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Garage bike storage can be one of the biggest challeng if you have a lot of bikes in your home. In our family, we have 7 bikers, and at least a dozen bikes. At one point, our garage was so full of bikes that there was not a chance of getting a car inside, so we set off to review the best garage bike racks and discover the top solutions.
Overall, we were the most impressed with the VelociRAX Tilt and Pivot bike rack so we decided to do a comprehensive VelociRAX garage rack review.
VelociRAX Tilt and Pivot Rack Review
When we discovered the VelociRAX was designing a full time garage bike storage rack, we knew that we had to try it out. We crossed our fingers that it would be as solid and well built as their car bike racks, and it absolutely is. Here are some of our favorite features of the Tilt and Pivot Rack from VelociRAX.
No frame or fork contact
As we get more and more into biking, we become increasingly cautious about frame and fork damage. The VelociRAX garage bike storage rack only has contact with the bike on the front tires, so the rest of the bike is protected. While this can be a problem if you have a flat front tire (yes, we tried to put one with a flat in the rack, and it didn’t work great), it’s otherwise really fantastic and does a great job of protecting bikes long term.
Easy to get bikes on and off
The VelociRAX Tilt and Pivot rack is super easy to use and to get the bikes both on and off. Simply put the front tire up against the tire basket and roll it in. Even our tiny 8 year old had no problem getting his own bike in and out.
Swinging system for easy bike access
The swinging nature of this garage bike rack is easily our favorite feature of the rack. Each of the bike tire baskets swings from side to side to let the bike swing when it’s on the wall. This allows us to store our bikes much closer together than we normally could, and still have easy access to them. When our bikes are on the wall, the tire baskets are about 12 inches apart, which works great for bike storage, but not for access. When we need to get a bike down, we simply swing the bikes on either side away, and have super easy access to get the bike up and down without hitting other bikes.
Garage bike rack for 4 bikes (or 5 bikes)
As I mentioned above, the VelociRAX Tilt and Pivot is designed to hold 4 bikes. With our bikes 12 inches apart, we can easily hold 5 tire baskets on the rack (and will be switching up our setup soon to put 5 baskets on each rack). Since we have 3 younger kids who ride smaller bikes, we are adjusting things to have one rack with the 3 smaller bikes (set up at a shorter height for easy access for them), and the higher rack will be set up to accommodate 5 bikes (taking one basket from the shorter rack to put up higher). While VelociRAX currently does not have an option to purchase extra tire baskets, we hope they do in the future since the rack can clearly accommodate more bikes.
Tilt and Pivot rack for kids garage bike storage
As you can see, we have 2 racks set up at different heights to work for our huge number of bikes. We firmly believe that all garage bike racks for kids need to allow kids easy access so they can get their bikes in and out on their own and RIDE MORE! To make that happen, we have one rack that’s taller (for our adult and teen bikes with 27.5” and 29” wheels), and another rack that’s shorter to fit the younger kids bikes.
Our younger kids rides bikes with 26”, 24” and 20” tires. While the 26” and 24” tires fit easily, there is some frame contact with the 20” bike, so we think this rack is best suited for 24” bikes and bigger. In all honesty, our son who rides a 20” bike is 5 years old and can’t independently get his bike in and out of ANY vertical bike racks that we’ve tried, so I think that a floor bike rack is a better fit for both smaller bikes and younger riders.
Does The Tilt and Pivot Rack work well for different sized bikes?
This is the one downside to the Tilt and Pivot rack, is that it doesn’t work well for lots of different sized bike tires at the same time, so we don;t recommend it if you plan to store both little kids bikes and adult bikes on the same rack. For our family, it worked best to have one rack for bigger bikes and another for smaller bikes.
Here is what we have on the higher rack: 29” XL mountain bike, 29” Large mountain bike, 29” medium mountain bike and a 27.5” small mountain bicycle. While there is a pretty good size difference between the XL and Small bikes, it’s still really easy to put them on the same rack.
To make access easier for our younger kids, we have a shorter rack that holds our 24” and 26” bikes.
How Much Does A Tilt and Pivot Bike Rack for a Garage cost?
The VelociRAX Tilt and Pivot rack costs $260 and fits 4 bikes, putting the cost at $65 per bike. In contrast, a Steadyrack single bike rack, which is the most comparable equivalent, will cost $99 per bike.
Where Can I Buy A VelociRAX Garage Bike Rack?
VelociRAX is a direct to consumer company, so to purchase their racks, you’ll need to buy directly from VelociRAX. There has been a HUGE demand for their racks for the last couple of years, so if you see one in stock, BUY IT FAST, since they sell out quickly.
About VelociRAX
VelociRAX first came into the bike scene a few years ago with their vertical hitch bike racks. We have their VelociRAX 7 rack and have been nothing but impressed with it. We’ve tested the VelociRAX bike rack on everything from in town driving, cruising down the interstate and even on the rough roads of Canyonlands White Rim trail, and absolutely love it. You can read our full VelociRAX review here.
Using A VelociRAX Hitch Rack on the Wall
The VelociRAX hitch mount system is designed to be stored on your garage wall when not in use, and can easily store bikes in the garage that way. In fact, during the winter months when we bike less, this is exactly what we do with all of our bigger bikes, and it works great. It keeps our bikes stored in a more compact way and is super secure. The problem comes when we start using our rack on the car more. From April until October our VelociRAX hitch rack is almost always on the car because we’re using it several times a week, and it’s pretty heavy to easily take on and off regularly. While we love the winter storage of the VelociRAX system, it only works for half of the year for people who bike a lot.
How Difficult Is the Tilt And Pivot Rack To Install?
While this setup does require some installation, the instructions were easy to follow and clear. I handed the box over to my two teens and they had the rack set up in under an hour.
How Sturdy Is The Tilt and Pivot Garage Bike Rack?
While I don’t recommend this, while we were installing the rack in our shed, I came outside to see two of my kids hanging on the racks like monkeys and happily swinging back and forth. The rack is SUPER STURDY, and I believe that if it can handle my wild kids swinging on it, it can easily store any bike without problems.
What size bikes can the VelociRAX Garage Bike Rack fit?
This garage bike rack can easily fit bikes with 24” up to 29” tires, and has wide enough tire baskets to even accommodate fat bike tires. Smaller 20” bikes do technically fit, but not well, so we recommend only using this rack with 24” tires and bigger.
