Inside Martyn Ashton's Garage: An Adaptive MTB Storage Build
Martyn Ashton's single garage had to do four jobs at once: workshop, bike storage, gym, and filming set. We sat down with him at Stashed HQ to design it from the ground up, then delivered and installed it on site. Here is how the build came together.
"This is my slightly chaotic single garage. And this is it now."
Earlier this year, Martyn Ashton, former world trials champion, cycling legend and founder of RideAble Now, came to Stashed HQ in Wales. We sat down with Founder Elliot Tanner and R&D lead Pete to design the build of his garage from the ground up. A few weeks later, our team delivered and installed the SpaceRail and LodeStar systems on site, with Airtasker handling the floor reset and finishing work, and Garage Style fitting the flooring and lighting.
A garage that was unusable a few weeks earlier now does four jobs at once: workshop, vertical bike storage, gym, and filming set for the RideAble Now community Martyn has built around adaptive mountain biking.
The unspoken problem with adaptive bikes (and eBikes)
Martyn talks often about how transformational adaptive mountain bikes are. The Bowhead is, in his words, the closest thing he has found to a way back onto a mountain. But there is a side of the story that gets less airtime.
"I'm forever going on about how great adaptive mountain bikes are. I pretty much say they're the solution to everything. But you know what? There's something I don't often talk about is how difficult having an adaptive bike is in your everyday life. They're big. They're heavy."
A Bowhead RX is one of the heaviest production bikes a domestic garage will ever see. The same issue, scaled down, hits every eMTB and cargo eBike owner. SpaceRail is engineered for that reality.
SpaceRail Load Ratings
- Each SpaceRail hook30kg / 65lbs
- Each standard rail section (1100mm)100kg / 220lbs
- FreeStand heavy-duty rail150kg / 331lbs
If it handles the dead weight of a winched Bowhead, it handles any eMTB, cargo eBike or heavy commuter on the market with ease. But weight is only half the problem. The bigger one is what happens when you try to live with a bike that size in a tight UK garage.
"If I put my adaptive bike in, they don't go backwards very easily. So then I'd need someone to come and help me turn it around. Suddenly a bit of the independence of the bike had gone. It was hellish. It just didn't work, quite frankly. It was a space that was not being used."
The brief: four jobs, one single garage
Most single garages are tight. Martyn's has an added complication: a sloped floor that drops toward the back wall, what he calls a "swimming pool effect." For a wheelchair user, that means gravitating to the bottom of it every time you go in.
The brief was demanding:
- Workshop. Somewhere he can finally work on his Bowhead properly.
- Vertical bike storage. A system that handles adaptive bikes alongside conventional ones, with the floor staying clear.
- Gym. Usable access to his hand-crank rig and pulley machine, not buried behind other kit.
- RideAble Now filming set. A considered backdrop for podcasts and prize giveaway content.
All wheelchair accessible. All buildable without leaning on family and friends for every step.
Imagine someone, a single guy in a wheelchair, who hasn't got lots of people to rely on, but wants to make a project like this happen.
Designing the build at Stashed HQ
Martyn travelled to our Wales HQ for an initial design session. Elliot and Pete worked through the full layout with him: where the SpaceRail would run, where LodeStar would sit, and what bespoke hardware needed building for the Bowhead.
That last piece was the unlock. A Bowhead cannot hang from a standard front-wheel hook. Pete designed a custom mount that turns part of the SpaceRail into the anchor point for a cable winch, letting Martyn lift his Bowhead off the floor and manipulate it in mid-air. With the layout agreed and the bespoke piece engineered, the install team headed up to Martyn's place.
Airtasker: stripping the garage back, independently
Before any of our hardware went in, the garage had to be reset. Martyn was clear from the start that he wanted to prove a wheelchair user could deliver a build of this scale without depending on family and friends.
"I went online and I found Airtasker. And you go on their app and it says get anything done. When I read that, I was like, this could be the solution to a lot of people with a disability or life-changing injuries like me. Often you come up with great ideas of things you'd like to do, but then you stumble at the first hurdle because you can't get past all the junk, or who put this BMX here."
Airtasker is a marketplace for one-off tasks. Post the job, skilled local people pick it up. Patrick from Airtasker cleared the garage, vacuumed it out, and laid a self-levelling screed across the floor.
"Problem number one is solved. The back of the garage sloped down like the deep end of a swimming pool. Every time I moved past this point in my wheelchair, I just gravitated to that back wall. But now Patrick from Airtasker has put this self-levelling screed down. It's perfectly flat and ready for my new flooring."
Airtasker came back later in the project to fit the workshop shelving, the air compressor, and the Hiplok security anchors. For anyone with a disability or a life-changing injury held back by the assistance question, it is worth a serious look.
Find local Taskers to get anything done
From installing bike racks to heavy lifting, use code STASHED15 to get £15 off your first task*
Post your task for free*£15 off applies to your first Airtasker task when using code STASHED15. Subject to Airtasker's terms.
Garage Style: the foundation everything else sits on
With a flat base in place, Garage Style came in to fit the floor and the lighting. We have worked with them before, on the Sam Reynolds garage build earlier in the year. The pairing makes sense: SpaceRail and LodeStar handle the vertical, Garage Style handles the floor and the ceiling.
JJ from Garage Style laid the new flooring across the level base and fitted strip lighting that turns a gloomy storage room into somewhere worth spending time.
"I've never really had a garage floor done before. So not sure, but seeing what difference the ceiling made. It could look really cool. Make a big difference."
SpaceRail: the install, and the bespoke piece
We installed a full-length SpaceRail along the ceiling, with a second, shorter rail mounted at ninety degrees against the side wall. That cross piece is what unlocks two-tier bike storage later in the build.
The standard SpaceRail hook suspends bikes by the front wheel, which a Bowhead cannot do. The bike clips into the custom winch mount we built at HQ, which then runs along the rail. Martyn can lift the Bowhead off the floor, suspend it in mid-air, move it anywhere along the rail, and lower it to whatever working height he needs.
"Now I can just take this, bring the bike up into position. The space is so small that as soon as it comes up off the ground, it's really easy to manoeuvre. So I've got absolute control over the bike. Move it down the room. Spin it around to work on it."
I'm honestly seeing bits of the bike I've literally never seen.
LodeStar: organising the rest of the space
If SpaceRail solves the bike, LodeStar solves everything else. Helmets, gloves, eyewear, water bottles, tools, charging, and in Martyn's case, a few decades of memorabilia.
"Having LodeStar is the bit that really ignited my imagination. I went to Core Bike and saw the Stashed setup. Just seeing things like glasses and a water bottle and a garment, each in its space, in its one spot where it goes. It's really easy to put on and take off, and it feels secure and stored. For someone in a wheelchair, everything having its place is incredible."
LodeStar rails and boards mount horizontally or vertically, accept a growing range of hooks, clips, hangers and trays, and can be rearranged in minutes without redrilling.
Bundle Offer
Save 30% on LodeStar with any SpaceRail
Add LodeStar rails and boards to any SpaceRail order. The same system Martyn uses, bundled into one cleaner order.
Shop the bundleIn Martyn's garage, LodeStar boards on the left wall and back wall display memorabilia from his trials career. Factory Cannondale frames built to his geometry sit alongside an Ashton Bikes signature frame he designed himself. He calls himself "a Cannondale bore."
The memorabilia wall doubles as the backdrop for the RideAble Now filming set. On the workshop side, more LodeStar boards mount Martyn's tools.
Finishing the build: security and workshop kit
Hiplok handles the security, with an AX1000 wall anchor and DX1000 D-lock pairing for the Bowhead, plus a second anchor and the Hiplok DX D-lock with XL chain for Martyn's 1997 Cannondale Beast of the East.
"I've added this amazing Hiplok AX1000. Such a solid bit of kit. I can position it anywhere I want. And then I add the DX1000 D-lock. So now I can put the Bowhead on the wall and have it secure. It's going absolutely nowhere with this setup."
Topeak supplied the workshop tools, mounted on LodeStar boards, and Peaty's supplied the workshop care range. Every tool, in its right place, within Martyn's reach.
The result: storage, workshop and gym in one room
The whole project pivots on one moment. Martyn lifts his Bowhead off the floor on the bespoke winch, swings it into position, works on it freely, then puts it away. When he is done, he winches it down, slides it across to the side wall rail, and stores it above the second Bowhead.
We've turned this into a two-tier storage spot, and I've still got the whole room to play with.
Two adaptive bikes, one ceiling rail, one wall rail, and more usable floor space than the garage had before the build started. That is the principle behind every SpaceRail install, whether it is one road bike in a flat, two eMTBs in a small garage, or eight bikes in a family setup.
The gym side of the brief became usable in the same move. The Bowhead crank arms attach to a Wahoo trainer for Zwift sessions, and a Slim Beam cable pulley machine sits ready to use rather than buried behind kit. In the corner where the LodeStar memorabilia wall sits, the RideAble Now logo anchors the filming set, the home of every podcast and prize draw video Martyn shoots for the community.
On the fence about your own build?
My honest answer would be, if you love your garage and you love being in that space and that environment, then this is a no-brainer. It's so neat, so beautifully made, that it fits in with all the things in the garage you already like. If you've got a genuine storage problem, like everything's just a mess, it's just the simplicity of it, and the usability of where and how you can put it in that space, and change your mind importantly and put it in a different arrangement. It makes the space so enjoyable. It solves so many problems, but it also activates so much enjoyment in that little rectangular space. You won't regret it.
Build your own
SpaceRail
Wall, ceiling and freestanding bike storage rails. Sliding, rotating hooks engineered to 30kg each, 100kg per rail. Built for road bikes, heavy eMTBs and adaptive machines.
Shop SpaceRail
LodeStar
Modular rails and boards for kit, tools, helmets and memorabilia. Mounts horizontally or vertically, rearrangeable in minutes. 30% off when bundled with SpaceRail.
Shop LodeStar- Start with the Stashed garage bike storage guide to plan dimensions and layout.
- Book a free thirty-minute video consultation with the Stashed team to map your space before you order.
Support adaptive mountain biking
Martyn's work with RideAble Now is dedicated to funding adaptive mountain bikes for riders who would otherwise never get on one. Memberships start at £5 per month and unlock brand discounts, monthly MTB kit giveaways, and entry into the Factory Builds dream-bike competitions.
