Racor PBH-1R Ceiling-Mounted Bike Lift
by Racor
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List Price: Our Price: $16.31 You Save: $23.69 (59%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $10.91 (click here) Category: Tools See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Racor PBH-1R Ceiling-Mounted Bike Lift
Customer Review: Works great
Summary: 5 Stars
I got two of these and both my wife and I really like the way these work for our MTB's. They make it easy to raise and lower the bikes in a very secure manner.
One reviewer I read before I purchased these mentioned the "hooks" are not hooks but "L" shaped, bent metal (rubber coated) bike connection objects. He mentioned his bike fell off the lift because of this lack of "hookness".
The bike connection objects I got were indeed "hooks" but they do have a pretty flat angle in the "hook". Think an 80 degree angle instead of a 90 degree as an "L" will have. We find these "hooks" to work very well and we have had zero issues with the bikes coming off the "hooks" even after many uses.
My only negative comment relates to the installation instructions. They suggest you drill a pilot hole into the wooden stud using a 1/8" drill bit to guide the mounting screws.
The screws they supply are MUCH bigger around than 1/8". With a power driver, these screws and the 1/8" pilot hole make it is nearly impossible to bottom the screws into the stud. They get within about 1/2" of bottoming and just stop.
I almost rounded the screw heads as the driver bit was jumping out of the the screw head even when I was really bearing down on the drill to hold the driver bit in the screw head. I have to think I was putting well over 75 pounds of pressure onto the drill and the screws would not bottom.
I backed the screws out and re-drilled the pilot holes using a 5/32" drill bit and this worked much better. I still got a very firm, very secure bite as the screws entered and bottomed in the wooden stud and the force required to keep the driver bit in the screw head is much more reasonable.
In all other ways the instruction were straight forward and easy to follow.
Customer Review: Works great
Summary: 4 Stars
This bike lift works great -- we purchased four (three were another brand, but identical design) 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 two 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 very happy with our purchase. I would also recommend looking at the off-brand version of this mount -- I purchased three of the off brand -- they're identical in design, but with slightly cheaper rope. It was worth the over $100 savings, in my opinion. Off-brand version: Bike Hoist / Ceiling Mounted Bicycle Lift (LIFETIME WARRANTY)
Customer Review: Good for lifting extension ladder
Summary: 5 Stars
I used the PBH-1R to lift my 24' extension ladder high up to the ceiling. I have a set of large pipe hooks on my garage wall, but when I hung the ladder to the hooks, the ladder hung so low that it was impossible to pass beneath it. This Bike Lift helped the situation by raising the ladder higher.
When I opened the pacakge to install it, I found two welcome surprises.
(1) The hanger hooks can be rotated relative to pulley. Just loosen a screw, rotate hook, and tighten the screw. It was very helpful for me to grab side rails of my ladder. If you are interested in this product to hang a ladder and shopped another RACOR's ABL-1R lift, you have found that the fingers of ABL-1R does not rotate, and the pulley took awkward twist in the product picture. It does not happen to this PHB-1R.
(2) The included rope was very long. Because I had to span the two pulley attachments further than typical bicycle application(6ft vs. 3ft), I was concerned if I could run out of rope. It turned out that I have more than enough rope even though my installation was unusual.
Lifting a 45lbs ladder (24ft Type 1A 300lbs rating) is not featherweight. However, there is no feeling of rope stretching or pulley creaking. The product felt very solid. I read in some review that the included screws are prone to strip, but if pilot holes were drilled deep enough(all the length of the screw), the screw can be driven without any trouble. In fact, I broke my screwdriver bit (not screw!) when I drove the screw to a hole which I did not drill the pilot hole all the way.
A last word: don't cut the rope when the lift is full up. If you want to trim the rope, do it when the lift is full down.
Customer Review: Very well built, easy to operate, and saves space!
Summary: 5 Stars
This bike lift appears to be of great quality and works great! Installation was not very difficult (but make sure you have a good stud finder or some other way of making sure the screws are drilled in the center of the 2X4's), and raising and lowering the bike is even easier!
The pulley system helps distribute the weight in such a way that it is not as hard as you would think lifting or lowering a 40 pound mountain bike. It feels like it about cuts the weight in half.
There is also a catch on the end of the pulley so that even if you let go of the rope, the bike stays where it's at rather than crashes to the ground! The catch works so well, it almost seems that the rope-tie thing mounted to the wall is redundant (but redundancy never hurt anyone right?, and plus it gets the rope out of the way).
The way the catch works is somewhat like vertical blinds. If you pull straight down or towards the wall mounted rope-tie thing, it will only raise the bike and won't lower them. You have to pull the rope back the other direction away from the wall to release the catch, and then keep the rope at that angle while lowering the bike.
It really works great. My wife and I bought two of them for our bikes and love them! If you're worried about whether the hood of your vehicle will fit underneath the raised bikes, measure how tall your bike is and then add about 10 inches or so to tell you how low they will hang from the ceiling (the handle bars/seat of our bikes are around 8-10 inches from the ceiling when fully raised).
Overall, this lift is very well made, easy to use, saves tons of space, and is a great deal! Solid five stars!
Customer Review: Good, but not great.
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought this to make more space in the shed that we use for storage of the family's four bikes. It works, but it is not easy for the average 5th grader to use.
Application: Lift a 28 pound bike high enough to put another similar road bike underneath it. Make this easy enough that a 5th grader can do it.
Result: 5th grader can accomplish this, but it is difficult enough that both she and her mother complain about it. Thus, the 3 stars. This unit makes the job possible, but not easy.
Issues:
1. The rope in this version has been changed from a "cheap, cotton rope" as quoted from another review to a sturdy synthetic rope that doesn't seem to fray, but is hard for some of my family to grip onto. Inexplicably, this seemingly more slippery rope seems to have significant drag running through the pulleys.
2. The rope and hooks are difficult to move when there is no weight on the hooks. That is, if the hooks are accidentally pulled towards the ceiling and you want to lower them to hoist a bike off the ground, it's hard for my kids to pull the hooks down because the mechanism that holds the rope up when it has the bike on it grabs and won't let go. Getting it to let out slack requires some patience and my team doesn't have any.
That said, I can use it and get it to work every time, but it just isn't "slick" in use. In fact, since the ceiling in the shed is low enough, I don't use the hoist a a hoist, I just pick the bike up and put it on or off the hooks manually.
So, why three stars? I can get it to work (with some effort), and it is very cost effective compared to higher quality solutions.