RAD Cycle Products Ceiling Mount Bike Hoist
by RAD Cycle Products
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List Price: Our Price: $12.94 You Save: $42.01 (76%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $11.65 (click here) Category: Tools See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of RAD Cycle Products Ceiling Mount Bike Hoist
Customer Review: Works great, almost identical to the more expensive version!
Summary: 5 Stars
This bike lift is almost identical to the more expensive Racor list. We purchased a Racor first, then three of these. The only difference is slightly cheaper rope, and different pulleys. For the price, I'm happy that I went with this one.
Review from my Racor purchase (applies to all of them):
We purchased four lifts (three of this brand, one Racor) for our garage and are happy with them. We were able to position each bike about 16" apart and have no trouble getting any bike up or down.
I have several hints from our installation, and one complaints, but on the whole am very satisfied:
Positive:
* Works smoothly
* Clever, simple system
* Locking mechanism for rope is nice
* Installation is straightforward
Negative:
* Hooks need a safety strap, depending on where you attach them
Hints:
* I attached the hooks to a lower location on each bike to have the bike lifted all the way to the ceiling. This gives me enough room to stand beneath the bikes without bending my head.
* I used some of the extra rope, after cutting to an appropriate length, for safety straps for the hooks. Depending on where the hooks attach, they may not have enough bite to fully trust -- easy way to prevent potential injury (see an earlier post on earthquakes!!)
* I don't recommend using the supplied bracket for excess rope. I just coiled the rope and hung it from one of the quick-release levers on the bike. Works great, and keeps the ropes from getting tangled.
On the whole, I'm happy with our purchase. Almost identical to the Racor lift here Racor Ceiling Mounted Bike Lift #PBH-1R and a significant savings that adds up if you're buying several.
UPDATE: January 20, 2010
After living with these hoists for a while, I have mixed emotions:
* Hooks do not have a deep/aggressive enough curve, resulting in a less than optimal hold depending on what part of the bike you're trying to hold.
* Some sort of safety strap is necessary on each hook, partly due to the shape of the hook.. I dropped a bike several times due to the hook not holding reliably, a strap would have at least made this less painful.
* While the hoist makes the bikes easier to raise and lower (minus the hook issues), it is not able to get the bikes as high as simple bike hooks mounted in the same location
Given the lack of trust in the hold provided by the hooks plus the few inches of lost clearance that make a difference in our garage (though our mounting situation may be lower than yours) I've gone back to good old bike hooks to store our bikes.
Customer Review: Good for the money but has problems...easy fix explained
Summary: 4 Stars
First, I would like to say that I bought this system for $15 dollars on the "apparent" sale from the original price of $55. It is not worth $55 dollars. But for $15 dollars, with a little additional work, it's worth it. Now, I could write a book on the pros and cons here, but I'll try to stay concise:
Pros:
1. It's very easy to set up. Simply measure the distance between the your handle bars and seat, attach the two mounts that hold the pulleys that amount of distance apart on the roof of your garage, thread the rope through the pulley system, and you're done.
2. Although none of the parts are by any means heavy duty, it's certainly enough to withstand the weight of a bike. Note : if you're thinking about using this pulley system as a cheap alternative for hoisting some heavier equipment, DON'T DO IT. The system (including semi-weak rope) won't stand up to the weight.
3. As simple as it is, the locking mechanism works surprisingly well.
4. Well, it accomplishes the task at hand, my bike is now out of the way mounted close to the ceiling.
Cons:
1. As I motioned, it's kind of cheaply made. A) My rope has already frayed a bit through the installation process, but now that it's up, since the weight of the bike is small, I suspect it won't fray anymore. B) There is too much space on the sides of the wheels of the pulleys, so without significant weight pulling the rope into the groove of the wheel, the rope can slip out of the groove.
2. LARGEST CON : The bike holder is not the shape shown in the advertised pics. Instead of having a curved hook at the end, they are simply "L" shaped braces. Well, this seems to work fine for the handle bar end of the bike, but is easily slips out of the seat causing the bike to fall (happened to me a couple times!). However, this is easily fixed by drilling a hole in each "L" brace on the seat side and tying a security loop of rope that can go around and under your seat to secure the "L" braces to the seat. Now it works great and can't slip out.
3. Unless you have an extra tall ceiling, the bike tires won't be hoisted above the height of the garage door when it opens, therefore restricting where you can mount your bike. PLAN FOR THIS! I didn't and had to move the mounts when I realized the problem.
4. The screws that it came with are incredibly weak. I don't know why they couldn't supply this kit with 20 regular strong wood screws (a cost of merely $1-$2), but they didn't. Without a pilot hole, drilling these 2' screws straight into a 2x4 starts to strip the head of the screw. Easy fix by using your own screws.
Conclusion : If it costed me $55, I would have given it 1 star because it's not worth it. But for 15 bucks, with a little additional work, it's great!
Customer Review: Not Bad for the Money
Summary: 3 Stars
I am actually using the product to hoist something other (much heavier) than a bicycle but I think my comments might still be of interest to others. I found the product to be reasonably well made. The rope, as noted by others, is inexpensive but suitable for its purpose. If you don't like it, you can certainly afford to replace it based on the product's low price. The only complaint I have is that the two pulleys don't rise at the same rate; the pulley carrying the least amount of weight will rise first and once at its maximum height, will then allow the pulley with the heavier load to rise. This probably isn't an issue for hoisting a bike but in my application, I need both pulleys to rise equally at the same time. It's an easy problem to work around but the product would be perfect without it. To be honest, I'm not sure what could be done about this as I think it's just the physics of its two-pulley design. For $12.00 each and free shipping though, I'm more than satisfied (and I purchased 4). For those hoisting bikes, it certainly beats lifting your bike in the air to hang it on a hook and, by storing the bike horizontally, you have more space underneath it than if you had to hang the bike vertically from a single hook. As for mounting, as others have suggested, I would recommend first mounting the entire hoist on a 5 or 6 foot long 1x4 and then mounting the 1x4 to your ceiling. Without the 1x4, trying to align the hoist's mounting holes with your ceiling joists is all but impossible if you're mounting the device parallel to your joists. Even when mounting the hoist perpendicular to your joists, the hoist's mounting points need to be as vertical to the bike's attachment points as possible to ensure maximum security when lifting the bike; something your joist spacing may not allow. Pre-mounting the hoist to the 1x4 eliminates nearly all of these concerns. Other than that, I highly recommend the product; it certainly beats paying $60.00 for the glorified hook of a competing product.Customer Review: saves space but has issues
Summary: 3 Stars
I ordered four of these to hang not only bikes but a couple of ladders.
Installation was not to tough, two screws into each bracket and you are set. As others have stated use your own screws or predrill. I happen to have 3" deck screws onhand and they worked much better as they were easier to drive and were much longer than the ones provided.
I personally found this product to be somewhat unsafe the hooks that hold onto the handlebars and seat are not U shaped but merely slightly bent, Twice Ive had a bike fall while lifting. This happens because the bike does not raise evenly so when the seat end went up higher than the front the angle was enough to allow the hook to slip off causing the bike to fall.
This can be remedied by either bending the hook into more of a U shape or by attaching a safety strap to catch should the hook slip. I took a couple of Carabiners ($2 at Walmart) with a small piece of rope I secure one to the hole in the hook assembly and the other I just clip to the bike, it takes an extra second or two but I know that a bike isn't going to fall on one of the kids should they bump into it.
For those of you hoping to hang other items its possible BUT problematic I was hoping to hang a power wheels but ran into issues with it being unstable due the width creating center of gravity problems (the hooks only spread a few inches apart) This isn't an issue with a bike because all its weight is in the middle. I do use two of these to hang ladders and it works well especially since they don't get used that often but once again a safety strap is key.
Hope this helps as a whole its a good investment just take a few extra seconds to bend the hooks a bit (do before you hang everything up) and whatever you do DON'T cut the rope until you lower the bike.
Customer Review: Good item to have but hard to install
Summary: 3 Stars
The item comes with small screws only, it doesn't even come with lag screws it recommended to install with. In order to securely mounted on the garage ceiling, you have to use lag screws. The center holes where the lag screw goes in are too small, I had to use my drill to make them bigger. The unit shapes like a U, where the lag screw goes in the middle hole. So when you tighten the it, the unit bend easily. The unit is too wide to mount directly into studs, so u must mount it on a block of 2x4 before you use very long lag screw to mount to ceiling. Since you have to go through the unit, 1' thick, the 2x4 and leave enough length to go into stud, I had to used 7/16' x 4' lag screws. To install, you have to drill holes on the block of 2x4 first, screws the unit in. Then you have to line up the lag screws and drill holes to the ceiling. Using a ratchet, ratchet the unit up slowly and painfully. You have to find a good place to drill to the ceiling studs or otherwise you might get stuck. I broked couple lag screws that way. I must tell you, it ain't fun working with my arms raised up, make you tired quickly.
After all day of work, I finally got them working. Hoisted my 2 bikes (I bought 2 units) up, not too difficult at all. And the internal locking mechanism really works, it locks the bike in place even in mid air. I have my bikes hosted to the ceiling for a week now, they ain't going nowhere. I must say I am impressed by the locking mechanism but not very impressed by how difficult to install the unit.