best solution for bike storage?

[crescent]

Apologies if this is not the right place...just wondering what fellow ED residents do about bike storage when you don't have a garage? Any advice/ experience welcomed.

After a spate of birthdays, we now have 5 bikes cluttering up the living room, and this is not a long term solution that works for me (husband however can't see the problem!). We have a teeny back garden already cluttered with playhouse, garden furniture, sand table...if we put a bike shed in the back, there'll be little garden left. We have space in our front yard for a bike store/ shed of some description, but when I mentioned this to a neighbour who is also Neighbourhood Watch, she said "a shed in your front garden is an open invitation to be kicked in".

Is she right? Would it be naive to have a shed in the front garden? It would be behind a wall,running alongside the pavement, so you'd have to walk up our drive to notice it. But then again, once up our drive, you could break into it with a sledge hammer and no one could see you from the street.

Any tips?

[Rhinestone Cowboy]

http://www.trimetals.co.uk/bicycle-storage.php

http://www.kabrus.co.uk/

Guy at work has these, lives in clapham and so far has been ok

said the additional alarm on outside is big bonus..

Once I get round to getting a bike I will be looking at these as we are in same situation with small back garden and 2yr old girl wanting a bike in next couple of years

[benmorg]

A shed in the front garden would be OK if it contains a ground anchor that bikes can be locked to securely. Ground anchors can be as cheap as ?20 but you may need to pour concrete into a hole to create a solid fixing point.

[Maccers]

I agree on the ground anchor point, very secure. Have also wired the shed into our burglar alarm system and it doesn't hurt to put a sign on it to that effect.

[mlteenie]

I think the trimetals sheds are good and there are many around here. The outsides are lockable and I am sure their resale value must be quite decent if you needed to get rid of it later.

And should you be after a ground anchor and chain lock, I happen to be selling one.... ;-) yours for ?40

[nloyall]

Or go a bit crazy and fit some bike holder on your walls an decorate your walls by hanging your bikes on it.