Bicycle and Outdoor Gear Storage Planning Checklist

Count every machine in the household, including children's bicycles and anything not currently ridden, and mark how often each one goes out.

The machine ridden daily needs a different position from one used occasionally, and both need to be counted.

Measure the largest machine with its handlebars and pedals as they sit, rather than taking a figure from a description of the frame.

Handlebars and pedals decide the width needed, and they are what catches on a doorway.

Note any trailer, child seat, cargo box or basket that stays attached, since these change the length and turning of the machine completely.

A machine with a trailer attached often cannot use the store that suits the machine alone.

Note which machines belong to children who are still growing, and accept that this part of the store changes rather than settles.

Provision that adjusts is worth more here than a place shaped precisely around the machines they ride now.

Note who takes each machine out and whether they can lift or manoeuvre it unaided in the space you are considering.

Storage that needs an adult to release a child's bicycle stops the child riding it.

List the outdoor gear that shares the same space, such as walking boots, rucksacks, waterproofs and camping equipment, rather than planning for bicycles alone.

These items always end up in the bicycle store and are almost never in the brief for it.

Push a machine along the exact route from the proposed store to the road, and note every point where it has to be lifted, turned or tilted.

A route that needs one lift will be tolerated, and a route that needs three will not be used.

Measure the narrowest doorway, gate and passage on the route, and note whether the machine passes with the handlebars level or has to be angled.

Angling a machine through a gate is fine occasionally and wearing when it happens every time.

Note every step, kerb and threshold on the route, including the one at the front door, and say who has to lift the machine over it.

Steps are the most common reason a bicycle ends up living in a hallway rather than in the store provided.

Note what the machine brushes past on the way, such as a painted wall, a radiator or a coat rail, and expect marks at pedal and handlebar height.

Those marks appear within a short time and are a good argument for a different route or a protected surface.

Note how gates and doors are opened while holding a machine, and whether that can be done without putting the bicycle down each time.

Anything that has to be put down in the rain is what turns a good store into an unused one.

If the route crosses shared or communal ground, note any arrangements that apply and ask whoever manages it what applies to storing a machine there.

Shared access often carries conditions that decide whether a store can be used at all.

What applies on shared or communal ground must be confirmed with whoever manages it rather than assumed from what neighbours do.

Decide whether machines stand on the floor or hang, and note what each choice does to the floor area and to the height needed.

Hanging saves floor and demands both height and a fixing, so the two options are rarely interchangeable.

Ask what the wall or ceiling of the store is built from, and put the question of fixings to a qualified professional before choosing any hanging arrangement.

What is behind the surface decides everything about hanging, and it cannot be judged by tapping it.

Whether a wall or ceiling can take a hanging fixing, and what fixing suits it, must be established by a qualified professional on site.

Note who would be lifting a machine onto a hook, and whether they can do it comfortably with a heavier machine or one with a battery fitted.

Powered machines are heavier than most people expect, which rules out hanging arrangements that suit a lighter frame.

Note how the machines sit beside each other and whether pedals, handlebars and levers clash when one is taken out from between the others.

Clashing pedals are why the machine at the back is never the one taken out.

Decide which machine has to come out most often, and place it so the others do not have to be moved to release it.

Access order matters more than density, because a dense store is only used from the front.

If machines stand on a finished floor, note what the tyres and stands rest on and raise protection with the flooring supplier.

Tyres mark some floor finishes, and stands concentrate weight onto a very small area.

Whether a particular floor covering copes with tyres and stands is a question for whoever supplies it, answered for that product.

Note where a wet machine stands after a ride, and what is beneath and beside it while it dries.

Water runs off a machine for a long time after it stops, and it collects exactly where nobody looked.

Note that a drivetrain marks whatever it touches, and decide what stands next to the machine, particularly coats, bags and light finishes.

Oil marks on clothing hanging beside a bicycle are the most predictable complaint about indoor storage.

Note where machines are cleaned and whether there is water available there, since cleaning happening indoors changes what the store has to cope with.

A tap and a drain outside settles this question, and their absence usually pushes the job indoors.

Note the grit carried in on tyres, and where it drops off along the route, because it is abrasive on floor finishes over time.

Grit does the damage rather than the water, and it accumulates where machines turn.

Note the wet outdoor clothing that arrives with the rider, and decide whether it dries in the same space as the machines or somewhere else.

Combining the two saves space and makes the store damp, which then affects everything kept in it.

If a machine goes into an unheated store while wet, note whether the space has any air movement, and raise persistent damp with a qualified professional.

Sealed outdoor stores can hold moisture around the contents rather than keeping it out.

Persistent damp or condensation in a store should be assessed by a qualified professional rather than managed with covers.

List every powered machine and removable battery in the household, and note where each is charged at the moment.

Existing charging habits usually reveal what the store will have to accommodate.

Gather the manufacturer instructions for each battery and note what they say about where charging happens and what conditions apply.

These instructions are specific to the equipment and take precedence over any general storage idea.

Charging and storing batteries must follow the manufacturer instructions for that equipment without exception.

Raise with a qualified electrician whether an outlet in the store is possible, particularly if it is outside or in an outbuilding.

Whether power can reach the store is what decides if a powered machine can live there at all.

Any new outlet, especially in an outdoor store or outbuilding, must be agreed with a qualified electrician for your situation.

Decide whether batteries are removed and brought indoors or stay on the machine, and note what that means for the store and for who carries them.

A removable battery changes the storage question into a carrying question and back again.

Note the weight of powered machines when planning how they are moved, lifted or held up, and raise that weight with anyone fixing a support.

Support arrangements suited to a light machine are not automatically suited to a heavier powered one.

Note where chargers and cables live between uses, since these are small, essential and easily lost in a store shared with tools and gear.

A missing charger stops the machine being used just as effectively as a fault would.

Note where helmets live, and decide whether they hang or sit, since they are bulky, awkward to stack and are usually put down wherever there is room.

Helmets on a hall floor are the most visible sign that the store was planned for machines alone.

List the pumps, tools, spare tubes and lubricants kept for maintenance, and decide where they sit relative to where work on the machine happens.

Tools kept in another room mean small jobs are done in a hall or not at all.

Note the lights, locks, straps and small items that travel with a rider, and give them a container rather than a shelf they will roll off.

Small items are the ones that delay a departure, and they are never included in a store brief.

Note panniers, rucksacks and cargo bags, and measure them full rather than empty, since they are rarely stored flat.

Bags stored full occupy a great deal more space than the same bags folded away.

Decide whether any work on the machines happens in the store, and note whether there is room to turn a machine and stand beside it.

A store that will not allow a wheel to be taken off pushes that job into the living space.

Note the outdoor clothing that belongs with cycling and walking, and decide whether it hangs with everyday coats or separately from them.

Wet technical clothing among ordinary coats is a common source of complaints about a hallway.

Note where an outdoor store would sit, how much weather that position takes, and whether the ground there is level and firm.

A store on soft or sloping ground gives trouble that has nothing to do with the store itself.

Ask what preparing the ground for an outdoor store would involve, and treat that as a separate question from choosing the store.

Ground works are usually the part of an outdoor store that owners have not considered at all.

What is involved in preparing ground, and whether anything applies locally to an outbuilding, must be confirmed with qualified professionals and the relevant authority.

Note where water goes around the proposed position, and whether the store would sit in a place where water collects after rain.

Standing water around a store affects both the structure and everything kept inside it.

Write down your questions about securing an outdoor store, and put them to your insurer and to a suitably qualified locksmith or supplier.

Requirements differ, and getting them in writing before buying anything avoids an arrangement that is not accepted.

What security arrangements an insurer expects, and what they will accept, is a matter for your insurer to confirm directly.

Note where the store sits relative to boundaries, windows and any shared path, and confirm locally what applies to a structure in that position.

Position relative to a boundary raises questions that are separate from the store you choose.

What applies to any structure near a boundary must be confirmed locally with the relevant authority before anything is ordered.

Note whether the route to an outdoor store is lit, and whether it can be reached in the dark and wet while pushing a machine.

An unlit store at the end of a garden is used in the summer and abandoned when the weather turns.