Natural Wood Indoor Bicycle Stand for Under $15 USD

I keep my bicycle indoors due to space constraints outdoors. After looking at various manufactured bike stands, I decided to make one that would not look like it belonged in a bike shop rather than in my room. I prefer the look of natural woods and glass, and wanted to match that motif if I could. This bike stand is an easy to create and assemble, attractive indoor wooden bicycle stand that is very stable, yet has a small footprint.

I had some 1 in x 1 in finished scraps in 1 foot lengths, and thought that if I could come up with a way to use it, then I'd feel better about conservation. Mom taught me a lot about how to make every penny count (back in the days when a penny was worth --- well, at least a penny.) These were pretty nice "scraps", and I didn't want them to be wasted. In addition, the 1 foot lengths seemed adequate because I wanted the final bike stand footprint to be small and unobtrusive.

I went through several designs before I settled on this one. I even had the three risers already glued together when I decided that I didn't like what the eventual product might look like, and how easy it would be to use. So I put what I had already made down next to the bike and tried several different approaches to a stand. Because this is a stand for a full-suspension mountain bike, and I regularly swap the road wheels and mountain wheels, I needed to make sure that the stand would clear both sets of wheels.

Step 1 The materials and tools.

I used 1 in square x 36 in long ash stock. This stock is available from Home Depot and Lowe's. It is fairly well finished, though for more elegant projects, I further smooth the sides with an orbital sander with 320 grit paper.

Glue: I used Gorilla glue for the first time on this project because of reviews I had read. It requires the wood to be damp before the pieces are glued. We'll see how it survives the test of time.

Clamps: I happened to have a pair of Sears Craftsman 18" clamps on hand. I have also used straps with ratchets and wood blocks or cloth to protect my project. Failing that, you can simply weight the wood pieces while the glue dries.

Angle Braces: I decided to attach two right-angle braces at the end of the stand with the least glued contact surface.

The Wood: I used 12 1-foot pieces in this project. I think that I could have gotten by with 10 pieces. The extra two pieces are there because I changed the design at the last minute. The stepped support consisting of a 12", 8", and 4" piece is built as much for looks as for strength. This wood stock is sold in 3-foot lengths.

Drill and small drill bit (I used a 5/64").

Phillips screwdriver.

Comments

[brookz]

I like the simplicity of the design. It's small, seems pretty lightweight and the material won't mar the chainstay/frame. I have two bikes in need of a stand and I will probably use your instructible as a starting point. One thing you could do is add felt squares to the wood - where the bike rests on the wood. Just in case for some odd reason the wood begins to splinter a bit. Protect your fingers and your bike.

[setithing]

I like this design and will properly try and build one but I intend to use my bike as a power generator (this could be a good way to add friction to the bike) so would be interested to know how to fit a generator to this. Very good work! This is what I have done.

[smmidealab]

I'm trying to build a stand so I can hook my bike up to a small generator. I was wondering if you would share how you built this and how it works with the generator you have there.

[Protostar]

Hi Setithing, I think you have a good idea here. A lot of us would like to make use of the power we waste on our bikes. I think that my design is too fragile to handle the strain of running a generator, though. The bike just sits on my stand, so I don't think that it would power a generator. I have a training bike stand that is all metal, and I think that it could be converted to work with a generator, Your setup here looks sturdy enough to run a generator. I'd recommend slick tires to run more smoothly on the generator shaft. You can actually buy slicks for your bike. I run Specialized Fat Boys. Best of luck with your project. Be sure to post your progress here for all to see!

[setithing]

I am not really in to all the biking this so I don't know much about all the different tires. My main idea was to take the back tyre off and run a drive belt round it but as my back tyre is so worn i could put a wheel on there.

[Protostar]

The idea of taking the tire off the rim and running a drive belt sounds interesting. Because your bike is bolted down to the base, that would be good for a drive belt. The trick is to find a belt that would work...

[setithing]

What I did is use the inertube and cut out the valve. It's great because you know what size it is

[fish2find]

Nice job Protostar, thanks for posting this up. Hopefully its todays project for me. F2F

[shooby]

It seems like you could make this with a lot less wood- the bike sits on only two skyscrapers, but you've built a city. Some simple brackets could replace all that extra wood, and save time.

[chipfernandez]

Hi Shooby, I might be going out on a ledge, but I think this design's intent is to be more sculptural (i.e.'skyscrapers') than utilitarian (i.e. wood and brackets). It's easy to slap on some brackets on to wood and call it a day, but to make it sit pretty sans bicycle is something else. I'd give this one 4.5 stars.

[Protostar]

You both have good points. As I mentioned in my original post, I started with one idea and changed it as I went along. Rather than throw away the work that I had done, I just added to it, rotating the vertical riser to accommodate my new design. I didn't want a bunch of metal to clash with the wood. I would have been happy with brass, but most of the brackets I found were zinc and steel, and that didn't fit into my plans. My wife liked the style so much she asked me to make them for the Klein and her Specialized. BTW, Chip, if you think that it's worth a 4.5, you might rate it...

[shooby]

Oh ok, fair enough :) Sorry, I got too into the engineering (and I'm an architect!) I think that aesthetically it's great, I just got caught up in the efficiency of the design once I got thinking about cost reduction. If you build any more of these, I'd recommend elongating the base slightly, so that there's an emphasized contrast between the vertical and horizontal elements. Good project.