Racor - PBH-1R, Bike Storage, Garage Pulley Lift

When you run out of ground space in the garage, the only answer is to go up! This lift suspends your bike from the ceiling and allows for easy mount/dismount. It is essentially two ceiling mounts, two pulleys, and a two fingers that grab on to your handlebars and back of the seat. The pulleys make lifting the bike 25% as hard as it would otherwise be. In summary, the 2016 version of this lift is relatively well-made and a really good deal at the price point of ~$16 shipped. For what it is designed for, your average bicycle, it does the job. Rather than reiterate what other people have said, I will provide you with my tips and comments on common complaints. QUALITY COMMENTS: Previous reviews mentioned the rope easily fraying: I could see that happening after very frequent and long-term use. The brake grabs at the rope like the cord on window blinds, and it also runs through a (metal) hole near the brake which could wear on it. The 2016 version at least seems to be better than older reviews indicate. When in doubt, just pick up a 3/16 replacement at the hardware store. Others commented on build quality. The metal is certainly sturdy enough for 50 lbs bikes, which is what it is rated for. I wouldnt go more than that. It is on the thinner side and I easily deflected the support slightly while screwing it in too tight. The screws seemed plenty strong. To the fingers that attach to the bike, they are probably 85 degrees from vertical. They have a rubber coating which grabs well. If you mount the pulleys directly vertical from the attachment points, you shouldnt have a problem unless someone goes to town hitting the bike while suspended (i.e. a ladder bumps it several feet). You can always physically tie the bike to the pulley mechanism for added safety. I havent had a problem with the bike raising/lowering unevenly, even when mounting a tandem add-on which was back-heavy (no front-tire). No problems with the brake either. INSTALLATION TIPS: Installation took me a few hours to hang 3 lifts on a 13 ft ceiling. The provided rope is 50 ft long. To calculate how much you need, take the ceiling height times 4, add another foot for routing around the pulleys, and add the distance between the attachment points - usually the back of the seat and center of the handle bars. For a 12 ft ceiling, youre good. For a 13 ft as in my case, it will work with a full-size bike and tall person, but youll have to lift up a shorter kids bike since it wont reach low enough. For anything else, go out and buy a longer, good quality 3/16 wide rope. For attachment to the ceiling, it must be attached to a ceiling beam - dont even think about drywall anchors. Getting the spacing between the pulleys is critical - it must be directly above the attachment points on the bike. Too far apart or too close and the fingers will be at an angle and may not grab strongly enough. That means youll need to remount them to the ceiling if you switch from a kids bike to an adult bike, or vice versa. Id recommend screwing the pulleys to a 3ft 2x4 board or 3/4 plywood, and affixing the board itself to the ceiling. Then you can easily dismount/remount the pulleys to the board instead the ceiling. That also gives you lee-way if the desired mount point isnt directly on a beam. For cases where you are mounting parallel with the beams but in between two of them, you can make an capital I shape: span a board perpendicular between the two beams on the front and rear of the bike. Then attach the main board in the center between the two of them in parallel with the beams. For cases where you are mounting perpendicular to the beams, use the same board technique - just attach it at the beams where it crosses (at least 2). For mounting two bikes, allow at least 1 ft between bikes and face them opposite directions. You can go with a square shape for this case: a board at the back and front like before, but instead of one long board in the center, go with two long boards. I mounted two kids bikes to one beam successfully with this configuration. Each ceiling mount has points for (4) #10 screws. The ones included seem strong enough, but only 6 are provided (2 per pulley, plus 2 for cleat). I added more for added sturdiness and stole the 2 from the cleat (all the same size). When the bike is down you wont have a lot of rope, but when it is up youll have a ton (depending on ceiling height). The rope cleat should attach to the wall so it is above heads and out of the way. Both pulleys must be weighted-down to work. If youre trying to hang two bikes with one package...you could, but it would be difficult to lift and hang both at the same time. Plus be wary of the 50lb limit.

These lifts are great. Seller is very fast too. Thanks

I bought these to modify for lifting kayaks. Required 100 ft of rope for double height garage, and the original rope was used to tie slings to hold the boat to the hooks. A doubled or tripled basket sling works well. The hooks need more weight to reliably come down off the ceiling without load - I used full water bottles. Also, a separate control line to disengage the brake would be nice, it has jammed a few times needed a long pole to fix it.

perfect solution!

These get stuck in the up position and then I have to get a step ladder and get them down and then unlock them to get them down. Using them to life the bikes up is great so 3 stars for 50% useful.

Originally bought this to hold a bicycle up to the roof in the garage. Ended up using it for a sit-on-top kayak and it held the weight fine. For heavier items, be sure and add some support to your rafters to help carry the load across more beams.

You see these kinds of storage solutions on the home improvement shows, but not that often in your friends garage... now my friends cant say that! This is a perfect solution for storing bikes...and I do mean perfect. You cant beat this price, and can get free shipping if you order two (which I did). I put them both up in about 30 minutes, and that was only because my cordless drill was dead...(I had to manually screw them into the ceiling joists):o ! At any rate, the work exactly as advertised, are priced right, and you can even teach your kids a little about physics when they are playing with it (if you are so inclined)! I am going to get a couple more for the kids bikes as soon as I can. Havent regretted this purchase one bit.

Not for someone who doesnt have a few handyman skills, but it was a real joy and space saver once we got this installed. It pulls the bike up with ease and is nice and sturdy. Definitely want to find some solid studs with this one (our new house has steel studs that will not support it)

I have used this bike lift for 1 1/2 years and it has stood the test of time. I dont put it through its paces very often as my bike tends to stay stored more than it is ridden. Nevertheless, this lift holds the bike securely. It just took me a bit to figure out how to lift both ends of the bike at the same time. This involves using the cord locking mechanism properly. Price was unbelievable, so all in all, well worth the money.

Do yourself a huge favor and spend $2 and get new screws that wont strip. I followed the instructions regarding predrilling the holes and the screws still stripped. Took me 1.5 hours for install because of the poor screws. After I bought new screws, the second one only took 30 minutes to install. Once install, the lift worked great.