amazing, almost on topic

if one were considering building a purpose-built bike garage,
including some sort of "hitching post" built into the walls, what
material would suit?

 

<raises eyebrow> Mauve crushed velvet?

 

Wouldn't you fit the device into the floor? You can take a few bricks
out of a wall in moments as mortar isn't that soft.

Also consider fitting a drain in the floor. It will save hours in the
long run searching for circlips and small screws.

 

Oops, I meant not that hard, at least not the lime mortar that real walls use.

 

Breeze blocks I'd suggest. You could build the hitching post into the
pillars (you'd need one or so in the long wall) or, failing that just
sink it in the concrete floor when you laid it.

 

I bought and adapted a standard 8 x 6 shed as follows:

Laid a hard concrete base with ground anchor.
Specified no windows in shed, and door at one end only.
Converted blank end of shed to have double doors.
Bolted shed directly to concrete base (i.e threw away the wooden floor).
Laid on power.
Painted floor.
Installed alarm.

2 bikes fit in quite snugly, plus other assorted crap.

--
Dan L (Oldbloke)

My bike 1996 Kawasaki ZR1100 Zephyr
Space in shed where NSR125 used to be
Spare Bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X (Patio Ornament)
BOTAFOT #140 (KotL 2005/6), X-FOT#000, DIAABTCOD #26, BOMB#18 (slow), OMF#11

 

believe me, I've considered it - however, in this case it wouldn't
fit.

 

you could be right - I still want to DIY it rather than buy a purpose
built ground anchor, because I'll be building the structure almost
from scratch, and it'll be a purpose built bike-storage space rather
than a general purpose garage.

you seem to be implying that I'd be doing some sort of maintenance
work on my bikes myself - how odd.

 

you misunderstand - what sort of material for the actual attachment
point for a chain i.e. steel/titanium/cheese etc.

 

this is in connection with one of the two properties I'm considering
buying[1]. It's already got a mains-equipped 10x16 shed at the bottom
of the back garden, but I don't really want to have to put a sloped
path the whole way to the front of the house.

The house has an fairly wide gap (around 2.5m) between the side of the
property and the building line. There's currently a brick wall at the
front with inset wrought-iron gate, and a 6 foot wooden fence running
right along side the house to the shed at the bottom of the garden.

What I want to do is, build up a brick wall along the building line
for 3 metres or so, build a back wall to the bike storage area (with a
lockable door in it), replace the wrought iron gate with another
lockable door (maybe double doors, but in any case wide enough for a
bike), then roof this over with sloped corrugated clear plastic (and a
bit of guttering, natch). I don't need electricity (at least
initially).

In the building of the above, I'd set in some ground anchors, made out
of some kind of metal. My original question is: what sort of metal.

[1] I know the "right" answer is to buy a house with a garage, but the
one I'm considering with a garage doesn't have enough room/an ensuite
(see other post)

 

This is similar to where mine is situated, i.e gap between my house an next
door, otherwise a pretty useless piece of garden.

I did consider a similar approach, i.e building a "lean to" effort off the
side of the house. However, my brick work skills are dubious, and I really
didn't want the hassle of finding out if such a structure required planning
permission. A shed, to me, seemed far more innocuous, and less likely to
incur any objections from neighbours. Also, dicking about with wood is a
whole lot easier. [1]

Don't forget, electricity is a good thing for optimates, theft deterrents
lighting and heating (I have an electric tube heater in mine to keep the
chill off the bike in winter). My prime aim was to make the "Bike House" as
hassle free as possible in use (and a useful little bolt hole when
necessary).

I bought a purpose made item from M&P, and sunk it into the concrete base so
that it wasn't protruding (less of a trip hazard). It's a fairly sturdy
steel ring, with lateral bars which extend under the concrete base.

If there is an alternative, not having a garage is not really reason enough
to reject an otherwise suitable house.

If you like, I can send pics of my set up, to give you some idea of what
it's like.

[1] Feedlines R us.

--
Dan L (Oldbloke)

My bike 1996 Kawasaki ZR1100 Zephyr
Space in shed where NSR125 used to be
Spare Bike 1990 Suzuki TS50X (Patio Ornament)
BOTAFOT #140 (KotL 2005/6), X-FOT#000, DIAABTCOD #26, BOMB#18 (slow), OMF#11

 

Wot! No fitted carpet? (OK someone gave me a load that just fitted.)

I was going to fit a heavy duty ring on a plate into the floor between
the bike and the wall (for difficult access) with expanding bolts in to
the concrete. Then weld the bolt heads to the plate.

 

For ease of sourcing it I'd say stainless angle section. You should be
able to buy some large section stuff and actually build it into the
wall. Stainless is horrible to hacksaw through, takes longer to grind
through and can't be cut with an oxy-acetylene set. Not many bike
thieves have plasma cutters so you should be safe.

If you go down this route and have the garage built to your own specs
then get the electrician to wire in a hidden isolator so nobody can
plug a grinder into your supply and cut through chains.

 

This describes what I have done, with the front half bike shed the rear
half garden shed.

It's behind double 2 meter gates to the front of the house.

 

A friend who lives out near Hampton came home one evening and found one
of those airliner containers in his front garden, rather to his
bemusement. It was all in one piece, so hadn't fallen out of a jumbo or
anything.

He uses it as a shed.

 

Concrete block or mass concrete. If the scrotes are going to demolish a
wall to get something detached from it, even concrete isn't going to
stop them. All you can do is make it so noisy or difficult they won't
bother.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a
I demand nothing of you except that you amuse me.

Folding@Home Team UKRM
http://vspx27.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=teampage&teamnum=47957

 

You might want to have an anonymous word with your friendly local
council planning officer first. I can spot a couple of problems with your
scheme that might run foul of planning permission/building regs (e.g.
having a garage attached to a residence is a big no-no these days, there
are rules about how high the door-sill must be to prevent petrol spills
escaping, and burn resistance of the door, etc -- possibly only of
relevance if the door is between the garage and the residence, but it
might be safest to check first).

--
Ivan Reid, Electronic & Computer Engineering, ___ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

If I was considering such a construction, I'd be very much drawn to one of
those "Bike safe" things where the bike "just" fits inside and sits locked
onto on a loading rail with built in locks which engage when the bike's
pushed home. The outside also (obviously) locks so it's a locked bike,
locked onto a rail which is locked inside a pretty hardy steel box which is
locked inside a (hopefully) well locked garage.

Anyone looking to nick that bike won't be doing it easily and they'll
certainly need to make a fucking lot of noise trying.


--
Beav
OMF#19
VN 750
Zed Thou

mail is beavis dot original at ntlworld dot com (with the obvious changes)

 

Hmm... I should have read the following posts.

Stainless, as Andy says, and make it inaccessible once the bike's in
place.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a
I demand nothing of you except that you amuse me.

Folding@Home Team UKRM
http://vspx27.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/main.py?qtype=teampage&teamnum=47957

 

He should know Darsy. While you are putting in the isolater get the
bracket wired into a separate mains supply. Great idea until *you*
forget )

I didn't know you couldn't cut SS with an OA Torch??