Anyone with a few kids will likely have a few bikes, maybe a few scooters, and probably several other wheeled objects in the garage. A rack for the bikes will help bring order to the chaos.

NOTE: You're on your own, as far as getting your kids to actually use the bike rack.

The photo and diagram to the right are probably all that you need to build your own rack. But here are some notes and dimensions as to what I learned for making my own rack.

• I designed this for my kid's bikes - you probably need to adjust a few things to fit adult bikes.
• Each bike needs about 16" of space. The spots on the rack are spaced roughly 16" apart, on center.
• 94" of space will therefore give room for five bikes. Three or four 8' 2x4's (or scraps in your shop) should provide enough lumber. I also tacked a 1x3 along the back of the rack, to give strength and support against racking.
• Use your Tablesaw to run a bevel, on roughly a 45-degree angle, along the front edge of the front 2x4. This makes it a lot easier to get the bikes into the rack - especially for the younger kids.
• The short pieces of upright 2x4 are cut to 16" and the top/front corner is knocked off, mostly for show but also to keep the number of sharp corners to a minimum.
• Make your marks. Measure twice! I find you need 1-3/4" of space between the uprights for the standard skinny tires of older kids bikes. I find that 2" of space is needed for the fatter tires of little kid's (under age 6) bikes or those fat tires on found on scooters.

ANOTHER NOTE: this works for smaller kids bikes, but you'll want to adjust the sizes for bigger kids bikes. I tried putting a bike with 26" wheels into this rack, and it didn't fit. I'd estimate that you'd need another 2" in the front-to-back dimension.