Building A Bike Rack For My Kids (And Neighbor Kids)

Project:
Building a bike rack for my kids and the neighbor kids whenever they come over

Difficulty Level (Easy, Medium, Hard, Insane):
Medium

Process:
Nathaniel's bike ended up on the floor beside the driveway most of the time instead of propped up properly. When he tried to be a bit more diligent, the bike kept falling over and broke part of the petal and his old helmet. In addition, whenever the neighbor kids would come over with their bikes, they would be strewn all over our property which I didn't like so I figured I'd build a bike rack and MAKE them put the bikes away properly.

The process wasn't super difficult, but because I didn't really know how I would/could design it, it took a few versions to get it just right.

Admittedly, I could have just bought a Bike Rack from Princess Auto for $70 bucks but I wasn't sure of the quality and whether it would actually work or not so I decided to go the hard/solid way and get some raw materials at Tri-Province (love that store) and weld my own.

After 3 tries (I think), I filled the holes with some construction foam, painted it and it is now being faithfully being used by all bikes in the neighborhood.

Pictures:

This is the first style I tried but I didn't make it high enough and couldn't fit an adult bike in it

Then I tried to tilt it at an angle to fit in the larger wheel but it kept falling over if it was put in with the front wheel first

Then I tried to do a triangle-like concept but the bike kept tilting over

This was the version that finally worked

After I filled the square tubing with construction foam

Painting the rack

The rack in use

Close-up of how the bike fits

Tools:
Measuring tape
Pencil
Angle grinder
Mig welder
Knife
HLVP spray gun

Materials:
About 40' of 3/4" x 3/4" square steel tube
Rust paint
Construction foam

Cost:
$35.00

Time:
4hrs

Savings:
$35.00 at least

Conclusion:
So glad the bikes are no longer laying around