Indoor bike storage can be a challenge, you want to bring your pride and joy inside but the bike takes up space, it needs to be out of the way and also accessible. The CLUG is compact and elegant, a prize winning product to help you store your bike. This tiny product from Hurdler Studios in Vancouver, Canada is a head-turner, but it also comes with limitations.
Let’s start with the great attributes – it is super compact and if you have a spare corner or space against a wall, the CLUG is unassuming when it is holding your bike… and also when it is not. The modern design comes in different flavours so you can colour match to suit your style; a white or black outside and orange, green, blue or black inside.
From the packaging, the CLUG promises to be small
If this suits your space, it is a superb solution. In practice you simply stand the bicycle up on the back wheel and press the front wheel into the CLUG holder which takes a nice grip on the wheel. Removing is just as simple, pull out the front wheel and then set the bike down.
The limitation is that the CLUG has to suit your space, if you want the bikes off the floor then this is not the solution for you. For wall hanging you could turn to the Cycloc, another artistic bike holder or a Bunnings budget solution. The CLUG can save you some space when the bike is positioned vertically which makes it a good option in some locations but unsuitable for others. Over time I am also expecting a side-effect of tyre marks on the wall.
Hi, I’m your CLUG
Out of the box, (the inside piece is reversed)
Screws and plastic wall anchors are provided.
Installing the CLUG is relatively simple. I read and followed the brief instructions, the tiny packing of the CLUG is used also a guide to help mark the correct height and position of the holder on the wall. My first attempt to install the CLUG however failed, you can see what happened in the following short video.
Following this failed installation attempt, I found a second location against a cupboard and faced two further challenges, the plastic wall plugs and screws were not a good match so I switched over to German hollow-wall style anchor plugs which expand and some better screws with a larger thread. With these upgrades, the outside was then quickly fastened against the cupboard and the inside plastic piece clicked into place to complete the job.
The Francesco Moser has a nice place to call home
The good news was that my carbon fibre and my classic road bike both share the same wheel base (distance between the axles) which meant that the one CLUG was the perfect height for both bikes. The road version of the CLUG which I used suits road bikes with a tyre width between 23 – 32mm. I have a 23mm width on one bike and 25mm on the other. While the skinny tyres are easier to insert and remove, the grip was solid for both. The CLUG also comes in a version for urban bikes called the hybrid for tyre widths between 33 and 42mm and a version for mountain bikes which suits 43 – 62mm.
25mm wide tyres
23mm wide tyres
In overview, it is a relatively simple product which is very fairly priced at $25 USD, this is converts to $35 Australian and includes worldwide shipping. A faster option is ordering from the Australian online shop where the total price is the same, $30 each and $5 shipping.
The CLUG gets my thumbs-up. For disclosure, the odds were tipped in its’ favor as I was already on the search for an elegant solution for my bikes. You can see the colours and order from the US getclug.com or locally at urban dwellers.
Update January 2021
If you make it this far, then it was worth it. There are some small changes, Urban Dwellers in Australia no longer sells this and the product is now known as the Hornit CLUG.
However having used the CLUGs for a longer duration, it has revealed two issues which could be problematic:
Firstly – as the CLUG is not a load-bearing type mount, instead just holds a bicycle in-place, if you knock the bicycle accidental, it could fall out. Many other mounts like hooks or bike storage / bike mounts can more resilient.
Secondly – Although the CLUG is available in different sizes to suit different tyres widths, what happens if your tyre deflates? It may not be pretty because the CLUG can loose grip on the bike. Even if you avoid slow leaks by keeping your front tyre pumped up, if you get an overnight-type puncture, your bike might fall out and you will find it on the ground.
CLUG remains an elegant and compact mounting solution but these issues reduce some of the gloss.
