Mountain bike in condo?

I live in a 900sqft condo and currently have 5 bikes in my place. I dont trust my good rides in the downstairs storage.

My bikes are art pieces that adorn the space.

I could probably offload 2 to the downstairs. A really old cove hooker, and a 1992 norco ramage steelie.

my demo, enduro, and rocky carbon stay with me haha.

Ha, sounds familiar. We have 9 here (if you include the Norco VPS ski bike under the bed….) in our open plan apartment. Three hang from the sprinkler pipes, my Giant Glory is in pieces in my wardrobe and the others are scattered around the place. No problems here! Other than not enough room for more bikes….

The current condo I live in downtown has a strict "no bikes in the elevator" policy, and given the way the building is managed, I don't doubt for a minute that they would enforce that rule. Having said that, in this building and the last building I lived in, I've stored my bikes in the underground bike storage room. I made certain that my home insurance covered the value of my bikes in the event that something happens, but so far I haven't had a problem.

It's not ideal, but when you're looking at condos, you eliminate a large number if you only look at places that allow bikes in the elevators.

better to beg for forgiveness than ask permission.

just giver.

an old landlady assumed that i was the one messing up the stairways with mud. i not so politely reminded her that i'd rather take my bike up 5+ floors in the elevator

Do not do this. If you're buying then you're committing to a long relationship with your neighbours and strata. They can make your life very difficult.

I would simply avoid living in a high-rise. Those developments love to use bikes in their marketing materials but make it very difficult to actually do it (unless your bike is not a theft risk in the parkade lockup). My friend had two bikes stolen from his communal lockup in 2012. Storing your bike in your individual storage locker is only marginally safer and is an extra hassle to get your bike out when you want to go for a ride. For me it's important that getting my bike out of the house and onto the car be as easy as possible.

I'd investigate artist loft buildings. They are designed to handle a bit of wear and tear from people moving odd-shaped stuff all the time. Bonus that they tend to have wide hallways, concrete floors and proper service elevators.

There is a hose at the gas stations at the base of Fromme (Petro Can) and Seymour (Husky) - I always buy gas at these stations and hose my bike off so it has a chance to dry on the way home.
*edit: I always go in to the station to pay for my gas and mention my gratitude for the hose access. Not many stations have hoses anymore.

. Three hang from the sprinkler pipes,

Whoa! Are those sprinkler pipes designed to support the weight of anything more then just themselves? Lots of claims for busted sprinklers where folks did something to them that they weren't designed for.

Whoa! Are those sprinkler pipes designed to support the weight of anything more then just themselves? Lots of claims for busted sprinklers where folks did something to them that they weren't designed for.

Yup and they do plenty of damage to multiple floors

Remember that you can always take off a wheel or two and carry your 'bike parts' upstairs in a sheet or something like the cart idea below.

It's been said before, but check the by-laws if you are buying. I know in our last Condo, there was me and a couple of other guys who lobbied pretty hard to have bikes allowed in suites. However, we had moved in to a new build so you have a bit more room to shape the bylaws. We basically pointed out there was no way we were leaving $3k+ bikes in the storage.

That said, regardless of the rules, if you are buying a condo, make sure you respect them. It's pretty easy for somebody vocal at a strata meeting to have the rules changed and then the fines start.

OP here - thanks for all the information. Looks like I should probably try to avoid high-rise condos in general. I guess even if they did allow bikes in the condo, it wouldn't be too fun jamming 2 muddy mountain bikes in a [HTML_REMOVED]1000 sqft place. It's fine in the short-term (I have bikes in my current apartment that I am renting), but probably something I want to avoid in the long-run, seeing that I will be taking out a 25 year mortgage on the place! Looks like townhouse or large unit in a low-rise building is my best bet! Thanks for all of the suggestions.

What are the better areas of North Van? Access to public transit is key since I don't want to have to buy a 2nd car. Is upper Lonsdale a decent area? There seem to be a bunch of reasonably priced townhouses in that area.

Whoa! Are those sprinkler pipes designed to support the weight of anything more then just themselves? Lots of claims for busted sprinklers where folks did something to them that they weren't designed for.

I thought that'd get a response ;) When we were originally shown the space, it was suggested to us that we could use them for that purpose and that they can handle a load of weight. Two bikes are hung on one section (one is a 16lb Ti singlespeed) and one from another. All bikes are right next to the supporting wall and in between the wall and nearby supporting strut. As suggested above, we live in an artist / live / work space and it appears to be built to withstand a nuclear explosion.

I thought that'd get a response ;) When we were originally shown the space, it was suggested to us that we could use them for that purpose and that they can handle a load of weight. Two bikes are hung on one section (one is a 16lb Ti singlespeed) and one from another. All bikes are right next to the supporting wall and in between the wall and nearby supporting strut. As suggested above, we live in an artist / live / work space and it appears to be built to withstand a nuclear explosion.

Glad you checked brother.

What are the better areas of North Van? Access to public transit is key since I don't want to have to buy a 2nd car. Is upper Lonsdale a decent area? There seem to be a bunch of reasonably priced townhouses in that area.

Plenty of amenities within walking distance, good public transit, an easy pedal to Fromme, quick access to the highway to get to other mtns/whis. if you want to minimize car use, it might work for you. Lynn Valley might be good too if you live withiin walking distance of the mall. Edgemont Village? Ambleside? Marine Drive is still kinda trashy.

What are the better areas of North Van? Access to public transit is key since I don't want to have to buy a 2nd car. Is upper Lonsdale a decent area? There seem to be a bunch of reasonably priced townhouses in that area.

Upper Lonsdale is decent for public transit. Depends where you need to go, but there are several bus routes that run along Lonsdale that will get you to Lynn Valley, Grouse, lonsdale quay (to take seabus) or there'a s rush-hour bus that goes into downtown from upper Lonsdale via Lonsdale then 15th then Marine drive.

A quick note about townhouse/apt pricing in North Vancouver: there are some townhouse [HTML_REMOVED] apartment complexes (one is at Westview) that have units that seem well below what the typical market value is: there's a simple reason for this: the units are NOT legally strata. The land is a leasehold. A good real estate agent will explain the implications…

I once had a landlord try to evict me over my bikes. This was after living there for 2-3 years and explicitly asking permission before I moved in. She changed her mind, decided all bikes had to go into a storage room, and I refused to comply. I got an eviction notice and fought it and the RTA or whatever it is called very, very quickly decided in my favour. Took less than 2 minutes. Rules that I have learned:

1) Ask permission and get it in writing.
2) If you don't ask permission…if you've done it for a year or two and gotten away with it, you're probably okay as it is considered an implicit endorsement.

Exceptions can usually be made if your bike is very valuable and promise to only take it through the building after it's been cleaned.
I talked my way into taking my 250cc motorbike into my highrise apartment for the winter. Basically it was a one time only "turn a blind eye" deal.

Just so you know of another option, once Dave gets his business going in a shop (beginning of March is the expected date, he is storing bikes for people. You let him know when you want it, he has it ready fro you and when you drop it off he cleans and oils it and stores it until you're ready to rip again.

Check out http://www.bicyclehub.ca/ or contact Dave for details, may be what you're looking for.