The making of a Pain Cave
When we started to make plans for our new modern home almost 2 years ago my wife and I both knew that we wanted to have a dedicated bike room. I always considered it to be a pain cave, but to my wife it is an exercise room, where the bikes are neatly hung up and leave plenty of space for other activities. In our old home we had no such space, and bikes could be found everywhere – in my office, the hallways, the den and the basement. In the new home (completed at the beginning of the year) we solved this problem with a separate room. But how exactly we would handle this new 18 foot long, 8 foot wide and 11 foot tall space was not clear.
I spent a lot of time researching bike mounts and browsed the Slowtwitch forum for inspiration, but nothing seemed quite right. I knew I wanted the bikes to be wall mounted, otherwise the space between would be super narrow, but I didn't care for any of the options I found.
I stumbled upon the Cycloc brand a couple months ago and their Solo model is popular in apartments as it is very clean, has a storage option and is available in multiple colors. There were some online gripes about the mounting hardware, but that didn't deter me. I was just about to pull the trigger on the purchase when I noticed that there also was a Cycloc Hero model. I assume this wall mount is called "Hero" because it makes the bike look like a heroic piece of installation art. The Hero holds the bike by the pedal and has 2 support brackets for the wheels, but those seem to be mostly to keep the walls clean. It also comes in 6 different colors and I opted for neutral black.
It is fairly simple to hang the bikes once the mount is installed, however a second set of hands is helpful when initially attaching the Cycloc Hero to the wall. We could have mounted 3 bikes on top of each other in this tall space, but decided to keep them within arms reach instead. The Ikea shelf under the TV helps store bike shoes, helmets, gear and various electronics. The Wahoo Kickr has been my go to trainer for about a year now and it fits in well in the new space.
We first decided where we wanted to have the lower bike, then we marked the spot where the pedal mount goes and then installed it. Once we had that pedal mount in place we did each wheel one at the time to avoid mistakes. We also decided to use better drywall anchors than the ones supplied by Cycloc.
This closeup shows how the bike is held in place, and the mounting hardware is neatly hidden behind cover plates. But note that Cycloc makes it very clear that Speedplay pedals do not work with this system.
I also decided to keep each bike in a dedicated spot to avoid any compatibility issues. I can easily swap out the Cervelo S5 and the Canyon Aeroad CF SLX as they have a similar wheel base, bb height and crank length. But my wife's bikes can't hang in any of those spots.
Mountain bikes work just the same and, unlike various other wall mounts, the extra width of the bars doesn't seem to be a problem.
The Santa Cruz Blur is held in place by the Time pedals.
As I said earlier, these wheel mounts are mostly to keep the walls free from tire marks.
The Dyson fan helps with a breeze, but this room is on a Mitsubishi Mini Split and the temperature can be adjusted without affecting any other room in the house. Behind the Dyson is the AlienWare Alpha computer that runs Zwift. When required, the Dyson fan can sit on the Ikea shelf.
The Apple TV allows for a variety of things to be streamed while riding the bike or doing yoga or TRX.
This is the Cycloc Hero box. It is a British brand and the designer is Andrew Lang. In the US this mount retails for $40 to $50.
There is enough space behind the bike to do yoga and other stretching exercises. Plus a large tool box keeps this space relatively tidy.
I am really happy with how this pain cave came out, and likely over the next few months this space will see additional refinements. The weather is actually starting to warm up here, but there will be plenty of evenings or early mornings where it will be nice to ride the bike indoors, safe and sound and away from the family's main living areas.
