Stashed SpaceRail Vertical Ceiling or Wall Bike Rack Review

Owning a lot of bikes is a lot more fun than having to store them. Keeping bikes accessible, yet out of the way, always seems to be a never-ending battle – until now. Stashed Products’s new SpaceRail vertical bike rack system compactly and securely stores a whole fleet of bikes, while still allowing you to quickly access the one bike you need in the middle of the pack.

Built upon a sliding rail system, the SpaceRail system goes beyond many of the similar DIY sliding rack designs by allowing bikes to not only slide independently along the rail, but to also twist 360°, lock in place during loading, and also has built-in bumpers to prevent bike axles from hitting each other.

Easy to use and easy to install, we’ll cover everything you need to know about the SpaceRail system in our review.

Stashed Storage SpaceRail vertical bike rack

Stashed SpaceRail Vertical Bike Rack

RATING: Exceptional

MSRP: $206+

BEST FOR: Storing lots of bikes in a compact space. Works great with any style of bike, road, mountain, kids, even fat tire bikes.

CAPACITY:  1 – 12 bikes standard. With proper bracing, additional bikes can be added with extension kits

INSTALLATION: Can be installed directly to ceiling rafters or on a wall studs via their wall mount

PROS:

  • Get 10% off your order over £250 with code “STASHED10TWT”
  • Stores a wide variety of bikes quickly and compactly – even fat tire bikes!
  • Rack can mount on a wall or ceiling (even angled ceilings!)
  • Rolling hooks easily slide along rail allowing for easy access to all bikes
  • Hooks lock into place when loading to prevent them from rolling away
  • Hooks turn to allow bikes to be rotated for more spacing options (handlebars can face wall)
  • Sliding hooks have bumpers to prevent bike axles from making contact
  • Add-on kits allow you to extend the rail as needed
  • Can hold up to 12 bikes, or more with proper support!
  • Double hook allows you to “stack” kids bikes, one on top of another
  • High weight capacity – 65 lb. per hook, 260 lb. per rail

CONS:

  • May not be compatible with some ebikes (65 lb. weight limit per hook)
  • Expensive compared to DIY options

Stashed SpaceRail Ceiling Vertical Bike Rack – Results of our Testing

Over the past 10 years, bike storage has been a major problem at our house. Having reviewed over 300 different kids’ bikes of all sizes, bikes multiple around here like rabbits… and keeping up with them has always been a challenge. We’ve used just about every system out there and made it work, but we’ve always been looking for something better.

When I came across this video of a DIY sliding bike storage rail, I thought I had found our holy grail. We pieced out the parts and were about to order when we came across Stashed Products.

Upon learning more about the Stashed Products SpaceRail system, we became aware of three problems with railed DIY vertical bike storage that we didn’t even know we would encounter: (1) bumping axles, (2) handlebar crowding, (3) run away hooks.

While more expensive (even with the discount they provided to help facilitate this review), we decide to take a chance on Stashed Products’s system (as even Alex in the DIY video mentioned in the comments that he would order a Stashed). The last thing we wanted was to DIY yet another “okay” bike storage solution.

Once we got the SpaceRail system up, we were quickly enamored with the quality, functionality, and ease of use of the system. And of course, it saves us tons of space in our garage. Due to our garage layout, we installed the rack on a floating shelf instead of the ceiling, but the rack can be installed directly on a flat ceiling, an angled ceiling, or on a wall via their wall mount system.

How it and Why the SpaceRail System Works

The Stashed SpaceRail system consists of an aluminum rail that houses individual bike hooks on rolling shuttles. Each hook has its own wheeled shuttle that can independently slide to the right or left along the track.

Stashed storage hook shuttle with bumpers and wheels labeled
Bike hook and shuttle being inserted into rail

With multiple shuttles placed on the track, individual bikes hanging vertically on the hooks and slide along the rail to allow for tighter storage and easier access. We have tested and loved other ceiling bike rack solutions like the Saris Cycle Glide and the Racor Bike Lift, but those systems store bikes horizontally and aren’t nearly as versatile.

In addition to being an exceptional quality and design, the Stashed system has three unique features that solve the three main problems of sliding storage racks: (1) bumping axles, (2) handlebar crowding, (3) run away hooks.

Unique Feature #1: Bumpers to Prevent Axles Bumping

Each shuttle also has black cylindrical bumpers (yellow arrow in image above) on the ends that act as spacers or bumpers within the rail. Upon sliding the hooks closer together, the bumpers make contact with each other, which prevents you from pushing the bikes close enough to allow the axles or forks to hit each other.

Spacing between bikes on the Stashed Storage SpaceRail system

These bumpers are necessary on wider mountain bikes that we have in our fleet, but if you are storing narrower road bikes, the bumpers can be left out during installation. If you wanted to later remove the bumpers, you could remove the end cap of the rail and then remove the bumpers from the individual shuttles.

Unique Feature #2: Rotating Hook to Prevent Handlebar Crowding

Once installed in the rail, each hook can rotate 360°. The rotating hook of the SpaceRail system is part of their secret sauce that allows you to nest bikes together, much closer than DIY railed hook systems. By rotating bikes front to back (handlebars facing forward or back) in addition to up or down (front wheel pointed up or down) like a traditional bike hook, bikes can be placed closer together with much less potential for contact.

Handlebars facing the wall as a result of being able to twist the bike hooks on the SpaceRail system
Bikes with handlebars facing the wall on the Stashed SpaceRail

On our traditional rack with standard screw-in hooks, we would position bikes by loading the bikes alternating between front wheel up and then rear wheel up to help offset the handlebars, but the wide handlebars on mountain bikes still seemed to cause issues. On the Stashed system, we now have four positions (front wheel up or down combined with handlebars forward or back) to load bikes instead of just two. It is so much easier to get tighter spacing with much less contact.

As shown in the diagram below, offsetting the handlebars allows you to fit the same amount of bikes into a tighter space. In this configuration, the bumpers were not used on the shuttles to allow the hook to combine closer.

image from Stashed Storage showing how bikes can fit closer together on the SpaceRail system

With hybrid and mountain bikes with wider bars and front and rear axles, the bikes can’t nestle is quite as close, but much closer than on other systems.

The rotating hook also allows you to rotate the bikes so that they lie almost parallel against the wall instead of perpendicular to it. This is especially beneficial in tight garages as it can allow for more “walking space” in front of the rack.

Bikes hanging on stashed storage vertical bike rack with some perpendicular to the wall and some parallel
Bike positioned parallel and perpendicular against the wall on the SpaceRail

Unique Feature #3: Locking Hook for Easy Loading

The last unique feature of the hooks is their locking mechanism. When the hooks are not loaded with weight, they “lock” in place and won’t slide side to side. This makes it much easier to load the bike as you don’t have to worry about the hook rolling away from you if you accidentally hit your rim or tire on the hook as you load your bike.

hand pushing on SpaceRail hook showing how it locks into place when not loaded
Empty hook locks into place when you push against it horizontally

Additional Features of the SpaceRail Rack

Accessing Bikes

In addition to being able to nestle bikes closer together, the SpaceRail system allows you to easily access bikes located in the middle of your fleet. Simply slide bikes down the rail one by one until you have enough room to access the bike you want.

Stashed storage bikes slide out of the way to allow for access to center bike

Having space to slide bikes down the rail is also why you don’t want to put too many hooks on one rail. Stashed suggests 4 hooks for each railed section (each section is a hair under 4 feet). On our setup, we stretched it a bit and have 14 hooks on 3 railed sections.

Double Hook for Kids Bikes

Stashed also sells a “double hook” that allows you to vertically stack two kids bikes on top of one another. The double hook simply connects the second bike to the lower tire of the first bike (whose upper tire is connected to the main hook).

two kids bikes stacked vertically on one SpaceRail hook using a double hook
Double Hook connecting two kids bikes

Pedal Covers

When storing bikes close together, pedals coming into contact with frames is almost unavoidable. To prevent bikes from being damaged, Stashed offers pedal covers.

Made of a thick, padded material, the covers come in three sizes and easily slide over the pedals. We found these to be particularly useful to prevent damage from metal studs found on mountain bike pedals.

Stashed Storage pedal covers preventing pinned pedals from damaging frames.

Each cover also has a fabric hook to allow you to easily store the covers on the SpaceRail hook when the bike is in use.

Installing the Stashed SpaceRail

At the time of this review, the SpaceRail system was only offered with a ceiling mount, but they now offered a wall mount system! This wall mount system comes with “L” shaped brackets that mount to the studs in your wall.

stashed storage wall mount system

Prior to ordering, please make sure to read through the SpaceRails detailed installation guide that included details and requirements about both their wall and ceiling mount systems. Also keep in mind that it is essential that you properly brace the rail to the ceiling rafters or wall studs. Mounting just to the sheetrock will not end well!

Mounting to Floating Shelf (Our DIY Wall Mount)

Since Stashed didn’t yet offer their wall mount version when we purchased our rack and our 10 ft tall ceilings in our garage didn’t allow us to mount to the ceiling (hooks would be difficult to reach), so we choose to mount the SpaceRail to a DIY floating shelf instead. We built our shelf out of 2x4s and chipboard and supported it via studs in the wall and chains mounted between the ceiling rafters and the shelf.

The SpaceRail system can absolutely be installed on a 10 ft ceiling, but you will likely only be able to hang bikes by their rear tire, which limits the amount of configurations. If you are super tall or super buff, though, hanging by the front tire on a 10 ft ceiling also shouldn’t be an issue 😁.

DIY Floating shelf supported with chains to ceiling rafters

Upon pulling the mounting brackets for the SpaceRail out of the package, however, we realized that they are over 4″ wide, so we couldn’t screw them to the 2″ wide bottom edge of the shelf.

Ceiling mount for the SpaceRail vertical bike rack system
Ceiling bracket

To provide a wider base, we simply added additional 2×4 supports where the mounting brackets would be installed.

Extra blocking to support ceiling mount
Additional blocking to mount bracket at proper space

Once all the supports were in place, the two extensions were easily added to our original rail (via the black connector pieces) and we were ready to add the hooks!

SpaceRail system attached beneath a floating shelf

Within an hour (not including the time to build the shelf), our bikes were loaded up!

SpaceRail ceiling vertical bike rack system fully loaded

Stashed Products SpaceRail Bottom Line

After years of searching, we have finally found the perfect bike rack solution for our ever-changing fleet of bikes. From kids bikes of all sizes, to mountain bikes and road bikes, the SpaceRail stores them all in a neat, compact, yet easily accessible manner. With the ability to expand as your fleet grows, the SpaceRail system is also a great solution for shops, rental fleets, bike teams, and of course, growing families :).

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 at a discounted price 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.

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