Racor - Ceiling-Mounted Bike Lift - Up to 50 lbs

This bike lift appears to be of great quality and works great! Installation was not very difficult (but make sure you have a good stud finder or some other way of making sure the screws are drilled in the center of the 2X4's), and raising and lowering the bike is even easier! The pulley system helps distribute the weight in such a way that it is not as hard as you would think lifting or lowering a 40 pound mountain bike. It feels like it about cuts the weight in half. There is also a catch on the end of the pulley so that even if you let go of the rope, the bike stays where it's at rather than crashes to the ground! The catch works so well, it almost seems that the rope-tie thing mounted to the wall is redundant (but redundancy never hurt anyone right?, and plus it gets the rope out of the way). The way the catch works is somewhat like vertical blinds. If you pull straight down or towards the wall mounted rope-tie thing, it will only raise the bike and won't lower them. You have to pull the rope back the other direction away from the wall to release the catch, and then keep the rope at that angle while lowering the bike. It really works great. My wife and I bought two of them for our bikes and love them! If you're worried about whether the hood of your vehicle will fit underneath the raised bikes, measure how tall your bike is and then add about 10 inches or so to tell you how low they will hang from the ceiling (the handle bars/seat of our bikes are around 8-10 inches from the ceiling when fully raised). Overall, this lift is very well made, easy to use, saves tons of space, and is a great deal! Solid five stars!

I was worried I would hate this. Ceiling mounted? I have a three car garage and with my parents moving in, we have three cars: mine, wife, parents...(and my dad's motorcycle). Add in the bikes, the lawnmower, garbage, recycling, tools, tablesaw, blah blah blah - sheesh! a three car garage that is built to be extra wide and deep is full! The bikes were always in the way, it was a problem. I started looking at a solution to get the bikes off the ground and out of the aisle. In winter we don't ride them, let's say 4 months of use in the upper Midwest. So when I discovered the ceiling mount I thought, well, for less than $20 a pop, I can hang four bikes and it's less than most bike racks that go on a wall. I admit I got them from a different box store so I can do it asap. Finding the rafters was a problem until I sent my wife to the store for a 9v for my studfinder. Then it got easy. Aside from a tangled ball of string, once you do one, the rest are easy. The most time was finding all the tools needed and setting up the ladders. My ceiling here is 14 feet tall. So it was mounted at the top. I measured from the wall and the peak to get them approximately even. I used a set 30 inch distance between hangers for all the bikes even though one is a child bike. The installation did not include anything difficult unless you are scared of heights or don't have the tools or a ladder. If you have all that it's fine. I set up two tall ladders and just stayed up there while my father put the hooks together and handed me each of the mounts. I measured, predrilled and lag-screwed them in. I tied them off to the existing 2x shelving I built earlier. I asked my wife to come over and lift/lower her bike - which she was able to do relatively easily. The cord will auto-catch if one lets go. I used the butterfly anchors provided and everything worked as advertised. I mounted them off to an angle so there are two that secure to the left and two to the right, of a 8 foot wide shelf with supports to either side. The angled position of the cord does not affect the security of the bikes. Now I have them up and out of the way. It's great. I do need to back my parent's car out of the third bay to get the bikes down, but that's not a big deal at all. I can just pull the car out of the garage and leave it outside for an hour until we return. Overall I'm glad I did this instead of a wall mounted rack. It was more time-consuming to install - requiring more tools and two tall ladders (for me since my 3rd bay is 14 feet tall) but I like it a lot better.

it works to hang mu bikes

This is a great bike hoist and now my garage looks so neat and tidy. I bought two of these and now I'm online to buy a third. The installation was simple and went quickly once you understand where you want it and after you understand how the pulley system works. Solid construction of the pulleys and the bike hooks. My only negative about the product, which cost one star, was that the directions weren't that great. I used the picture on the box to understand how to install it more than I did the actual printed directions. The one picture that really needed to be clear, the picture that shows where the rope goes through the stopping/control mechanism, was grainy and not easy to see. Use a higher resolution printer and all would be fine. Plus they don't explain that you need to put the pulleys at the same distance that you measured between the handle bar and back of seat. I did feel like the screws were a little short and I put an extra screw in each bracket just for safety sake. When you install the brackets parallel/inline with the joist the screws stand off from the ceiling about 1/2", then there is 3/8" of drywall (in my case), so the screw only gets in about 1/2" into the joist. People without drywall will probably not have any issue with the screw length. Screw quality was good and I had no issues like other did with stripping of screws. Use the larger phillips bit head. After I figured out the mechanism, the install and subsequent installs were a snap. My wife was able to easily raise and lower the bikes and they got her stamp of approval, which is what I needed in order to claim the project a complete success.

When you run out of ground space in the garage, the only answer is to go up! This lift suspends your bike from the ceiling and allows for easy mount/dismount. It is essentially two ceiling mounts, two pulleys, and a two "fingers" that grab on to your handlebars and back of the seat. The pulleys make lifting the bike 25% as hard as it would otherwise be. In summary, the 2016 version of this lift is relatively well-made and a really good deal at the price point of ~$16 shipped. For what it is designed for, your average bicycle, it does the job. Rather than reiterate what other people have said, I will provide you with my tips and comments on common complaints. QUALITY COMMENTS: Previous reviews mentioned the rope easily fraying: I could see that happening after very frequent and long-term use. The brake grabs at the rope like the cord on window blinds, and it also runs through a (metal) hole near the brake which could wear on it. The 2016 version at least seems to be better than older reviews indicate. When in doubt, just pick up a 3/16" replacement at the hardware store. Others commented on build quality. The metal is certainly sturdy enough for 50 lbs bikes, which is what it is rated for. I wouldn't go more than that. It is on the thinner side and I easily deflected the support slightly while screwing it in too tight. The screws seemed plenty strong. To the "fingers" that attach to the bike, they are probably 85 degrees from vertical. They have a rubber coating which grabs well. If you mount the pulleys directly vertical from the attachment points, you shouldn't have a problem unless someone goes to town hitting the bike while suspended (i.e. a ladder bumps it several feet). You can always physically tie the bike to the pulley mechanism for added safety. I haven't had a problem with the bike raising/lowering unevenly, even when mounting a tandem add-on which was back-heavy (no front-tire). No problems with the brake either. INSTALLATION TIPS: Installation took me a few hours to hang 3 lifts on a 13 ft ceiling. The provided rope is 50 ft long. To calculate how much you need, take the ceiling height times 4, add another foot for routing around the pulleys, and add the distance between the attachment points - usually the back of the seat and center of the handle bars. For a 12 ft ceiling, you're good. For a 13 ft as in my case, it will work with a full-size bike and tall person, but you'll have to lift up a shorter kids bike since it won't reach low enough. For anything else, go out and buy a longer, good quality 3/16" wide rope. For attachment to the ceiling, it must be attached to a ceiling beam - don't even think about drywall anchors. Getting the spacing between the pulleys is critical - it must be directly above the attachment points on the bike. Too far apart or too close and the "fingers" will be at an angle and may not grab strongly enough. That means you'll need to remount them to the ceiling if you switch from a kids bike to an adult bike, or vice versa. I'd recommend screwing the pulleys to a 3ft 2x4 board or 3/4" plywood, and affixing the board itself to the ceiling. Then you can easily dismount/remount the pulleys to the board instead the ceiling. That also gives you lee-way if the desired mount point isn't directly on a beam. For cases where you are mounting parallel with the beams but in between two of them, you can make an capital "I" shape: span a board perpendicular between the two beams on the front and rear of the bike. Then attach the main board in the center between the two of them in parallel with the beams. For cases where you are mounting perpendicular to the beams, use the same board technique - just attach it at the beams where it crosses (at least 2). For mounting two bikes, allow at least 1 ft between bikes and face them opposite directions. You can go with a square shape for this case: a board at the back and front like before, but instead of one long board in the center, go with two long boards. I mounted two kids bikes to one beam successfully with this configuration. Each ceiling mount has points for (4) #10 screws. The ones included seem strong enough, but only 6 are provided (2 per pulley, plus 2 for cleat). I added more for added sturdiness and stole the 2 from the cleat (all the same size). When the bike is down you won't have a lot of rope, but when it is up you'll have a ton (depending on ceiling height). The rope cleat should attach to the wall so it is above heads and out of the way. Both pulleys must be weighted-down to work. If you're trying to hang two bikes with one package...you could, but it would be difficult to lift and hang both at the same time. Plus be wary of the 50lb limit.

I ordered two of these to get our bikes out of the way. I prevaricated for some time as I was put off by some of the negative comments but in the end I decided to just get on with it and I am glad I did. The installation was a breeze, the hardest part for me was using the stud finder on a 10 foot ceiling but once I got the marks the rest was easy. Now I have two bikes up in the air and I can walk under them with (a lot of) space to spare. With regards to the negative comments. 1) The hooks need bending, mine did not the bikes are secure and if you did bend them they probably would be less secure under saddle. 2) The screws broke, not here they didn't, just follow the directions and drill a pilot hole. 3) It doesn't fit onto a 4 by 2 rafter, really? The screw holes are in line, it will fit on a 1 by 1. Of course if you didn't read the instructions you might try to use 4 screws (and I don't know why there are extra holes in the side) and then it won't work. 4) The rope frays, nope again everything worked fine for me. That said, I suspect that if you threaded the rope incorrectly around the locking mechanism it would get chewed up. In conclusion I am very pleased the product is well made and a good design. It was shipped quickly and has tidied up my garage. If you are thinking about doing this then I recommend the product, just sit down first and carefully read the instructions, you won't be disappointed.

Surprised me about how little effort it takes to raise a 36 lb bike to the ceiling. I was expecting to need a pretty stog pull to raise it up to a 12 foot ceiling recess that I have in the garage. Given the way the pulley system is arranged it seems that you're lifting about halt that weight. Of course, to do that you have to pull twice the amount of rope. I would also suggest gloves due to the small rope diameter. Works very nicely to raise a fat tire mountain bike. The locking mechanism is an excellent idea. It can hold the bike at any height.

The installation is solid as long as you find your studs. The pulley system works well; though if the bike gets off balance on the way up, you just rebalance with your hand. My garage has 10 feet ceilings and when the bike is stowed, the bottom of its wheels are right at 6 feet from the floor. This was a little tricky to install. But I don't think it's their fault; it's always hard to install things into the ceiling. There are two reasons for giving three stars and not four: 1) is that it will hold my mtn bike, but not my short wheelbase recumbent. 2) the locking mechanism requires the rope thread through a hole in a metal plate. That hole has sharp edges that eat at the rope. With regular use, I expect the rope to fray. I'd say this is for putting your bike away for an extended period and not for everyday storage.