Technical & Reference Section > Tech and Restoration

storing bikes in the loft

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kdw712:

--- Quote from: Jaan on September 10, 2014, 09:35 AM ---Lets see John's info - i'm sure there are lots of folk with parts in their lofts...  :daumenhoch:

--- End quote ---

I'll cut and paste it for ya

kdw712:
Unedited  :daumenhoch:


Don't wrap them or cover over, you won't believe the damage that will do. I had some stuff in the garage and I covered it with an old bed sheet, I went down it the garage a few weeks later and it was dripping wet under the cover as soon as the temperature hit dew point outside the cover soaked up all the condensation like a sponge and then couldn't breath to evaporate it.
I used a small radiator on timer that just kicks in early in the morning just to keep the temp above dew point which i think is 3 degrees and most of all, leave it uncovered :daumenhoch:

The problem is with a loft it goes from one extreme temperature to the other, in the winter it's freezing on the outside of the roof and hot indoors so you get condensation especially forming on metal objects.

buy some plastic containers from wilkos and spray parts with gt85 including inside tubing then wrap parts in VCI paper, you can get this in a massive roll on the internet for about £16 delivered
There is enough on the roll to wrap probably 3 whole bikes
When you pull the parts from the loft in 5 years time the parts will be like new still.

I tend not to store anything any good in the loft for this reason because of the massive temperature changes , this is when you realise that you would have been no better off leaving them in a damp old shed.

I had a shed that was dry on the inside but always damp on the outside, I put a ladies bike in there and it was rotten after 2 years.
I then put a mountain bike in there, sprayed lightly with gt85 and left the window cracked open on the shed, it was like new 2 years later mostly because it could breathe now the window was open, it's the same with your bathroom , you get tons of condensation build up on the toilet cistern but then crack the bathroom window open an see the results after a few days.

dinglem:
I keep all of my bikes and parts in a room above my garage - kind of like a loft conversion but was purpose built when they did the garage (before i owned it). It used to be an old farm outbuilding i believe. Anyway, the garage houses a few classic cars with plenty of chrome, and i have a dehumidifier running in there and always leave the car windows cracked open slightly. I also use the WD-40 on a rag method as mentioned previously through the winter and wipe down the chrome parts on the cars as winter approaches.

Upstairs is well insulated as it's a proper room, plus it has 4 Velux windows which i open every time i go up there, even if it's only for a few minutes. I've never seen any issues with chrome degradation up there, and i've assumed it was due to the dehumidifier running downstairs. I guess the insulation and open-window ventilation helps too though. It gets very warm up there in the summer.

One thing i would mention through past experience is mice. I made the mistake of hiding some Christmas presents for the wife up there a couple of years ago (she's a bloody nightmare and goes pressie hunting!), including some chocolate and clothes.... i guess the food being there over the winter attracted the mice in and the choc and clothes got destroyed! Few mouse traps and deposition of one of our monster Maine Coons up there soon sorted the problem (and some last-minute replacement chrimbo shopping!) but since then i have never stored my bikes with the pads on - they are all safely tucked away in sealed plastic storage containers and only come out to play when i take one of the bikes out. They never got chewed at the time, but it was the first thing i checked once i'd realized what had happened!

Mat:
I keep most of my bikes in my cellar.

Its where i practice most of my 'hobbies', & apart from the odd splash of blood & other bodily fluids the bikes remain in tip top condition.  :daumenhoch:

bmxband1t77:
I have 2 bikes indoors and 2 in a dry well ventilated out house. I cover them with cheap pound shop motorbike covers but leave ventilation. I sprayed chrome with wwd40 but it went weird. So I douse a bit of kitchen cloth in good old 3 in one oil n rub it on. Seems to work but takes alot of elbow grease when taking them out for a spin. Serious wank speed rubbing! Lol.

BUT evil missus forced me to get a bike shed, but by what's been said I'm dreading doing this. I used to keep my original ripper in my bedroom as a kid and it never suffered extremes of cold. Surely exposing bikes to prolonged extremes also weakens the bike tubing in the long run?

Heyallp!!


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