Bike storage in hot sheds :-)

fatfixie

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A quick q

my collection is finally outgrowing my two old crappy sheds and my spare room (for the nice bikes)

The wife is keen for me to get a new big shiny double/triple garage type shed in the back garden, but i am concerned about the effect the weather might have on my toys. The best bikes at the moment are kept in the house..

Summer here routinely gets up to about 40c/110f - am concerned about the effect the temp. might have on tyres/grips etc. the UV should be less of an issue as they won't be in direct sunlight

anyone have any experience in this area?

Andy
 
Once upon a time it was common practice for truckies to store sets of tyres up in the roof of a shed (where it gets very hot) for a year to harden them up. They'd then last forever - although grip wasn't that great.

In a similar way, bike tyres go harder a little quicker as do some rubber parts like grips, but its dependent on the compound.

The only thing I'm aware of that don't like a 40+ degree day are Pro Flex elastomers which turn into a horrible mess.

Adding a bit of natural ventilation to the shed will keep the temperatures from getting too high so consider that as part of the construction.
 
All sounds good so far - my concern was that x amount of tyres @ $$ per tire perishing would make the idea non-viable

I have a largish selection of vintage/classic roadies,some with "period" tyres and a few mtb's with non retro tyres - can't afford any white porcs :-)

I do have a NOS set of panaracer spikes if anyone wants em tho :-)

Oh- and can't believe i'm taking hot weather advice from a tasmanian andrewl :D
 
I have been known to put my overspill parts/bikes from the shed in the
greenhouse without too many adverse effects.
 
fatfixie":19ewi6jp said:
Oh- and can't believe i'm taking hot weather advice from a tasmanian andrewl :D

Lucky for you I've had to look at installations of temperature senstive electrical equipment for a number on hot dry places and so its easy to apply the same thinking to sensitive bikes.

If you can use the thermal mass of something like a concrete slab which will take a longer to heat up that will slow the aging of tyres through temperature.

That can be as simple as placing them (tyres) on the concrete in the dark on the side of a shed least exponsed to sunlight (ie southern side) that will limit the temperature cycling that they are exposed to.

And tell me more about the panaracer spikes ;)
 
I lived in the middle east desert for 6 years in 40 and some degrees ambient. We went riding in those tempratures, storage could be hotter still.

I've had some excess tire wear on some brands. I concluded it is compound specific, Conti's with the natural rubber did not work at all, whole chunks of tread disappearing from newish tires just ridin' along. Geax tires with the aramid reinforced tread lasted forever.

"Interesting" was the experience of molten! brakepads on on my Onza HOLA V-brakes that I suffered on a long downhill. Arguably that descent started at 3000m plus and at height the temp was 20sometihing.

FInally my clear ODI Tomac grips went all soft and very sticky as opposed to hard. My guess is they were plasticised elastomer and the plasticiser started to leech out.

Enjoy!!
 
I keep my good bikes (i.e. retro bikes in the house) but the others are in the back shed. I also have most of my spares in the shed including a heap of tyres I bought about 10 years ago really cheap. Everything in the shed has held up fine except the Pro-Flex elastomers, which literally turned to liquid!

The only problem I’ve had is on my commuter, the grips have turned black with mould, but that is more likely from the humidity than heat.
 
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