but I really needed to wrangle it into order. The ex-architect in me loves the endorphin drip from fixing and programming or designing small spaces.
Unfortunately, as the spinner of many plates over here at The Radavist, I get overwhelmed as the cycling year blossoms, starting with the Sedona Mountain Bike Festival. Then comes Sea Otter and bike tours, river trips, road trips, and Cari and I don’t get a break until after Christmas and before New Year’s.
My Organizational Muse
As the years of bike crap literally piled up around us, Cari and I hit a breaking point late last summer before driving up to the MADE Bike Show. After the show, we swung through to see our friends Casey and Sarah in the Eastern Sierra to catch up. The first thing I noticed about Casey’s workshop and pottery studio was that they were covered in this beautiful metal pegboard system.
I began frothing and taking photos before even asking what it was. Little did I know, Cari was with Sarah and was doing the same thing.
“What is that?” I asked.
“It’s Wall Control. It’s pricier than particle board peg board, but the options for organizing scratch that itch.” Casey remarked. “I went all out.”
His organizational prowess made me feel self-conscious about the mess that was in my bike room at home.
I don’t have a photo of the chaos that was the bike room, other than this Instagram Story I sent Dave Rome, jokingly prodding him over workplace OCD. With tools strewn about, my Silca Allen Key set filled with bolts and nuts, and bags stuffed into the bins below, it wasn’t pretty.
Hanging Bikes
Within this room, we had five bike hooks, using those BikeHand hooks I bought off Amazon during the pandemic. Getting these size XL bikes in and out of the roughly 8′ by 8′ space wasn’t fun. The room also has our washer and dryer in it. The whole situation sucked. Adding to the complexity is my curse of wide handlebars. Boo.
Cari’s office had begun to get overwhelmed with boxes, shipping supplies, and home hardware. If anything stresses Cari out, it’s messy spaces. We both sat down and devised a plan. She proposed we move all of our tools into the laundry room and move all (or most all) of the bikes into her office. We had roughly 12′ to hang as many bikes, so I started to sketch mentally.
Using those same BikeHand hooks, I determined there was enough space to hang eleven bikes. The trick would be to stagger the hooks 12″ and on 12″ centers. The lower hook would be hung at 6’2″ and the upper hook at 7’2″. Our ceiling is 8′ tall in that room.
Luckily, this wall was built by the original developer in the 1960s, so the studs were spaced every 16″ with lateral blocking in between as this is an exterior shear wall. I was able to hit the blocking for the lower hooks and used a combination of 200lb Toggler bolts and studs for the rest of the hooks.
We fit eleven bikes in the space, freeing up the laundry room for our tools and a small work table.
After finishing this job, we both sighed to each other, lamenting how we suck at “before” photos. So you’ll have to take my word for it: this is a huge improvement.
Wall Control
Now we can get into the nitty-gritty. Wall Control’s units are designed to be attached to 16″ wall stud centers. These 16″ wide panels come in 32″ lengths, but there is a multitude of configurations you can choose from, including wider and longer panels. Like pegboard, you can use standard hardware that’s ubiquitous at hardware stores. However, Wall Control’s panels are also slotted, allowing for a variety of hangers that are way more secure than the standard pegboard hangers.
There are shelves, cup holders, hooks, hangers, brackets, and other accessories to meet your spatial needs. Plus, you can use anything magnetic, too. We started small with three panels and a small selection of organizers:
- (3) 16″ x 32″ Wall Control panels
- Plastic Hanging Pegboard Bin 4 x 5 x 3
- Extended Reach Slotted Pegboard Hook (2) Pack – 6″ Reach
- Standard Slotted Hook (6) Pack – 7/8″ Reach
- 12-Drawer Pegboard Bin Cabinet
- Slotted Metal Pegboard Aerosol Spray Can Holder
- 9″ Uni-Shelf One Piece Metal Pegboard Shelving
- Magnetic Tool Holder Organizer
Grand total: $295.52 (We paid this in full)
Installing Wall Control
To install the Wall Control, I ran three furring strips, screwed them into the wall’s studs across a window, and then attached the Wall Control panels to these furring strips and began to organize them. I wanted the plastic bins to hold bolts, ferrules, small parts, and anything I’d need to build a bike up.
Wall Control uses these slotted hooks with a unique profile design that locks into the slots, making them much more secure compared to common pegboard hardware. There is a variety to choose from, but I ordered short and long ones for my needs.
Yes, I installed it over the windows for some eerie sci-fi vibes!
The Wall Control would hold the tools that I use on a daily basis. The metal shelf is my tubeless station, holding my sealant, Park syringe, and rim tape. There are a multitude of hooks, both long for multiple items and short for single tools.
Under the Wall Control are some wire basket cubbies with a wooden top we bought from a local hardware store, as well as some Japanese toolbox storage trays that would hold miscellaneous bike parts like grips, pedals, or spares. The cubbies hold my riding shoes, bike parts that are in boxes, and various bags I use on and off.
Other Improvements
This wall would be the “bike tool” wall, with the adjacent wall being Cari’s pegboard hanger she made when we moved into our house. That would hold our “house tools,” but a few bike goods have made it onto the wall. Obviously.
We then put together a wire bin storage unit from our local hardware store and ordered a wooden top for it to make a work table. On the ground, there are three HDX stackable bins (sans tops) with other bike goods. On the middle shelf are some plastic bins, a toolbox, my trailwork tools, and USPS crates with more bike stuff.
There’s just enough space to put a bike in the Feedback Sports Pro stand and plenty of space to repack my coaster brake hub from the Mone SB2, swap a cassette out, tinker with an old set of brake levers, or whatever maintenance a bike might need. Lately, I’ve enjoyed building bikes up on the workbench before I install the wheels, eventually loading them into the work stand. One of the unexpected joys of working in a small space is most of your tools are within an arm’s reach.
Being in this small, intimate space feels really soothing. If I’m hitting writer’s block or seeing cross-eyed from editing photos or replying to emails, I’ll take a break and retreat to my lair, where I’ll tackle a bike project and listen to an audiobook or an album. What’s funny is that I am now actively looking for repair projects rather than putting them off.
These days, I’m getting a lot of frames only in for review, which earlier this winter felt overwhelming. But now that I have a space to work, I can build a bike up in peace with everything at my fingertips, instead of in the cold outdoors or in the middle of our living room.
I built my 1980 Ritchey and Crust Nor’Easter review bike up in this small but organized space, and time seemingly flew by. Everything I needed was within reach, and I could just zone out and focus on getting the builds dialed in. Because it’s a small area, I make sure to clean up after myself to keep things neat and orderly.
Perhaps one unforeseen byproduct was a reduction of “stuff,” too. I dropped off four USPS bins of extra bike parts, bags, and miscellaneous bike gear to my local shop, Sincere Snowshoes, Running, and Cycles, for the community to pick through. This culling of what is necessary and what was excess helped me organize and optimize the space.
Space is hard to come by for a lot of people but no matter how much space you have or don’t have, some of our Bike Hacks here at The Radavist are bound to help you out.
Do you have some spatial organization ideas of your own? Share your solutions and photos in the comments!
