[63971]

Hello fellow riders, my name is Peter Pinette and I live in Cape Coral, Florida.

This article is about constructing what I call a "Motorcycle Gear Valet" using one inch schedule 40 PVC pipe. Materials cost about twenty-five bucks and it's easy to build. It holds a jacket, chaps or pants, shoes or boots, gloves, backpack, and helmet.

It was something I needed for my gear, and after building it I thought about all you other riders out there and just had to share.

What needs to be purchased:

Pipe --------------------- 2 - 10' pieces ( you will have some left over)
T fittings ------------- 12
90 degree elbows - 7
45 degree elbows - 3
Cap ---------------------- 1 (if you want to cap everything get 6)
Cross -------------------- 1

Other items to consider: Ruler, marker, something to cut the pipe with if you don't have a tool, rubber mallet, PVC primer, PVC glue, paint.

What pipe sizes need to be cut:

2" -------- 14 pieces
3" ---------- 1 piece
5" ---------- 6 pieces
8" ---------- 1 piece
10" -------- 4 pieces
11.5" ----- 1 piece
12" -------- 1 piece
14" -------- 2 pieces
21.25" --- 1 piece
23" -------- 1 piece

Using the diagrams as a guide put it together. I used a rubber mallet and tapped it all together without glue and it is working fine. If you are going to glue yours, remember that the cross fitting needs to be turned to line up with the upper rear support, and the front bottom center "T" fitting needs to be turned too, so leave those fittings un-glued. Also, the helmet post should stick straight up when assembly is complete. Leaving the entire thing unglued allows you to make custom changes more easily. The parts fit together quite tightly actually.

Notes:

The helmet post is not fully shown in the diagrams but it is simply a 12" piece of pipe sticking straight up with a cap on it.

If you have long boots there is plenty of room to increase the length of the shoe holders to accommodate them. The boot holders could also be tilted forward (if not glued) for more clearance.

When your jacket is hung, the back of it will lay on the upper rear support bar.

I didn't paint my valet but some people may want to. I did some research and learned from others that Krylon Fusion is the best paint for PVC.

When my gear is damp, a box fan blowing on it overnight while on the valet usually dries it by morning.

I set up a Yahoo email address for any correspondence since this project has been submitted to many sites/groups:

[email protected]

That's my project and I'm happy to share it.

Stay safe out there, Peter.

 

[55028]

Thanks for the post. I was running out of things to do to avoid what I'm supposed to be doing. And this is constructive. I'll go price the pieces today.

 

[seruzawa]

Looks good. Now post instructions on how to have that much empty floor space in a garage.

 

[The_AirHawk]

Clever. Nicely Done.

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Buzglyd]

I cut it three times and it's still too short!

 

[mscuddy]

I guess dumping all the gear into an old seabag doesn't cut it anymore. And if I looked into my garage one late night and saw that lurking in a dark corner, my riding gear would most likely be ventilated with 00 buck in no time at all...

 

[sarnali2]

My helmet and summer gloves go on the computor desk in the kitchen, my jacket and pants hang over the bar stools in the family room so the fireplace will dry them out as do my boots. My winter gloves go on the mantle next to my antique beer stein collection to stay warm.

You can get away with this kind of thing when you don't have a wife to snivel about "all your nasty motorcycle clothes all over the place, and anyway why don't you ever wash that stuff, it's filthy"....


This looks like a nice idea though....

 

[pushrod]

Nice plan!

If floor space is an issue, you could delete the "strongback", and put a mounting bracket on the front. Then bolt it to a wall!

I'd recommend finding an old tennis ball and mounting it on the helmet post. That pipe cap may dent the foam.