We use cardboard.
2011-02-14 17:05:01
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Indoor Bicycle Parking
The office where I work is gracious enough to allow us to park bikes inside the office. The most suitable area for bikes in the office, (where the bikes are out of the way, yet easily accessible), is in a room with a carpeted floor.
Throughout the course of the winter, the two bikes that are parked there on a daily basis have made a mess of the carpet. We tried to mitigate this by putting paper towels under the tires and bottom brackets. This catches some of the slop, but not everything.
An ideal solution would be one of those rubber welcome mats that stores place near the entrance to catch mud, water, salt, etc. Does anyone know where I could get a rubber mat like that that is about 15' long x 2'-6" wide?
I tried searching Google for something like this, but I could only find larger square mats that are made for motorcycles.
Or has anyone seen or made other creative solutions to the sloppy winter bike problem?
2011-02-14 17:02:01
Use a child's plastic sled.
2011-02-14 17:08:01
Graingers, on Liberty, one place. many sizes
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/NOTRAX-MATTING-NOTRAX-POLYNIB-ENTRYWAY-3-3VGA9?Pid=search
2011-02-14 17:09:31
I have linoleum floors in my kitchen and I got sick of cleaning them on a daily basis. I just use cut up cardboard boxes. When they get nasty enough I recycle them. Usually 4-6 weeks. Keeps the floor clean and costs me nothing.
If you want to snaz it up a bit, you could use a straight edge when you cut/trim the cardboard so it looks "cleaner" and maybe stencil some mini sharrows on them?
2011-02-14 17:10:16
Cardboard with mini sharrows...
AWESOME!!!!!
2011-02-14 17:17:52
Home Depot sells plastic trays for placing muddy/wet boots on. I picked up two of them and keep each wheel on a tray in my entranceway.
2011-02-14 17:19:53
At home I just use a basic plastic tarp, which is pretty much waterproof. It gets some salt build-up, but that can be swept away.
2011-02-14 18:23:36
You can also get lengths of rubber backed carpet cut to order at places like Home Depot. Some also offer the clear plastic that you would use over a carpet for a desk chair. Prices are reasonable. Probably a little more appropriate for a public space in an office than cardboard - although I use that solution at home.
2011-02-14 18:29:00
+1 Grainger.
2011-02-14 19:11:20
I also think (although never tried) a couple of those long planter trays (that you stick under boxed flowers) would work nicely for this purpose
I use two plastic bags, but from the times I didn't there are still big salt stains, I'll try and clean it up a little in the spring, but it's out of the way, so hopefully nobody cares
2011-02-14 19:14:18
I will boycott Grainger until the day I die.
I needed a particular size Allen wrench and they were the only place in town that carried it. I walked a mile and a half in the rain to their store, and they wouldn't sell it to me because I didn't have a corporate account. Three employees in the store, playing grabass with each other, and they couldn't spare me the five minutes. So I walked a mile and a half home in the rain and ordered it from the Internet and waited three days without transportation.
2011-02-14 19:55:03