The Home Bicycle Workshop

Workshops and how others produce their craft fascinates me. After years of observing, researching, thinking and building, I open my shop up to you.

Not many years ago, my bicycle shop setup consisted of an unisulated, one-car garage, a mediocre portable bike stand and a rolling pegboard I built to hold all of my tools. It was a sweat box in the summer and my hands would become numb from cold in the winter, no matter how high I cranked the space heater. Many times, I would come out to frozen liquid degreasers. The shop simply didn’t work. But, that’s how many of us begin this journey.
With a big move, my wife and I progressed on to another house. A distinct upgrade in every way. While home hunting, a future bicycle workshop was a big part of my decision making progress. The house we found had a basement that I could envision housing a robust bicycle workshop. Clean, dry, completely open, insulated, heated and nothing in it but a big, blank slate ready to be developed.

Over the years, I collected a number of images of other shop setups. I used these as inspiration and took what I knew from my own experience. With it, my workshop emerged.

I wanted clear, distinct work zones:
A bicycle repair area, a wall of tools, a flat workspace, storage for larger items, smaller items and bolts, along with rag storage and miscellaneous bins.

I previously used a Feedback Sports mobile tool stand because I was constantly moving my workspace around the garage. It worked well enough but there is something to be said for the solidity of permanence. Through personal recommendation by a buddy in the industry, he suggested a top dollar option that blended the best of both worlds. The stability of a Park professional stand, anchored down with a 50lbs steel plate, along with the easy-in, easy-out, push button ratchet-action system of the Feedback Sports Elite stand head. After using it for over a year, I have absolutely no complaints. It’s nice to know that if need be, this stand can easily hold a tandem bicycle… with the wheels on.

Lighting doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it really is. It is so incredibly crucial that it is the area I began with when I began physically developing the workshop.
Flickery, head-numbing florescent bulbs with temperamental ballasts are thankfully a thing of the past. LED lighting has proved superior in almost every way. I installed 11 banks of Philips Fluxstreem LED striplights throughout the shop. For days after, I felt like I was in a surgical room because the light was so bright and sharp. Since then, they have mellowed out just a touch, or my eyes have simply become used to the broad, powerful, white light spectrum. Purchasing this many light strips wasn’t cheap, nor was the installation, but the results are phenomenal allowing me to see every critical detail. This, along with the increased environmental responsibility has this purchase worth every penny.

What you don’t see from the photographs shown above is the other side of the shop. This space is reserved for bike storage. 12 bikes easily and safely hang, along with 3 hooks that are reserved for either a full wheelset or a bike frame. All waiting for restoration.
Although this post is focused purely on the workshop space itself, in the future, I hope to showcase the bicycle storage setup exclusively.

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