Racor Pro ABL-1R Aluminum Ceiling Mounted Bike Lift
by Racor
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List Price: Our Price: $51.69 You Save: $8.31 (14%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Category: Tools See more product details |
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Racor Pro ABL-1R Aluminum Ceiling Mounted Bike Lift
Customer Review: almost perfect bike lift
Summary: 4 Stars
This bike lift is great in many respects. Great design, easy to use, looks good, easy to install etc. I will probably buy a couple more. What I can't understand is why they put such cheap/soft mounting screws in the kit. I suggest not using them and buying some good deck screws or maybe stainless. I started to mount the lift using the screws in this kit and they were so bad they stripped the phillips head out way to easily. I think they're made of aluminum foil or something. Because the design is channel based (slides the lift mechanisms to fit bike) the screws are embedded in that channel. So getting them out required me to chisel the head off the shank of the screw. This turned into another job, which wasn't fun. But hoestly it's a good product. Just look out for screws when mounting (suggest getting your own)and the rest is great.Customer Review: Might be better for a bike - but not so good for a kayak.
Summary: 3 Stars
I got this to hoist a 35lb kayak because it was rated for 75lb. Even with the weight evenly distributed the hoist does not lift the kayak evenly. I imagine it would work great for a bike, but maybe not so much for a ladder like suggested.Customer Review: Very good product, simple installation
Summary: 5 Stars
Good product which is fairly simple to put together. Only difficult part was finding a stud in the ceiling!
Advice is to replace the provided screws with longer ones and also use drywall anchors for the non-stud openings which adds some additional strength.
Best feature is the cam which holds the bike in position.
Highly recommended.
Customer Review: Secure, Easy to install, little assembly required
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this for a 24' fiberglass extension ladder. I don't have enough flat wall space to hang the ladder on the wall, so I used this thing to hang it between the two single garage doors. Worked out well, easily lifts the load, and was easy to install. I used my own #10 x 3" screws to really bite into the wood. I think the ceiling of the garage has two layers of drywall (I believe that is to be fire rated, but it could just be a weird install) so the included 2" screw aren't going to get too much bite into the joists.
The cheaper units were tempting, but come without the aluminum rail, which I liked, so I went this way. If you are willing to fiddle around with it, the rail isn't really necessary.
Customer Review: Simple Hooks Are Probably Better !!!
Summary: 3 Stars
Last summer I remodeled my garage. Tape, mud, paint and wood trim for the walls; custom built cabinets; epoxy paint for the floors - most of my friends have serious garage envy!
Of course, I wanted to store my bikes in a befitting manner so I bought two Racor bike lifts. They work. But the truth is that two sets of bike hooks would have worked better.
My garage ceiling is only 9 feet. So I need to store the bikes as high up as possible. In this respect my old bike hooks worked better since the Racor lifts tend to waste a few more inches. Also, as previously noted in other reviews the rope and associated locking mechanism work poorly. The rope locks tend to let the rope slip so it takes a lot of finesse to position the bike where you want it and this slipping action tends to fray the rope a bit.
My best advice: consider using simple, properly installed, rubber coated bike hooks if you can. However, this Racor lift is probably the best alternative IF (and only IF) you have a 10+ foot ceiling. Also, if you're going to install the Racor lift yourself make sure you have a stud finder on hand; else, you will need to have bucket of spackle to fill all your errant drill holes.