RAD Cycle Products Overhead Pulley Bike Hoist, 100 lb Capacity

First, I would like to say that I bought this system for $15 dollars on the “apparent” sale from the original price of $55. It is not worth $55 dollars. But for $15 dollars, with a little additional work, it’s worth it. Now, I could write a book on the pros and cons here, but I’ll try to stay concise:

Pros:
1. It’s very easy to set up. Simply measure the distance between the your handle bars and seat, attach the two mounts that hold the pulleys that amount of distance apart on the roof of your garage, thread the rope through the pulley system, and you’re done.

2. Although none of the parts are by any means heavy duty, it’s certainly enough to withstand the weight of a bike. Note : if you’re thinking about using this pulley system as a cheap alternative for hoisting some heavier equipment, DON’T DO IT. The system (including semi-weak rope) won’t stand up to the weight.

3. As simple as it is, the locking mechanism works surprisingly well.

4. Well, it accomplishes the task at hand, my bike is now out of the way mounted close to the ceiling.

Cons:
1. As I motioned, it’s kind of cheaply made. A) My rope has already frayed a bit through the installation process, but now that it’s up, since the weight of the bike is small, I suspect it won’t fray anymore. B) There is too much space on the sides of the wheels of the pulleys, so without significant weight pulling the rope into the groove of the wheel, the rope can slip out of the groove.

2. LARGEST CON : The bike holder is not the shape shown in the advertised pics. Instead of having a curved hook at the end, they are simply “L” shaped braces. Well, this seems to work fine for the handle bar end of the bike, but is easily slips out of the seat causing the bike to fall (happened to me a couple times!). However, this is easily fixed by drilling a hole in each “L” brace on the seat side and tying a security loop of rope that can go around and under your seat to secure the “L” braces to the seat. Now it works great and can’t slip out.

3. Unless you have an extra tall ceiling, the bike tires won’t be hoisted above the height of the garage door when it opens, therefore restricting where you can mount your bike. PLAN FOR THIS! I didn’t and had to move the mounts when I realized the problem.

4. The screws that it came with are incredibly weak. I don’t know why they couldn’t supply this kit with 20 regular strong wood screws (a cost of merely $1-$2), but they didn’t. Without a pilot hole, drilling these 2′ screws straight into a 2×4 starts to strip the head of the screw. Easy fix by using your own screws.

Conclusion : If it costed me $55, I would have given it 1 star because it’s not worth it. But for 15 bucks, with a little additional work, it’s great!

Great way to get bikes off the garage wall or floor. I have been “hook hanging” my bikes on the garage wall for years which is clumsy and still leaves them sticking out at 90 degrees. Once installed this pulley lift system works great and the bikes are well out of the way and much easier to store. I got the 4-pack and will use them all. Great value, they are well constructed. One hint – don’t use the cheap mounting screws they send, use a quality wood screw. Theirs strip very easily. I will buy more!

Color me impressed. I have very little space, the garage is tiny, converted from a carport with a not quite 9′ ceiling. Wife wanted geezer bikes, but I didn’t want to put them in the crawl space. No fancy 11′ garage ceilings like the rich folks have. As you can see, I hung them over the bed of my tiny old pickup. Perfect fit.
There are what, maybe four or five knockoff bke hoists on Amazon. This was the only one offering a package of a pair, and at a fair amount less than the other brands. On the Amazon postings they looked virtually identical except for the ceiling plate.
Came very nicely packaged. Some reviews whined, but I very much liked the fit and finish of the pieces. The pulley material ought hold up for a long time even in the heat of summer. The ONLY thing I noticed was that the pulleys needed to be aligned a bit and their nuts tightened a bit, and I ended up noticing a strand on one of the cords torn. Wrapped the spot (toward the pulling end so it doesn’t go through a pulley). I think I’ll follow another reviewer’s choice and replace the cords with paracord.
The directions suggest going through the trouble to mount the ceiling plates to another board, but for the life of me I don’t see the need as long as you have a stud finder and can center your bolts (purchased separately) into the ceiling joists. I used only 3/8″ x 2″ hex head lag bolts and small fender washers through the three available center holes in each plate rather than bothering with the (useless without another board) perimeter holes and smaller screws. The lag bolts should suffice just fine for 30 or so pound bikes unless you plan on letting your kid sit on one while you’re hoisting it. If you’re going to hoist your kid move up to 1/4″ x 2.5″ – those should fit through the holes. DO use some proper size fender washers to spread the load across the ceiling plate. Snug them but don’t crush the ceiling plate out of square. I did use four of he included screws to hold the two cleats to the wall.
One reviewer replaced the hooks with paracord and caribeners, which I found unnecessary AS LONG AS you mount the ceiling plates so that the hooks hang exactly as instructed. I tried to knock a bike off the hooks pretty energetically with no success. Another reviewer mounted the plates to hook to the wheels rather than the bars and seat – If you’ve got even more limited space than I did, that looked like a great idea so you can pull the bikes all the way to the ceiling.
All in all, I’m really pleased with the design and quality of the hoists, especially for the price. Raising and lowering the bikes is a breeze. The cord lock (to keep a bike from falling on your head) works flawlessly during both going up and down.
Addendum – I know hardly anybody will read this, but I just noticed another review by a guy who actually had somebody else put it up, and was worried about the durability of the pulley axles (!!!!!!!) so he wasn’t going to use it. Wow. Okay, the physics is REALLY simple. The company advertises a hundred pound capacity. Even a fat old beach bike can’t weigh much over, say, 40 pounds. So that’s 10 pounds each on the four fulcra (anchors and pulleys) on the ceiling plate, and 20 each on the two hooks. Would I hang a motorcycle on it? No. But this thing is WAY more than strong enough to hold a standard issue 25-30 pound bycycle, Mine are cheap bikes, but I’d hang a $3000 racer up there without a second thought.

Prático e funcional.