Customer Reviews

Topeak Dual Touch Bike Storage Stand

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I really wanted this product to work. Its very well made - german engineering. The concept is great - nothing to drill in the walls.
I read the other reviews, and understand why some like and some didn't like. I spent several hours over three days, and discovered that it depends on the surfaces you are installing it on (ceiling and floor). If you are putting this on carpet, with a textured ceiling - something for it to grab onto - it works. If you are putting it on a smooth concrete floor (in your garage, for example), or a smooth piece of wood (like in an unfinished ceiling in your garage), the stand doesn't grip tight enough and tends to move slightly. Under the weight of bikes, and with vibration from the garage door opener, it can fall over.

The Topeak Dual Touch has worked out extremely well for me.. After reading the reviews and complaints I put in motion my own plan to stabilize. I've read that some people have had the misfortune of a fall. Not good! My intention was to remedy this by simple means. I've found my remedy is fool proof. It may not be for some, but for the handy it turns this product into a worry free product. And a not so difficult installation.. I've simply added a 12 inch - 2 layer circular medallion on the top level. 2 plys of wood, each 3/4 inch. One layer uncut and one layer cut out for the top footing to set in. Fixed with only 3 drywall screws to the ceiling. This fixes the two issues I've seen buyers fuss over. One - it allows for a snowshoe footing for the drywall ceiling - no punch thru or cracking. And two - it allows for the small but dangerous changes that occur in climate changes. Even if my Topeak loosens under full weight of 2 bikes It cannot break free.. Hope this helps..

Unlike the leaning type of bike stands, this unit really does save a TON of space. I now have my road bike and my mountain bike in the bedroom of my small apartment, tucked behind the door. It is great. The nicest feature is the adjustability of the hooks, so you can hang just about any bike geometry. The padded hooks are kind to bike frames, too. And it took me about 10 minutes to set up, and was easy to move when I moved some furniture.

THE SHORT: It's hard to secure the bike stand tightly, and the risk of it falling makes me uneasy. However, if you must absolutely have it, buy at a physical store and not from Amazon. Amazon doesn't pack bulky, non-book items well before shipping, and the stand can arrive in a bad shape and/or with missing parts.

THE LONG: The idea behind this bike stand is excellent, but the product itself could have been designed better. First of all, installing the stand is intuitively simple: [1] erect it, [2] adjust the extension tubes so the pole fits the height of the room, and [3] step on the locking stepper to secure the pole in place. However, getting it installed the way you want it is rather annoying; it's hard to secure the bike stand tightly between the floor and ceiling. After I erected the stand, extended the tubes, and made sure that the pole was perfectly perpendicular to the floor and ceiling, I stepped on the locking stepper. However, because it's so hard to to get the locking stepper into its locking position, I had to apply a lot of force. Doing that ended up moving the pole around, and when I finally got it into the locking position, the pole was tilted, no longer perpendicular to the floor and ceiling. (For safety reason, you do need to make sure it's perpendicular (that's common sense, I think). By the time I got it to work, I must have sweared at Topeak a zillion times. Getting the bikes on the hooks was also a pain for me because I have mountain bikes. I guess if you have light road bikes, this shouldn't be a problem for you.

The part that made me give this product one star was that it fell on me and my cats. Luckily, they were fast and escaped safely. I wasn't injured, but all three of us could have been. I followed all the instructions when installing and made sure that both my floor and ceiling were solid. I think the extension tubes slid down over time. After all, the mechanism that keeps the tubes extended seems to rely only on simple clamping tension; there's no foolproof locking mechanism in place. The locking stepper doesn't help either. I know that if I just kick the bike stand lightly, it will fall. That really worries me because as my cats get bigger and bigger, they can knock it over if they bump into it fast enough. If Topeak could fix the extension tubes and somehow make the locking stepper a "locking pumP" (i.e., pump the mechanism with your foot to gradually tighten the pole into place, perhaps by incorporating a hydraulic system?), instead of a push-really-hard-once-to-lock mechanism, I think it would be a much safer product.

Last but not least, Amazon didn't pack the item well when shipping. The package arrived in a bad shape with holes all over the box. And guess what, one of the screws went missing; it must have fallen off from one of the holes. I tried to contact Topeak to buy a replacement part from the company, but I got no response whatsoever. Fortunately (if you call it that), it wasn't a critical part. If you think the bike stand is safe enough for you and will buy it regardless of anyone's review, I think you will do yourself a favor if you buy at a physical store, not Amazon.

I'd done a little research before I bought. There are quite a few stands out there and I decided to buy something from another company, but before I actually made the purchase I came across the Topeak. I've been riding, racing and doing triathlons for awhile and Topeak generally designs very good products, so I went with the Topeak instead. It was a few dollars more, but I'd rather have something that works than something that's going to fall and break my TV or something.

I took the thing out of the box, and grabbed my Allen Wrench/Hex Key and it was installed in about 12 minutes. You need to be sure to fasten the top part of the stand to a sturdy/solid section of your ceiling, but other than that, installation is easy as pie. After that, all you need to do is adjust the bike hooks, and set your bike.

The stand is extremely light, so I was worried that it wouldn't be strong to hold my road bike. Completely wrong. If the thing is installed correctly, it could easily hold 4 bikes.

It's fantastic. I use it for one high end road bike. It's slim, easy to install, doesn't require you to screw anything to the walls, floor or ceiling, it looks great and it saves a ton of space in my NYC apartment.

I would highly recommend it for your bike storage needs.

This is the perfect storage solution for people who want/need to store their bikes up and out of the way indoors but can't attach something to the walls (i.e., renters). With additional hangers, it can support up to four bikes using both sides. It's very adjustable to support nearly any kind of bike and it only took a few tries to get it to fit my full suspension MTB just right. For a hardtail or road bike, it's even easier.

Because this uses pressure between the floor and ceiling, make SURE you set it up directly below a joist or use an 18" section of 2x4 to span between two joists. Otherwise, the only support you'll have is the drywall or plaster. If the drywall doesn't crack when you first put it up, you'll likely have the rack falling over at some point since it won't have enough pressure to keep resisting gravity in the long run.

Had this for 15 months and this is not very stable. Maybe due to the seasonal contraction and expansion in my garage, the spring tension in the pole has given way at least 3 times, twice the stand slipped off the ceiling joist stud on its own. But once it is installed, it is great but if you live in a zone where the temps in your garage varies greatly with the season, watch out!!!

This unit works like a charm. It's sturdy for up to four bikes, and takes up a very small foot print. Makes it so you can store your bikes off the floor in an easy manner.

This fell on my car...twice. The first time not much damage was done to the car probably because two bikes were mounted and the lower bike helped slow the fall. The 2nd time, after remounting in what I thought was a more secure way, it was a couple months later and there was only the top bike mounted...much more damage was done to the car. Thanks Topeak for making a product that is probably going to cost me over $1000 easy.

I'm very happy with this stand so far. I bought it to store my mountain bike and my road bike in my laundry room. The room has a slick vinyl floor and drywall ceiling, but all four walls are plaster against solid brick, so a wall-mounted rack wasn't practical. It is very important to place the stand directly under a ceiling joist. If you have flat ceilings, joists are easy to locate with a cheap stud-finder. To alleviate my worries about the base slipping on the vinyl floor, I took a scrap of non-slip rug pad (shelf liner would work too, something like this: Griptex Wonderliner Extra 20 by 60-Inch Roll, White) and cut out a circle the same size as the base of the stand to help create some friction with the floor. Then it's just a matter of getting the stand good and tight, which wasn't difficult.

Like some of the other commenters, I was concerned because the brake cable on my road bike runs underneath the top tube of the frame, which can lead to pressure on the cable when its sitting on the hooks. I solved this problem though. There are two metal fittings/guides welded to the underside of the frame that keep the cable in place. I just adjusted the width between the hooks to the same spacing, and now the bike sits on the aluminum fittings rather than the brake cable.

I am thinking about buying the Topeak Handlebar Stablizer for Bike Stand. I've had no problem with the road bike (which I keep on top since it's lighter), but the mountain bike wheel tends to turn sideways and get in the way as I'm walking by. I've got the unit close enough to the wall that the handlebar touches slightly, and that mostly keeps it in place. But seems like the stabilizer would be worth it.

My only complaint was with shipping. Amazon shipped it UPS and it arrived within 24 hours on standard shipping, so I believe it shipped from the Amazon warehouse in my town. Even so, the long, narrow box that was left on my front porch was almost demolished. One end was completely gone, and the main part had been taped back together. Even the enclosed box that contained the smaller components had broken open. Fortunately, all the parts were still there and the product itself didn't appear damaged. I've never had this problem with Amazon before, but I usually don't order oversized items.