I have a 70lb ebike that I love, but it’s been difficult and dangerous to get it up and down the stairs to my apartment’s basement bike storage room. The HOA refuses to install (or allow me to install) a bike ramp to make it easier. Any tricks or anything I can buy to accomplish this?
“Installing” a ramp can be as easy as dropping a plank of wood on the stairs just long enough to move the bike and then removing it. Is that not an option?
I don’t know what kind of bike you’ve got but I’ve always found that anything with normal (19"+) sized wheels should be able to roll right up or down stairs, optionally in your case under its own power. If you have something with little 12" rims or if you have landings and turns to contend with that’s when it becomes a headache.
The stairs are pretty steep so a plank of wood would just slide down. I’ve been considering engineering something that can loop around the doorway to prevent it from sliding, but I lack tools or expertise to build it.
I’ve got a Lectric XP 1.0 with fat tires, and it doesn’t roll up the stairs - I have to lift it each step. Combined with the weight and my short stature, I’ve been close to tripping several times.
A plank that’s long enough to reach from the top step to the ground and with a miter cut into it the same angle as the slope of the stairs should stay in place fairly well. If you really want to keep it in place without having to attach it to anything, cut a triangle (or two) that fits in the gap between your plank and one of the steps, with the angle on it the same as the slope of the stairs, and screw it to the underside of your plank.
Your load will be bone by whatever step this rests on and it will have to slide quite far, the depth of an entire stair tread, before it can fall off and slide down the stairs. When you’re done with this contraption you can just pick it up and stash it somewhere.
If you haven’t got a circular saw you’ll have to borrow one from somebody or rope someone in to helping you with this, but you should be able to do it with just three cuts. You can make it all out of the same length of 2x10, or whatever it is you wind up using.
Note that the taller the stairs are the longer and more unwieldy this will have to be…
Can the bikes walk-mode assist you with going up the stairs?
Good idea, but I haven’t been able to get it to work safely. The stairs have a lip on them which the tires get stuck on. Getting down has also been very difficult as the bike tends to try to run away from me. If I were taller or stronger I think I could do it.
Going up the stairs push the bike along with the walk assist. When going down stairs just use brakes to slow the descent.