My bike storage area has always been a real challenge. Part of my garage back room is the work area, and the other side of that is the bike storage, which is only 5' wide. With 3 mountain bikes that need to be stored off the floor, the original Steadyrack (reviewed here) allowed me to get 3 bikes on the wall and maximize storage space. Most importantly, because they swing, I was able to better access the door that opens into the bike storage area. Steadyrack recently updated its design to accommodate the larger width tires that are popular these days. This new design is burlier on the tray, enabling it to do a better job of handling plus sized wheels.
The original Steadyrack was the perfect solution for tight spaces, enabling more space without completely blocking the door. But one of the problems that I ran into along the way was the change in tire widths. When first installed, I was typically riding Maxxis Ardent 2.2's or 2.35's, which fit with no problem. However, upon switching to On-One Chunky Monkey 2.4's I was starting to get to the limit of the rack. Fully inflated tires would go into the rack with a little force but were very difficult to get out of the rack when it was time to ride.
The new Steadyrack is actually designed around the needs of our sport - wider racks for wider tires. My original Steadyrack holders have an inner diameter of ~3-1/8" and the newer models widen that to ~3-7/8, giving about 3/4" of additional room. My 2.4" tires drop in and feel almost small. I put a 2.8" tire in and had absolutely no issue putting in or taking it out. The bars of the tray are wider as well, as evidenced in the pictures below:
Both of the tires here are 2.4", you can see the difference between their traditional rack and the MTB-specific rack. For those who have made the investment into plus tires (which feels like everyone these days), the new MTB rack is a must as plus tires will not really fit into their traditional rack well. The beefier bars on the tray give a little more confidence for hanging onto larger tire while up on the wall. The beauty of this rack is that it allows for very dense packing of bikes, enabling you to really maximize putting the bikes onto the wall studs (18" apart) for maximum stability.
Here is another comparison of the two racks:
The other big change for the new model is the real wheel holder. As you can see from my wall, I was just letting the rear wheels hang and hit the wall because the original wheel holders were not really wide enough:
With the new version they are wider and can actually grip the tire, holding it in place as the rack swings to the left or the right.
The wider trays were able to accommodate up to a 2.8" tire:
Overall I am very happy with the improvements that have been made to the product, it takes an already great product and gives it more life by adjusting to the direction that the market is headed with wider tires.
One of the other things that this project allowed me to do was rearrange my bikes so that the handlebars overlapped each other better. Initially I had the highest bike on the right and all bikes swung to the right to allow for the door on the left. By repositioning the two end bikes, moving one up and one down, there is significantly more room available for the door to open:
I was always having a problem with opening the door and banging into bikes but by changing the direction of the overlap, there is now plenty of room to get in and out of the garage - as long as I stay with my old school 700mm handlebars.
The company has expanded beyond just the traditional rack, they now have this second rack for mountain bikes, along with two other options, a fender rack for bikes with fenders and a fat bike rack that will take all the way up to a 5" width tire. You can see all of their stuff at: https://www.steadyrack.com