Best choice
Easy to install and remove, this sleek yet durable dual bike rack can be easily customized to fit any type of bike.
We think the Delta Cycle Michelangelo Gravity Dual Bike Rack is the best choice for most people who need to store one or two bikes in a small apartment. If you have one relatively clear section of wall that is wide enough to accommodate a long bicycle (about six feet), you should use this rack. (As we mentioned above, Delta dropped the word “Michelangelo” from the stand’s name. However, you may still see the old name on websites and on packaging.)
The stand is easy to install. At first glance, the basic components of the stand seem barely capable of supporting one bike, let alone two: the steel tube is just over an inch in diameter, and you connect the segments with simple Phillips bolts. However, the arms aren’t secured with bolts, screws, or any other hardware—you slide the curved end of each arm onto the stand frame, and once you move the arm where you want it, the friction provided by the plastic bushing ensures the arm stays in place. The other end of the lever is flattened and covered with rubber, so your bike frame won’t slip or get scratched.
Setting up the stand took me about 20 minutes and I didn’t even give it my full attention. (The TV was on.) Doubting that this design would work, I set up a stand in my living room, loaded it with two 30-pound bikes, and left them there for almost three months—not one of them moved an inch.
It is lightweight but durable. Despite the seemingly flimsy tubes and low-tech assembly method, this stand is much stronger than the other gravity stand we tested, the Racor PLB-2R. The bulky steel rods that make up the PLB-2R don’t connect securely together at all, causing the entire structure to wobble alarmingly. The Michelangelo is also more forgiving than the PLB-2R: it doesn’t need to be pressed against the wall, but the PLB-2R does – a chair rail or paneling will make the PLB-2R unusable.
Its arms can be moved to suit any frame shape. You can adjust the height of the Michelangelo armrests while assembling the stand or after it is completed. It’s not hard to figure out how to twist and twist your arms. One arm can be higher than the other, meaning you can put the bike on the rack even if it has a sloped top tube or no top tube at all. The rack also comes with a pair of small accessory hooks that attach to the rack tubes in the same way as the brackets. I wouldn’t trust them with anything really heavy (they tended to fall over whenever I lifted the stand to move it), but they were fine as a helmet.
This is very inefficient: you only need to drill one hole in the wall. The outside of the box we received said, “Rests against the wall—no mounting required!” This was contradicted by the instructions inside, which required attaching the supplied “wall stabilization chain” to the stud and to the wall to prevent “accidental tipping of the stud.” (This is the hole you will have to drill.) Follow these instructions, especially if you have children or live in seismic country. Although, to be honest, I didn’t bother and never even heard a grinding sound. The splayed legs of the rack kept the center of gravity of the bike/rack combo as close to the wall as possible, even when I tried to pull the top of the rack towards me. Stopping on the side of the road won’t be difficult, but you’ll have to do it on purpose rather than accidentally crashing into a pillar.
How Michelangelo survived
Staff participants using Michelangelo reported no problems; in fact, one of them moved in with a new boyfriend a few years ago, who brought with him three Michelangelos, which he happily owned for five years. We heard from one reader who said one of the arms of his stand slipped out of place after 15 minutes of use; After reviewing the photos he provided of his installation, we realized that he had not installed the o-rings that were supposed to go under each arm. Delta has since redesigned the rack so that O-rings are no longer required. We bought one of these new racks to test it out; It’s been working fine for five years now, but we’ll continue to monitor it to be sure.
Disadvantages, but not deal breakers
Two very large bikes may not fit both. According to one very tall Amazon shopper, if you ride a large bike (we’re talking 60 centimeters, which is how bikes are typically measured), you might not be able to fit two bikes that size on this rack. His workaround was to pair one of his bikes with one of his wife’s much smaller bikes on a rack.
Accessory hooks can be easily removed. However, this only happens if you move the rack around the room.
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