Steadyrack is our favorite rack to use in our own garage. With no lifting required, even our 8-year-old can load and unload his bike by himself! Read the review below for more reasons why we love it!
Steadyrack Bike Hanger Review
RATING: Exceptional
MSRP: $79
BEST FOR: Young families who want kids 3+ to have easy access to loading and unloading their bikes by themselves.
CAPACITY: 1 bike per hanger, 20″ wheels and larger, including bikes with fat tires and fenders.
PROS:
- No bike lifting required – our 8-year-old can load his own bike!
- Pivots from side to side to lay bike flat against the wall
- No contact with frame, rims, or spokes
- 4 different models accommodate most bike types
- Works great with 20″ and 24″ bikes
- Top-quality
- Easy installation
CONS:
- Tire trays are great, but it’s still hard to avoid scuffing walls in general
Steadyrack Review – Results of our Testing
There’s a reason Steadyrack is dominating in the bike storage world right now. Incredibly easy to use and able to accommodate just about any bike tire you can think of, Steadyrack’s unique vertical, pivoting design makes keeping your garage organized and accessing your bikes a breeze.
Steady Rack Next to Wall Hook
On a recent trip to Whistler, we entered the bike rental shop and were greeted by walls full of bikes hanging from Steadyracks. When I asked the guys there what they thought about Steadyrack, they couldn’t stop gushing and called them a “total game changer.” Could there possibly be a better endorsement? Whistler bike shop + Two Wheeling Tots = these racks are legit.
How it Works
Steadyracks store your bikes similarly to wall hooks, except they’re much more advanced, safer for your bike, and easier to use. They don’t require you to lift the bike off the ground, don’t come into contact with the rims or spokes, and then they fold pretty flat against the wall to save even more space.
To store your bike, follow these 6 simple steps:
- Pull the arms of the rack open into an L shape, creating a tray for the front bike wheel.
- Holding onto the bike’s handlebars, lift the top wheel off the ground so that the bike is vertical and all the weight is resting on the rear wheel.
- Roll the bike forward until the front wheel comes into contact with the rack tray.
- Push and roll the bike into the tray arms.
- If desired, rotate the bike almost 180 degrees in either direction to lay flat against the wall.
- If you do lay the bike flat, place the rear tire on that side of the bottom bracket.
From someone who has lifted a lot of bikes onto bike hooks, I’ll tell you that as the guys in Whistler said, the Steadyrack really is a total game changer. Not that regular bike hooks are terrible – they’re super cheap and do an excellent job for their price, but they can be a pain to use. Of all the bike storage solutions we’ve tested, Steadyrack is the easiest to use!
With the Steadyrack you don’t have the awkward lifting and sometimes failed attempts to hook the wheel between the spokes. Some may say – 1st World Problem. I know, but Steadyrack’s smooth “roll into the tray” system is still a relief. It’s just so incredibly easy to load and unload the bikes. It’s one of those products that you didn’t know you needed until you had one, and then you can’t live without it.
If you have a family of Steadyracks and minimal wall space, you may have to mount the Steadyracks very close together. In this case, it’s likely that you’ll have to stagger the mounting heights in order to make room for handlebars. As a result, some Steadyracks may not be low enough to the ground to load the bike onto the rack without lifting.
Even in situations where mounting placement eliminates the “no-lift” benefit, the Steadyrack is still unique in that it protects your bike more than any other rack we know of. The tray arms of the Steadyrack cradle the tire and have no contact with the frame, rim, or spokes. As a result, the SteadyRack eliminates the possibility of a rim being bent out of true due to a bike hook.
Additionally, the arms are deep enough that the bike’s wheel is extremely secure, so there is very minimal risk of it falling down, even if a clumsy kid were to bump into the bike at high speed.
The rear wheel can be cradled in the small black tray shown below when the bike is stored straight on. When you have the rack pivoted against the wall, the rear tire is positioned to the side of the tray, where it blocks it from moving around.
Pivoting Arms
The pivoting arms of the Steadyrack are more than just a fancy feature. While storing a bike flat against the wall can be beneficial for a single bike, the pivot feature is even more handy when it comes to multiple bikes.
Pivoting trays allow you to store bikes closer together, while still being able to easily access and move any bike you want. With a stationary hanging rack, it can often be a pain to try to take a bike out of the middle with all sorts of handlebars and pedals getting in the way.
With Steadyrack, you can essentially fold open the area you need to access, moving the bikes to either side and preventing pedals, wheels, frames and handlebars from getting stuck on each other. Additionally, because there are no hooks on your rims, you don’t need to worry about damaging rims and spokes while loading and unloading your bikes!
The pivoting arms are also beneficial because you can choose to load your bikes into the rack from many different angles, depending on where the open space is in your garage. When the kids load up their bikes in our garage, we pivot the rack to the side where there’s enough “runway” to get a “running start” for them to lift up their bikes onto the back wheel. (As an adult, a “runway” isn’t necessary, but it’s super helpful for kids.)
When not in use, the arms of the Steadyrack can be folded closed so they’re not sticking out into the room.
Easy for Kids to Use
As parents with lots of kids and even more bikes, we love that based on Steadyrack’s “no-lift” design, even kids can use the Steadyrack to store their own bikes. With traditional wall hooks that require you to lift the entire bike off the ground, kids are dependent on their parents for getting their bikes up and down. But our 8-year-old uses the Steadyrack like a champ.
To be realistic, kids younger than 8 will probably not have the upper body strength to pull their front wheel off the ground and lift the bike vertically while shifting the weight of the bike to the rear wheel. I made my 8-year-old son, 10-year-old daughter, and 12-year-old son practice this motion on the sidewalk in front of the house.
Once they mastered this motion, using the Steadyrack became much easier for them. After a few days, it was very natural. To paint an accurate picture, they have very nice bikes that are among the lightest-weight available, so this certainly helps.
Half the problem with keeping our garage organized is that the kids just throw their bikes on the ground because they can’t lift them onto traditional hooks. Steadyrack has solved this problem – no more excuses, kids! Put that bike on the Steadyrack! 🙂
Capacity and Fit
Steadyrack has thought of pretty much every bike and every scenario. There are four different Steadyrack models, each designed to fit a specific type of tire – Classic Rack, Mountain Bike Rack, Fat Rack, and Fender Rack.
All Steadyracks have a 77 lb. weight capacity, so unless your bike is made of lead, you’ll be fine.
We were particularly interested in trying out the Steadyrack on different sized kids bikes. Steadyrack advertises that the racks work with 20″ and 24″ bikes, which was can definitely confirm here.
We also tried the Steadyrack out on a 16″ and 14″ bike. The 14″ didn’t work at all because the front fork got in the way of rolling the wheel into the arm tray. The 16″ appeared to work okay because you could actually get the wheel to roll into the arm tray, but the Steadyrack arm does come into contact with the front fork, so it’s not the best idea.
16″ Raleigh Lily and 14″ Prevelo Alpha One
Installation
Installation is simple and only take about 10 minutes. It does require you to mount it to a stud. If you’re a visual learner, check out Steadyrack’s official installation video.
Steadyrack suggests mounting the rack 1 to 3 inches above the ground. Because we were mounting the bike for kids, we elected to mount the rack so that there’s only 1″ of clearance between the rear wheel and the ground. This makes it easier for our little shorties to push and roll the front wheel into the arm tray.
If you plan to swap which bikes are stored where, be sure to install the Steadyrack at a height that can accommodate the longest bike. While the Steadyrack does come with a rear tire guard, it’s really only useful if you consistently store the same size bike in that spot.
Also remember that due to differences in wheelbase lengths, if you mount the rack so that there’s minimal space between the rear tire and the ground, not all bikes that have the same wheel size may fit in the space.
Additionally, if you mount the rack to accommodate a 20″ or 24″ bike, you’ll need to raise the mount as your child grows and graduates to larger bikes. If you set the mount initially at the adult height, you’ll never have to move it, but your child won’t be able to load and unload their bike on their own.
Bottom Line
It’s rare that we get excited about something as typically mundane as bike storage, but the Steadyrack is a new breed of bike storage. Can it be possible that a bike storage rack is fun to use? Actually, yes. Steadyrack is effortless and beautiful, and kid-friendly to boot. No wonder those guys in Whistler were singing its praises.
FTC Disclosure: Affiliate links are included in this review. No monetary compensation was provided for this review, however, the reviewed product was supplied by the manufacturer or distributor to help facilitate this review. All opinions and images are that of Two Wheeling Tots LLC. All content and images are copyrighted and should not be used or replicated in any way. View our Terms of Use.
