Keeping a bike in a condo

I'm thinking to move to a condo, and am wondering about moving a bike through hallways and stairways. I heard strata can prohibit such. Keeping a nice bike in a bike room is likely asking to have it stolen. Comments about positive and negative experiences (e.g. discussing the issue with strata) would be welcome.

Check with the strata bylaws to see if they have any rules against bringing bikes into the elevator or through hallways. If I was looking to buy a place and they said no to keeping bikes in the apartment I'd look at buying a different place.

Good advice for sure. Strata bylaws can be updated annually though. Curious if anybody here faced such a problem?

I would say that you could make an argument for being grandfathered in for keeping your bike in your unit.

If it's a bigger building and bikes are prohibited in hallways and elevators you should move someplace else. While many people can appreciate your need for an expensive bike and the risks of the bike room the risk of damage to common spaces are also real.

I had the issue but while renting. In summer i used a bike travel bag to smuggle it in but it got to be a bit much effort. wheels off / loosen the stem and roll in with the bars hanging out the zipper....destroyed the bike bag pretty quick though.

I ended up putting it in my storage locker as that was behind a couple of locked doors where as the bike room was one door straight off the parking garage. I was quite covert in my loading / unloading to keep it low key with residents but to outsiders it would have looked as though i was taking it up to the apartment. Kryptonite Chained to a garbage bin full of concrete with a ulock hanging out the top.

I was Strata council prez for a few years in my last place this is how it kinda works.

Changing a strata's bylaws is a legal process and a pain in the ass so if a building has no restrictions you are probably fine. They can't vote at an AGM and just change laws without going thru the process. If it does you can appeal it, thru the strata owners assn. Hopefully this won't happen.

If buying a strata with restrictions you/realtor can write a request to be exempt from the rule. Stating that , bike being too expensive to be put in a bike room etc. Bike thieves will spend all night getting thru your locks in a bike room, cameras are useless unless being monitored. I have first hand experience of this.

Bikes do cause damage, trust me it happens there is no way around it. So wiping off wall skuffs and cleaning the dirt left behind in the hallway keeps the neighbors whining to a minimum.

I've been keeping my mountain bike in my storage locker for 4.5 years now with no issues. The storage locker area is pretty secure but I also lock it up inside my locker, put a tarp over it so you can't see it from the outside, and I have condo insurance that covers it. Even if a building technically allows you to bring your bike up to your unit, do you really want a dirty mountain bike sitting on the side of your living room? If you were talking about a high end road bike instead of a mountain bike then I think keeping it in your unit would be quite doable (takes up less space and way cleaner).

The big issue with keeping your bike behind two locked doors (and even locked individually within a locker or cage) is that if someone figures out you have a bike in there they have all the privacy in the world to sit down and go to work on extricating your bike. I've known two people to whom this happened. If you go this route definitely make sure your bike has the proverbial business card in the seat tube and is properly insured. I just saw this https://vancouver.ca/streets-transportation/register-your-bike-to-reduce-theft.aspx but I'm skeptical of an online database, more like tech-savvy bike thief menu.

Got my new-to-me bike stolen this summer, inside a locked parkade fob entry only, inside a storage room fob entry only, inside my locker. It was all on video, but happened late at night, although video did lead them to the guy eventually, they spent an hr getting through the locks to steal my bike. I now have permission to keep it in my apartment. I prefer riding at fromme for the wash station. I also carry a garden sprayer in my  trunk if I ride at seymour ect, make sure it's clean enough to walk down the hallways, managers have no issues here.

who was it that stole it? Just some guy? Inside job?