Bike storage_ Long term

[Se7enheaven]

Just wondered if anyone has any recommendations about long term bike storage around the Midlands(ish) area ?
I'm currently living overseas , but want to purchase a bike and store in the UK to use during Summer months.
I've been doing a bit of research and not really come up with too many options at the moment, so hence a post on here may come up with something I've missed.

I state long term storage which will realistically mean about 8 months of the year. The Midlands area would be preferred , however I guess really it could be anywhere as there is always the option to have it shipped closer to where I needed it.

Cheers

[Pothole]

Would one of the car storage places suit your needs and accommodate you or are you looking for something more specialist?

More to the point, how much would you pay? I may know of a private garage with space in it near Melton Mowbray/Oakham.

Alternatively, these people might be able to suggest something:

Old Dalby Motorcycle Museum
Museum
Address: 1b Woodhill Industries, Nottingham Lane, Old Dalby, Melton Mowbray LE14 3LX
Phone: [phone]

They are enthusiasts and bikers first and foremost.

[JulianHJ]

Self storage place? I don't know if the big chains would get sniffy about a bike, but there's one in my area that definitely caters for vehicles.

[Se7enheaven]

Thanks for replies.
Museum sounds worth a try.

I tried one self storage place , privately run rather than a big chain, and unfortunately they were looking at £90 a month. Which I thought was very steep.
I'm not sure what the going rate should be a month , but I'm hazarding a guess at around £30 to £40 max ?
Not looking for all the bells and whilstles ( battery conditioner , rolling tyres to prevent flat spots etc ) as long as it's very secure, dry and accessible when I need it to be.

[patchb]

Surely renting a garage is the best option, especially if you can find one in the specific area that you want the bike. Secure it to the max and forget about it. I'd personally have no worries about fitting a ground anchor in a rented garage, remove it once your done and full the 2/4 small holes that are left and nobody's gonna notice. Generally garages are around £10 a week. Leave the bike on paddock stands so you don't have to worry about the tyres and take the battery out and leave it at a friend/families house where it can stay warm and charged.

The self storage place sounds extortionate at £90/month. I keep my boat in a private self storage place and that's only £50/month. That's 23ftx8ft when it's on it's trailer so a little bit bigger than a bike as well.

[bogie]

You thought about just joining a bike hire club, and booking out bikes when you are home ? I would have thought circumstances make sense for that option, and you never get bored as you can have a different bike every week when you are back. The bike will be like new, serviced, insured, full of fuel. Really a no hassle way of riding the latest bikes if you just want a few months/weekends per year use.

[Gavia]

patchb said:

Surely renting a garage is the best option, especially if you can find one in the specific area that you want the bike. Secure it to the max and forget about it. I'd personally have no worries about fitting a ground anchor in a rented garage, remove it once your done and full the 2/4 small holes that are left and nobody's gonna notice. Generally garages are around £10 a week. Leave the bike on paddock stands so you don't have to worry about the tyres and take the battery out and leave it at a friend/families house where it can stay warm and charged.

The self storage place sounds extortionate at £90/month. I keep my boat in a private self storage place and that's only £50/month. That's 23ftx8ft when it's on it's trailer so a little bit bigger than a bike as well.

Have you ever tried getting a ground anchor out? The whole point is that once they're in the ground, they're there to stay and can't simply be unscrewed, if they could then there's not much use in using them.

[MikeyB99]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJg0xVb3eAg

Not sure if using anchor bolts like in the video would be strong enough for a ground anchor? But could solve the getting it out problem?

Mike

[Gavia]

MikeyB99 said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJg0xVb3eAg

Not sure if using anchor bolts like in the video would be strong enough for a ground anchor? But could solve the getting it out problem?

Mike

And nice and easy for the thieves to unscrew too, hence why I said defeating the point in using them.

Back on topic for the OP, I looked around a few years ago for this, the national chains were a no go, due to it being a fire risk in their opinion. I found a local place in an old building now divided up into storage units and rented a room in there, but it's not ideal

[CAPP0]

Se7enheaven said:

Thanks for replies.
Museum sounds worth a try.

I tried one self storage place , privately run rather than a big chain, and unfortunately they were looking at £90 a month. Which I thought was very steep.
I'm not sure what the going rate should be a month , but I'm hazarding a guess at around £30 to £40 max ?
Not looking for all the bells and whilstles ( battery conditioner , rolling tyres to prevent flat spots etc ) as long as it's very secure, dry and accessible when I need it to be.

Another option would be to rent a private garage at someone's home who doesn't use it. I've done this a few times in the past, for cars. That said, the last time was 7-8 years ago and I was paying £60 pcm then. I don't think you'll get much of any security for much less. Certainly wouldn't be leaving a bike in a council/ex-council lock-up block.

[trickywoo]

What type of bike are you thinking of?

For all the hassle it might be easier to hire one.

[podman]

I used these guys for the long term storage on my Hayabusa,(2.5 years) , owners are ex F1 so the place is as clean as a whistle but they are bikers at heart(Leigh's pride and joy is 1,000 mile from new RD125LC..) security/enviorment is as you can imagine, top notch...bikes live upstairs now, accessed via a bespoke lift..

http://www.circuit2circuit.com/

Based in Northants, if your interested, ask for Leigh and tell him Bryan pointed you in his direction.




Edit to say, they dont mind if you store something for a month or two either..

[patchb]

Gavia said:

Have you ever tried getting a ground anchor out? The whole point is that once they're in the ground, they're there to stay and can't simply be unscrewed, if they could then there's not much use in using them.

It's quite easy assuming it's the type that you hammer bearings into once you've fitted it. I'm not going to go into detail on here as it may give people ideas but there is at least 2 ways of doing it with a chisel, one of which requires no drilling. Not the type of thing a thief would do as it's noisy and is difficult when theres a chain going over the bolts but quite easy otherwise.

Concrete in one is slightly more difficult to shift

[CAPP0]

patchb said:

Gavia said:

Have you ever tried getting a ground anchor out? The whole point is that once they're in the ground, they're there to stay and can't simply be unscrewed, if they could then there's not much use in using them.

It's quite easy assuming it's the type that you hammer bearings into once you've fitted it. I'm not going to go into detail on here as it may give people ideas but there is at least 2 ways of doing it with a chisel, one of which requires no drilling. Not the type of thing a thief would do as it's noisy and is difficult when theres a chain going over the bolts but quite easy otherwise.

Concrete in one is slightly more difficult to shift

Use one of those concrete-in sunken loop ones, then just fill it in when you hand the garage back

[TallPaul]

Sounds to me like you need to find a friend/family member who has a bit of space in their garage- that's got to be the best way. Renting a lock-up is all well and good (and cheap) but even with the best ground anchor & chain, how secure would it be? Once inside the garage, the thieves can shut the door and take as long as they like to break the chains...

[toxgobbler]

How much call is there for this kind of thing?

[d8mok]

I looked into setting up a bike storage business from home a while ago for exactly this issue that bikers have. There isnt many places that do it from my small amount of research. I was going to charge £50 a month and for that my garage is heated with power points for battery conditioners. I was only going to take bikes on a long term business as i wouldnt want people to have access daily to get their bike. So you could drop it off in October and collect in march for example. I could probably store about 30 bikes easily without using my own needed space for my stuff. The issue I had was insurance which ruled out my idea.

[Se7enheaven]

Thanks for all the input to the thread.
The circuit to circuit website shows some amazing metal being moved around / stored. I will certainly get in touch with them , so thanks for the recommendation Bryan.

I can imagine the insurance is the killer on this one more than anything. As mentioned it seems to be a business that there would be quite a demand for these days otherwise.

[spyderlizzi]

Hello, not sure if I can post this here but we run a bike hire club and we also do bike storage. Don't want to take business from C2C as we're just down the road from them at Silverstone Circuit but bikes are our specialty: www.spydermotorcycles.co.uk.

C2C are good guys but if we can help drop me an email :-)