Comparing High Density Bike Racks

When you need to create a lot of spots to securely park bicycles, but space is limited, look no further than a high-density bike rack.

Shark Up Bike Rack

We’re going to start by looking at the Shark Up bike rack. This rack design allows bicycles to be parked closer together by raising the height of every other rack – making it one of the most effective high-density bike racks.

It is also available in a single- or double-sided configuration.

Single-sided means all the bicycles are parked on the same side of the rack. With double-sided, bicycles, as you can probably guess, are parked on both sides of the rack.

For a unit that parks 8 bicycles, the cost is the same for single- or double-sided. There is a small difference to be aware of, however.

That difference is the total area needed to create effective bike parking using this rack.

Standard bike parking dimensions dictate to effectively park bicycles, there must be space for the bicycle when it is parked, as well as a recommended 48-inch aisle beyond the bicycle.

This aisle is used for maneuvering bicycles into and out of the bike parking area.

With this in mind, let’s look at how the total area for the Shark Up, 8 bicycle, Single-sided rack shakes out.

This rack would require a total width of about 13 feet 10 inches.

Then, you would need a length of 9 feet, 8 inches.

This would make your total bike parking area just a hair over 133 square feet.

Seeing that the unit parks 8 bicycles, that means you would need just over 16.5 square feet per parked bicycle.

Double-sided Shark Up Bike Rack

Let’s compare that to the Double-sided Shark Up bike rack.

Because of the double-sided design, it only requires a width of about 9 feet, 4 inches.

The kicker is that because you’re parking bicycles on both sides, you also need to have aisles behind the bicycles on both sides of the rack.

This would necessitate a total length of 18 feet.

This would make the total area just over 168 square feet.

That comes out to 21 square feet per parked bicycle.

Making the double-sided rack slightly less efficient in terms of amount of space needed to park bicycles.

Spartan Rack

But let’s not stop there. Let’s look at another style of rack and see how that compares.

For this one, we’ll turn our attention to the Spartan double-sided 9 bicycle rack.

The Spartan rack would take up a width of more than 13 feet. The length would be 18 feet to allow for parked bicycles and aisles.

This comes to 239 square feet and 26.5 square feet per parked bicycle.

For comparison’s sake, let’s look at another style of double-sided rack. And stay with us, in just a minute, I’m going to show you the option with the smallest footprint.

Sentry Bike Rack

But right now, let’s look at the Sentry 9 bike rack.

You’ll need almost 15 and half feet for the width and 17 and half for the length - which comes to 271 square feet.

This amounts to more than 30 square feet per parked bicycle for the Sentry.

The least efficient of the racks we’ll look at.

Tier Bike Rack [Most Efficient]

Ok, now let’s look at the bike rack solution that offers the most efficient bike parking.

That would be a two-tier bike rack.

Because you’ll be taking advantage of vertical space, a single Bike Storage Tier rack is capable of parking 8 bicycles, only takes up a total of 85 square feet.

This includes all clearances and an aisleway for maneuvering bicycles.

To compare with the other racks, this requires only 10.7 square feet per parked bicycle.

U Racks on Rails

But, what if you want or are required to have all ground parking, still need a high-density option and your budget is a bit more stringent? Then the answer is U racks on rails.

Setting four U racks on rails, which park two bicycles per rack, would take up a total space of 143 square feet.

This comes out to 18 square feet per parked bicycle.

Best High Density Bike Rack

So which high-density rack is the best? Ultimately that depends on your available space, budget and aesthetic taste.

For the money, U racks offer the most parking in the least amount of space.

If you need to have the absolute greatest number of spots for parking bicycles, go with the Shark Up single sided or the two-tier if that is an option for you.

If you want something unique, but still capable of maximizing the number of bike parking spots, consider a double-sided Sentry.

And if you would benefit from additional guidance in selecting the best bike rack to fit your needs, contact Madrax today. A member of our customer service team will put their years of experience to work for you.

Related Resources

• [Resource Guide] Commercial Bike Rack Selection
• [Article] Standard Bike Parking Space Dimensions
• [Shop] Bike Parking Racks