Bike Rack Attack

Im sitting in the shop, looking out the door and see almost 10 bikes standing scattered around the driveway.  Some near the door, and some parked down the length to wear it connects to the main drive to the house.  What a mess.  I cant even yell at the kids because half of them are mine and I just don't have room in the shop for them yet.  So I sat down at the desk and looked into some racks, like the ones out front of the grocery store, school, or library.  I was surprised at how difficult it would be to find them.  Any given search for racks brings up hitch mounts, roof mounts, or the strap-ons for hatchbacks, and once I did find them, I was dismayed by the price.  I'm cheap, that's no secret.

I gave up on the search, moving myself to make room some other way.  There were a few projects ready for storage, so those moved up to the rafters.  Still not enough room.  This doesn't solve the other issue of where to park the bikes outside.  Whether for temporary parking, or the kids to keep theirs out of my way, I need something.
While staring dismally at the disaster, my eye caught the scrap pile.  That old heap of junk that the garbage truck won't take, and i'm too lazy to load up and haul away.  Thank goodness im lazy.  Grabbing my angle grinder, drill, some bolts, and an idea, I began my mischief.

First, take apart the old toddler bed.  A metal one from the late 90's with an almost art deco arched head and foot board made of curved steel tubing.  This is a similar one in blue, mine was white.  This was part of a set, we had a red one and a white one for the two boys, but the Ex made me replace them with a bunk bed she bought since these were somehow death traps.  Remove head and foot-boards.



Second, take the railings from the bunk bed the ex bought and has since fallen apart (the wood parts not the rails) and make a neat pile.

The bolts on the toddler bed were very rusted thus the grinder.  much easier work to just lop them off at the head than to mess with rusty stripped screws.  The mounting plates were plastic, so it was no problem cutting off the bolts without damaging the two ends.
Then I clamped the two toddler ends to the frame of the railings.  Right down the center line of the middle bar, drill through with an undersized bit for the bolts i am using, one at the top, one at the bottom of each end.  Thread in bolts.  The undersized hole makes it work like a self tapping screw.  It is rough on the threads, but it locks on solid into the tubing and saves having a nut sticking out to scratch bikes with.  I'm doing it with bolts rather than welding since my welder is not working right now.  I justify the bolts with the reasoning, that I can take it apart to move it someday if I want to.
Once it is bolted to the vertical rails, I attach the other railing to the bottom.  similar to the way the bed would be in the above "blue frame" picture.  The difference is the spacing of the slat bars.  The railing is much tighter and matches the vertical placement perfectly.  Same procedure, clamp, drill, bolt.

The railings were a flat black, the ends, a rusty scratched up white.  No good.  It has to at least look like it was a completed project at some point right?  So out come the rattle cans.  I started with a primer, and worked my way up to candy red.  Several coats and plenty of drying time, and then some clear coat.  It is a bike rack, and will get scratched.  So the finish is not that important, but I did want it to look nice for the pictures.

Now with the rack in place (it is double sided as well) and some more in storage in the rafters, I have a clean entry to the shop.  If only I could use this kind of thing to get the kids rooms less cluttered...  well I do have a wood chipper...