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?
I’m having trouble picturing this. Does it basically add a strap that you put over your shoulder to assist with lifting?
Essentially, yes. The strap would ideally be the correct length so that when you’re climbing stairs, the bike is hovering just above the stairs, with your shoulder roughly above the bike’s center of gravity so it won’t pitch up or down. A wider strap like on luggage bags would be optimal, to distribute the weight on your shoulder. Meanwhile, you’d use your arms to stabilize the bike left/right so it doesn’t hit the stairwell walls. You’d also rotate the cranks so they’re out of your way whilst climbing the stairs.
Best scenario is that the strap can just be left attached to the bike, so that you’re already ready to lift it up some stairs or onto buses or over any obstructions in the road.
That sounds like it would work for me. Any idea where to get such a strap?
I’m not aware of something that’s ready-made for exactly this purpose, but my first port of call might be to look at tie-down straps or luggage straps. The former are available at all manner of home improvement or auto parts stores, but have the drawback of being somewhat narrow (ie it’ll press into your shoulder more) and have a metal buckle that can scratch up your bike if it flails around.
The latter might also work, provided that they actually have a weight rating of some description, and often a wide webbing with a wide plastic buckle, but you’ll have to figure out how to wrap this onto your bike, probably as a loop that circles the head tube and circles the seat tube.
In either configuration, a 6-8 ft (2-2.4 m) length should suffice, I would think.
Thanks, I’ll give it a shot!