Stashed Products’ first offering was the SpaceRail – an extruded aluminium rail that can be fixed to a wall or ceiling, then fitted with sliding bike hooks. Once suspended, your bikes can be rotated through 360 degrees to get them to fit as close together as possible. More rails and hooks can be added as required.
Now, the brand has applied a similarly modular approach to kit storage. First, you pick a base – either a rail or a board. The former is a smaller version of the SpaceRail, measuring 950x50x2mm, and can be mounted horizontally or vertically on a wall or ceiling.
For smaller spaces, the board is more compact, at 400x300mm, and gives you less linear storage.
You then pick from Stashed’s huge range of accessories, which can be slid into the rail or one of the board’s array of 35 slots, then tightened with single hex bolt.
What you need to know about the Stashed LodeStar
- Modular kit-storage system based around a rail or board
- Accessories available for everything from clothing to tools and wheels
- Designed and made in the UK by a small business
So many choices
For me, the trickiest part of setting up the LodeStar storage was deciding how best to use my limited space.
While you can buy rails, boards and accessories separately, Stashed had sent me two of its money-saving bundles to test – a LodeStar Pro Cycling Set (£329.99 / $455 / €386,95) and a LodeStar Wheel Wall Hanger Set (£174.99 / $242 / €205,95) – along with an additional board (£79.99 / $111 / €93.95), four ceiling wheel hooks (£37.49 / $52 / €43.95 each) and a bottle opener (£19.99 / $28 / €23.95).
It was great to have so many options, but not all fitted my requirements – for example, I’ve had problems with mice nibbling the bite valves of water bottles left in my garage, so didn’t want to risk using the double bottle holder supplied as part of the Pro Cycling kit.
Obviously, if you’re buying from Stashed, you can pick and choose exactly which bits you need. So, that’s what I did, deciding to mix and match the bases and accessories to suit my requirements. I split the ‘multihooks’ supplied as part of the Pro Cycling set into separate ‘angle hooks’ and ‘straight hooks’, and also requested a bike-computer mount (£29.99 / $42 / €35.95).
How we tested
I mounted the Stashed board and rails in my garage, using the supplied drill bit and hex keys, plus Rail Drilling and Cutting Tool. I then added, removed and repositioned various accessories, plus stored and retrieved items of kit, over a three-month period.
Straightforward setup
There are two options for rail/board mounting – you can either screw it into the desired surface or use Stashed’s super-strong Nano Tape (£9.99 / $14 / €11.95 for a 10mx10mmx1mm roll). I went with the former for garage use, but can see the latter appealing to those living in rented accommodation, in particular.
To fit each rail, I first had to drill some mounting holes in it. This is an easy job with the 10mm drill bit supplied. The board has pre-cut screw holes. For wall-mounting, you simply drill corresponding holes (making sure to switch to a masonry drill bit) and insert the supplied wall plugs, before fixing the rail or board in place using the provided Torx screws.
Once the rail is in situ, it’s just a case of loosening the bolt on each accessory by a turn or two, using the provided 6mm hex key, and then sliding the accessory in. With everything in place and tightened down, you bolt the provided end caps on.
Adding accessories to the slots around the outside of the board is just as simple. Mounting on the interior of the board is slightly trickier, requiring you to almost entirely undo the bolt and then angle the rectangular washer on the base of the accessory through the slot, but it’s something you soon get the hang of.
I went with three different setups – a rafter-mounted wheel-hanger rail (available as a Stashed bundle, for £169.99 / $235 / €199.95), a wall-mounted board for electronics and more, and a rail split in two and attached to a door for helmets, shoes and riding glasses.
Splitting the rail was a simple job using a hacksaw and Stashed’s Rail Drilling and Cutting Tool accessory (£19.99 / $28 / €23.95) – a clever combined drill guide and saw guide, which slides in and bolts securely in place.
Everyday usage
The LodeStar system works very well. It’s a cinch to move the accessories around – for example, if you replace your helmet with one that’s a different shape or want to fit more wheel hooks. Or, in my case, if you’re never satisfied and can’t resist tinkering. You can also add further rails – either mounting them separately, overlapping or end to end – and boards as your needs expand.
While the photos here show the door (half) rails with my helmets, glasses and shoes in place, they were soon commandeered by my kids, who decided the shoe holders were perfect for their gloves. Their smaller heads mean there’s space to fit an additional accessory on each rail, too.
The ceiling rail enables me to store a spare, ready-to-go set of mountain bike wheels (with tyres and rotors in place), so I can quickly swap my trail bike between ‘bike park’ and ‘big ride’ setups.
There’s plenty of room to hang a pair of more svelte road wheels as well. Plus, should the new 32in wheel size take off, I can simply bunch up the current wheels, add two more hooks and I’m sorted.
For me, though, the pièce de resistance is the board. My Bosch ebike charger now sits at the same height as the charging port on my (SpaceRail-hung) eMTB, so no more trailing cables on the floor. There’s space in the accessory tray for my SRAM AXS charger, too (note that Stashed also offers a dedicated Charge Station with integrated vents and cable cutouts).
In a stroke of good fortune, the ‘straight hooks’ turned out to be a perfect fit for a Bosch PowerMore ebike range extender (external back-up battery), so that’s now stowed neatly as well. As is my Garmin Edge cycle computer, which I swap frequently between bikes and have a tendency to misplace.
There’s room below the board to hang a hydration backpack and hip pack from it, and l’ve still got tons of slots left over, even after adding a bottle opener (maintenance can be thirsty work!). The only difficulty is choosing what else to add.
My one minor complaint with the LodeStar bases and accessories is with the sunglasses holder.
While the arms of this can be adjusted to suit different eyewear models, there’s nothing to secure the glasses in place, and l’ve accidentally knocked them off on a couple of occasions. An integrated clip of some kind would be a good addition.
Stashed LodeStar storage details and specifications
- Rail construction: Hard-anodised 6063-T6 aluminium with composite polymer end caps
- Rail dimensions: 950mm
- Board construction: Custom-folded and powder-coated steel
- Board dimensions: 300×400x26mm
- Available accessories: angle hooks, straight hooks, multihooks, rod hooks, ceiling wheel hooks, single wheel hooks, double wheel hooks, double shoe hooks, sunglasses holders, accessory trays, charge stations, single bottle holders, double bottle holders, computer/phone mounts, bottle openers, tie-down eyelets, slider eyelets, clothes hangers
Stashed LodeStar bottom line
Obviously, the main drawback here is the price, as with the original SpaceRail. Detractors will say you could just screw some hooks into your wall, for a lot less money – and they’d be right.
But what you’re paying for here is versatility and high quality. It all fits together beautifully, and once you’ve fitted the base, there’s no more drilling or screwing required, and you can rearrange things to your heart’s content.
The system gives a professional look to any home workshop – my dingy garage isn’t really the best showcase for it – and I can see it working well for flat-dwellers too, especially those with landlords who don’t want them drilling lots of holes in the walls. It’s one of the most aesthetically pleasing solutions for storing bike kit that I’ve come across.
On top of that, everything is designed and made in the UK – Stashed is based in Abermule, near Newtown in Powys, Wales, where it now employs 13 staff. Plus, every component part is covered by a five-year warranty, and likely to last a lot longer – I’ve had a set of SpaceRails in situ for over three years now, with zero issues.
Whether that justifies the price compared to buying a load of basic screw-in hooks, only you can decide.
It’s a bit like cars – a Porsche 911 or Audi RS3 doesn’t do much that a Honda Civic can’t (the souped-up Type R version, at least), but some people can afford the premium experience and reckon it’s worth paying for.
I’m already thinking of how to next expand my LodeStar setup.
