So, that worked out, at least for the moment. The kit of course tells you to screw into a ceiling stud. But it turns out that finding a ceiling stud, at least in my old Miami Beach apartment, is not as easy as advertised. Even the stud finder I borrowed (which worked great on the wall) gave all sorts of crazy readings, and was just generally unreliable. After some hunting around, I decided that toggle bolts might be worth a shot.
They work! You need to pre-drill big-ass (3/8”) holes, and be careful not to screw up the installation (i.e. screwing with the drill in counter-clockwise mode, which will basically ruin one of your toggle bolts in about .5 seconds), but this setup has 4 bolts holding a 30 lb. bike, and seems to be pretty effective.
That’s “HAWT”
Hey, if you get another kit, or just another pulley and cord, you can rig it so that the bottom of the bike can be pulled up too. Then you can walk around drunk in the dark (especially a friend who isn’t familiar with your apt.) without smacking into the wheels. Well, at least its something I’ve wanted to do.