Bicycle Hoist or "How to get the wife's bike out of my way"

Step 6 Test and Attach Hoist

If you can, try to test the rig before you permanently attaching it to the ceiling. I used one of those canvas tie down straps and a lower cross beam. I just strapped the board to the beam and tightened the strap. This allowed to to hoist the bike a few feet and make adjustments to the setup.

Once you are ready to hang the hoist, get someone to help hold the ladder and hand you stuff. I used two joist hangers that are available at most lumber yards or home mega centers. I used four screws per hanger to attach it solidly to the roof beams in my shop. You may need to fine straight hangers rather than right angle ones, or use some other method.

In my case, because of the board length and such, one of the hangers was 18" or so from one of the ends of the hoist. Because the whole system is over engineered, I was not worried about the cantilever issue. Ideally, you would have the two brackets as close to the pulleys as you can manage or on the ends of the board.