Racor ABL-1R Aluminum Bike and Ladder Lift

• Bike and ladder lift for garage ceiling storage
• Mounts to parallel or perpendicular to joists
• Cam lock secures rope with every pull
• Rust and chemical proof
• Designed for ceilings up to 12 feet, 75 pound capacity

Great idea - spotty implementation - The installation was relatively straight forward except for three problems.1) Part D - Pulley stop blocks All 4 of these were too wide to fit in the slot in the extrusion. I had to take approximately 3/32 off of one edge to allow them to fir the slot. Given the that there was considerable effort put into the styling and manufacture of the extrusion I was surprised to see such an oversight on a simple to produce piece of punched steel2) The directions - overall good except for the one part that really matters - threading the rope through the locking mechanism. The directions on this point are useless. The illustration is too small to be of any value and the text see above is equally useless. Furthermore even if the illustration were larger and more clear the printing was of such low quality that you would still have issues. You can figure it out but this should be clear as a bell in the directions.3) The screws, soft and cheap. I drilled proper sized pilot holes(just under root diameter of the screw) and had cam-out issues with the heads. My house is 80+ years old and the joists are dry, old, hard pine but still...I will be ordering a second - good product if you don t mind some additional work on your own.

Racor ABL-1R Bike Lift - Racor ABL-1R Aluminum Bike and Ladder Lift The lift works wonderfully. The only small downside was in the installation instructions. How the rope feeds through the locking system was a little unclear.

Several QC Problems, and Design Flaws - I m not sure if these have just gotten worse lately, or what, but the latest reviews are telling of what the current product is like. I bought two of these units for my garage.These arrived in a huge box from Amazon, and were packaged very well, with no visible signs of damage.I opened the first box, and started going through the instructions (mostly decent, could use some extra steps), and checking the fit of everything, after noting some of the reviews. Everything seemed to fit inside the track during inspection, and the parts seemed of decent quality.When I started assembly of the first unit, I installed the track. Once this was done, I tried to slide the metal stops with the allen bolts in them, into the track, only to find that they no longer fit when the track is installed (the track must be slightly bowed, and then after assembly, it slightly closes the track). I e-mailed the company to ask if they had modified metal stops, and was told that this was the first time they had heard of the problem, and that they did not have a solution. Instead of prying the track open, I decided to use a sander to sand down the metal stops, because prying on the track only left tool marks on it. I was then able to install everything correctly, and it looked like it was going to be a decent product, until I fished the ~40 foot rope (...does it really need to be that long?) through the pulleys.I got my bike (~25lb XC mountain bike) setup below the lift, and it took nearly 5 minutes just to get the hooks lined up and holding just the right pressure on the rope, to keep the other from coming off, once I had done the first. I hoisted my bike up in the air, and got it to where I wanted it, and started to release on the rope, to find that the bike was coming back down at full speed. These have a ratcheting system, that is supposed to keep that from happening, even when not using the rope coil bar. I tried it several more times, and just decided to leave my bike on the floor, and give up for the evening.I had opened both boxes in order to get the metal plates out of both units, so I could do all the sanding at once. I realized that the second unit was missing the eyelet and metal stop. I e-mailed the company, and let them know, and they said that they were currently out of stock, but would ship me one when it came in...okayThe next day, I decided to look at the other unit, to check it over. Upon looking at the ratchet system on this one, I thought, something looks different about this one. I took it out to the one already installed, and sure enough, the two pieces (which are RIVETED together) were installed backwards, which explains why it did not work. There is no way to reverse them, unless you happen to have a rivet the correct size, and a tool to install it.On top of this, the previous reviews are correct, the two pulleys that have the hooks on them need to be redesigned, because the rope falls off all the time.From a usage standpoint, I couldn t see how someone that rides their bike 2-3 times a week would like the hassle of using one of these. Someone that rides their bike maybe once a month or something, may find it more useful, but I think I ll just go back to using stud mounted hooks for the wheels, or a floor standing bike rack.I was pretty ticked at this point, and just got on Amazon and decided to return both of them for a refund. This is one of the worse quality control issues I have seen. One unit with missing parts, another with parts not correctly assembled, poor response from the company on replacement parts...I ll let you decide.Two stars...I will give them that, because if they fixed the quality issues, and redesigned the lower pulleys, I think this would be a really nice product. But instead of that, I m left with 5 holes in my ceiling.

Great Item! I am very pleased and just purchased a 3rd. - This bike lift is great. Installation requires a little thought, but after you figure out one it is simple to install another. I purchased two and was very pleased with the product for the price. I just ordered another from Amazon. I had read previous reviews and decided to use 2-1/5 screws from the hardware store. I also drilled pilot holes for the screws which made installation faster & easier. The installation instructions are vague but use your head, take your time and you will be pleased with the lift.

Nice bike lift - Item works well, two issues-rope comes of hanger pulleys and tie knot at end of rope after you string thru pulleys so that it doesn t pull out by accident. Have four hangers installed in my garage.