To store kids' bikes in the garden, match three numbers to your family: the wheel size of each bike, which dictates its length and how much room it needs; the rack or hook height, which must sit low enough for the child to reach so they put the bike away themselves; and the store capacity, counted in bikes rather than litres. Get those three right and two to four children park their own bikes and scooters in a covered store the size of a wardrobe. Get the rack height wrong and every bike lands in a heap by the back door, because a child cannot hang what a child cannot reach. This guide turns each decision into a measured number, using kids' bike sizing from the Argos and Halfords guides and folded-scooter dimensions from Micro, so the store you buy fits the bikes you own now and the two sizes up they will ride next.
Kids' bike storage is a moving target in a way adult storage is not: a child rides four or five different bikes between ages two and eleven, each longer and taller than the last, so the store has to swallow a 90 cm balance bike today and a 155 cm junior bike in five years. Plan for that growth once and you buy a store a single time. The broader principles, weatherproofing, security and siting, are covered in the complete garden bike storage guide; this article covers what changes when the riders are children.
What size are kids' bikes, and how much room does each need?
Kids' bikes are sized by wheel diameter, and the wheel size sets the bike's length and the room it needs. UK children's bikes run through five wheel sizes from age two to the early teens: 12 inch, 14 inch, 16 inch, 20 inch and 24 inch. Age is only a rough guide because children grow at different rates, so rider height decides the fit, but the wheel size reliably predicts the footprint you must store. A 12-inch first bike is around 90 cm long; a 24-inch junior bike reaches about 155 cm, close to an adult bike. That near-doubling in length across childhood is the single fact most storage buyers miss.
The handlebar-height column is the one that governs storage rather than riding. A bike hung on a hook or stood in a rack is held or steadied at the bars, so a 12-inch bike with bars at 55 cm and a 24-inch bike with bars at 95 cm want different rack heights for the same child to manage them. Two children three years apart in age need two different peg heights in the same store, which is why a family store benefits from an adjustable or two-tier rack rather than a single fixed rail. Depth matters too: a store 60 cm deep clears the widest kids' handlebars and pedals, so front-in parking works at every wheel size.
How many kids' bikes fit in a bike store?
A bike store holds up to 5 kids' bikes across a 150 cm internal width, because children's bikes park closer than adult bikes. Kids' bikes need about 28-30 cm of width each when stood upright and alternated bars-to-saddle, against 40-45 cm for an adult bike, so the store that fits two adult bikes fits four or five smaller ones. Capacity in bikes, not litres, is the number to shop by. A compact store around 130 cm wide takes three or four kids' bikes; a standard 150-160 cm store takes five with room for helmets on a shelf above. Stand every bike on its wheels rather than hanging it and you fit fewer, because a wheeled bike needs its full length; alternate a hook for the smallest bikes and you reclaim floor for the largest.
Spacing is the lever. Four moves raise capacity without a bigger store: alternate the bikes so a saddle sits beside a set of low bars, not two sets of bars fighting for the same width; hang the two lightest bikes on wall hooks to free floor for the heavy 20-inch and 24-inch machines; fold and stand scooters in the gap a single bike would occupy; and put helmets, pumps and pads on a shelf rather than the floor. The finder below turns your family's bike count, youngest rider and space into a matched store type and links to the range that fits.
How high should a kids' bike rack be?
A kids' bike rack must sit at or below the child's shoulder height so they can lift the bike into it unaided, which puts the peg between 85 cm and 120 cm depending on age. The rule is reach, not tidiness: a child hangs a bike only if the hook is low enough to reach without a stool, so a rack set at an adult's convenient height guarantees the bikes end up on the floor. Four age bands cover the school years, and each has a peg height a child of that age can manage while holding the weight of their own bike.
The four values run from a peg no higher than 85 cm for a three-to-four-year-old, to 95 cm at five to six, 110 cm at seven to eight, and 120 cm at nine to eleven. Set the hook 10 cm below the top of the child's reach so they clear the peg with the wheel rather than stabbing at it. Where two children of different ages share a store, fit the peg for the younger child and give the older one a floor bay, because a nine-year-old parks a bike on the floor easily while a four-year-old cannot lift one to a 110 cm hook. Low access is the whole game: a store a child can use is a store that stays tidy without a parent.
How do you fit bikes and scooters together?
Bikes and scooters share a store efficiently because a folded scooter occupies a fraction of a bike's space, roughly 66 cm long, 25 cm high and 10 cm wide folded, on Micro's published figures. Three folded scooters stand in the width one bike needs, so scooters are the easy part of a mixed store as long as they have a dedicated spot rather than lying across the floor as a trip hazard. Scooter compatibility comes down to three formats, and each stores differently.
Upright, a kids' scooter stands on its own with the T-bar at 63-93 cm, so it parks like a slim bike against a side wall. Folded, it drops to 25 cm tall and slides onto a shelf or into a crate. Hung, the folded scooter hooks by its deck or bar onto the same wall the little bikes use. Three named layouts cover most families. The bikes-front, scooters-side plan parks bikes wheels-in across the back wall and stands scooters upright in the 20-25 cm strip beside the door. The shelf-and-floor plan gives bikes the floor and lifts folded scooters, helmets and pads onto a shelf at 120 cm. The crate-in-the-corner plan drops folded scooters and soft kit into a toy storage box in the corner, which doubles as a step and keeps the smallest wheels off the floor entirely.
Where should kids' bikes be stored outdoors, and how do you keep them weatherproof?
Kids' bikes should be stored in a covered, ventilated store against a wall the child passes on the way in, because accessibility drives use and cover drives lifespan. A bike left uncovered outdoors seizes: the chain rusts within a few damp weeks, the tyres perish in UV, and the bearings pit, so a cheap first bike is often written off by weather before it is outgrown. A store with a sloping, overlapping lid sheds British rain, and a vented store lets the moisture that arrives on wet tyres escape rather than condensing on the frames overnight. Damp, not rain alone, is what rusts a stored bike, so ventilation matters as much as a roof.
Three siting rules keep a kids' store both weatherproof and used. Put it on a hard, level base or two treated battens so the bikes sit above surface water that pools on a patio. Site it where the child walks past the door, not behind the shed, because a store 10 metres out of the way is a store the bikes never reach. Keep the door low and light so a five-year-old opens it alone. For anything valuable, a 20-inch or 24-inch bike that cost real money, add a ground anchor inside and a lock, since kids' bikes are stolen from gardens as readily as adult ones. The weatherproofing protects the bike; the low, on-the-route siting protects the habit.
What do you do with outgrown bikes?
Outgrown bikes should leave the active store the week they are outgrown and move to a separate hand-down or resale queue, because a child rides through four upgrades between ages two and eleven and a store clogged with retired bikes runs out of room by the second jump. Growth adaptability is a real storage attribute: across those 4 upgrades, the 12-inch to 24-inch progression, bike length grows from 90 cm to 155 cm, so a store sized only for today's bikes is too small within two years. Plan the store for the largest bike each child will ride in it, and run a rotation so retired bikes never accumulate.
A simple rotation keeps the store working. When a child moves up a wheel size, the outgrown bike goes to one of three places within a week: handed down to a younger sibling if the timing fits, listed for resale while it still holds value, or, if it is worth keeping for a future child, cleaned, its tyres inflated to hold their shape, and stored flat or hung high in a shed or garage rather than in the child's active store. Kids' bikes hold resale value well when clean and complete, so the week-one habit turns storage pressure into a small return. The rule is one bike per child in the active store, and everything retired moves out.
What is the cheapest way to store kids' bikes?
The cheapest way to store kids' bikes is a freestanding floor stand or a single wall hook set at child height, with several options under £50 that hold two or three bikes. Budget storage does not mean poor storage for children, because kids' bikes are light and short, so a modest stand or hook carries them easily where an adult bike would need heavier hardware. The table below sorts the sub-£50 options by what they cost, what they hold and whether a child can use them unaided.
Two points decide which budget option earns its place. A roll-in floor stand beats a hook for the youngest children because it needs no lifting, the child simply pushes the front wheel into the slot, which a three-year-old manages where a hook defeats them. A single low hook beats a stand once the child can lift the bike, because it frees the floor and takes no footprint. None of the under-£50 options is weatherproof on its own except the lidded crate, so pair a cheap rack with an existing cover, lean-to or porch rather than leaving the bikes exposed. The rack is cheap; the cover is what makes it last.
How do you get kids to put their bikes away?
Children put bikes away when the system needs no lifting, no adult and no thought, which means a low roll-in or hook they own, a spot marked as theirs, and a routine tied to coming indoors. The failure is almost never the child and almost always the height or the friction: a bike that must be lifted onto an adult hook, or wheeled around the shed, gets dropped by the door instead. Remove the friction and the habit sticks. The checklist below is the system that works across ages.
The order of effort is deliberate. Low access removes the physical barrier, a named bay removes the decision, and the threshold rule removes the reminder, so after a fortnight the bikes go away without a word from anyone. Parents reach for nagging first and wonder why it fails; the height and the marked spot are the fix, and they work while you are not watching.
The buying verdict
For a family with two to four children's bikes, the best kids' bike storage is a covered, vented store around 150 cm wide with a two-tier rack: low pegs at 85-110 cm for the little bikes and floor bays for the 20-inch and 24-inch machines, sited on the route into the house so the children park unaided. Size the store for the biggest bike each child will ride in it, run a week-one rotation so outgrown bikes never clog it, and fold scooters into a crate beside the bikes rather than across the floor. Add a ground anchor and lock once a bike is worth stealing.
Filter the covered stores, floor racks and wall hooks that suit children by width and capacity in the bike storage collection, which groups the compact and family-size stores this guide sizes. For the folded scooters, helmets, pads and the smallest ride-ons, a lidded toy storage box keeps the loose kit off the lawn and doubles as a step the youngest child uses to reach their bike.
Kids' bike storage FAQs
How do you store children's bikes in the garden?
Store children's bikes in a covered, vented store on the route into the house, with the rack set at the child's shoulder height, 85-120 cm by age, so they park unaided. Give each child a named bay, hang the lightest bikes on low hooks to free floor for the largest, and fold scooters into a crate beside the bikes.
How high should a kids' bike hook be?
A kids' bike hook should sit at or just below the child's shoulder: roughly 85 cm for ages three to four, 95 cm at five to six, 110 cm at seven to eight and 120 cm at nine to eleven. Set it 10 cm below the top of their reach so they lift the wheel onto the peg without a stool.
How many kids' bikes fit in a bike store?
A 150 cm internal-width bike store holds up to five children's bikes, because kids' bikes need only 28-30 cm of width each against 40-45 cm for an adult bike. Alternate the bikes bars-to-saddle, hang the two lightest on hooks, and put helmets on a shelf to reach five in a standard family store.
Can bikes and scooters be stored together?
Bikes and scooters store together easily because a folded kids' scooter is only about 66 cm long, 25 cm high and 10 cm wide, so three folded scooters fit the width of one bike. Park bikes across the back wall, stand or fold scooters in the strip beside the door, and lift helmets and pads onto a shelf.
What do you do with outgrown kids' bikes?
Move outgrown bikes out of the active store within a week: hand them down to a younger sibling, list them for resale while they hold value, or clean and store them flat in a shed for a future child. A child rides four wheel-size upgrades from 12 to 24 inches, so a rotation stops retired bikes clogging the store.