How to build a wooden bike rack for less than £30 ($40)
03 March 2017
This bike rack can be made at any size so if you don't or have room for a 6 bike rack then you can scale down the plans to your own needs.
Things you will need:
- 5 approx. 8ft lengths of 2"x4" (I used (T)44mm x (W)96mm x (L)2400mm from sanded and planed wood from B&Q).
- 48 approx. 3" wood screws.
- A saw.
- A power drill with an appropriately sized bit for your screws.
- Countersink bit.
First, you will need to cut three of your five pieces of timber into 22" (approx. 55cm) lengths. Once you have done that you can lay out the two uncut sections of timber flat on the ground and then you can start planning out where your bikes are going to go. At first, I recommend starting from one end and trying it out with one bike.
You will need to space your shorter sections of timber appropriately for the tires of your bikes. For a road bike with skinny 700c wheels, I recommend putting them 1" apart. For mountain bikes and balloon tyred bikes, I recommend adding 10-20% to the tyre with of your bike and spacing them that distance apart. So for a 2.4" mountain bike tyre, you'll need them to be 2.6" to 2.8" apart. This will allow you to put your bikes in the rack without any force.
Once you have planned out where to put your sections of timber you can now put the long sections flat along the top of the short sections and start to screw them together. I used four screws for each short section of timber, two at each side. I think it is worth taking the time to countersink the screws to that the rack sits nice and flat on the ground.
Once you have done this you can flip the rack over and you are ready to store your bikes!