The Hornit Clug is very possibly the world's smallest, simplest bike rack. Available in three sizes to suit most tyres, it's hard to think on how to improve it.
- Pros: Dead-simple to install and use, almost invisible
- Cons: Each size is specific to a range of tyre widths, possible issue with deflating tyres over time, price
The Clug was created via Kickstarter by a Vancouver design house, and was purchased last year by UK bike brand Hornit, which also makes other accessories such as the Hornit bike horn.
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The premise of the Clug is simple: it's a clip that grips your tyre. That's it. Screw to the wall, insert bike. Done. Pull bike out, ride. Obviously something based on tyre size is going to need to accommodate a wide range of widths, so the Clug comes in three sizes: Roadie (23-32mm), Hybrid (33-42mm) and MTB (43-62mm/1.8-2.5in). I've reviewed the Roadie and Hybrid sizes.
The Clug packaging is a masterclass in design. On the side of the box is a guide to make sure you have the right size, holding up against your tyre. Removing the box from the backing card, the lid folds out to become the template for drilling holes, and once taped to your wall, to catch the dust as well – no need to find the Hoover.
In the box are the Clug, instructions, and two screws and plastic plugs, for use in masonry or plasterboard. As with any DIY, you should be aware of what you're drilling into, and depending on the size of bike and surface you could always opt for a more solid retaining mechanism such as spring toggles. Once the body of the Clug is drilled to the wall, the curvy insert snaps into place and you're done.
What works
A Clug can accommodate pretty much all adult wheelbases – a very small person's time trial bike paired with a strapping six-plus-footer partner's extra-large 700C audax machine will be fine, as Clug states a 'working range' of up to 8ft.
Some maths: the Cervelo P3 in its smallest 45cm frame, 650C-wheeled guise has a wheelbase of 945mm. An extra-large audax frame like the Holdsworth Brevet is 1039mm – a difference of 94mm, or 3.7 inches. So if you picked your smallest and largest adult-framed bikes and then installed the Clug midway between the range of front-wheel contact points, you'd be fine.
What's wrong with a hook, you say? The problem with ceiling hooks is that they need to go into something as well, and unless they are supporting the entire weight of the bike they won't hold the wheel solidly, so bikes can swing around. With the rear wheel on the floor, the Clug is only bearing a bike load of a few hundred grams to keep it vertical/horizontal. The removal transient force approximates the weight of hanging a 7kg bike from a ceiling-mounted Clug. In other words, you can insert a 1-2kg wheel complete with tyre into a clug and it will stay put indefinitely – a good solution for storing a turbo wheel, or a spare set for different uses, like gravel riding or Sunday best.
Those of you owning bikes weighing less than 7kg are explicitly advised not to try to use the Clug like a ceiling hook. It even says so on the box.
All about the bulge
The design depends on an amount of bulge in the tyre compared to the rim – a 'lightbulb' profile – for the Clug to grip. So if you are running 23mm tyres on a 23mm rim, it possibly won't have enough rubber to hang on to.
Installed vertically, the Clug grips your front wheel – and no, you cannot invert your bike as the weight has to sit on the rear wheel. If you have a full mudguard that contacts the ground when the bike is vertical, you may have an issue there; possibly try elevating the rear tyre itself on a small wooden block.
For horizontal use, a mudguard protruding below the centreline of the wheel might cause issues – a soft flap should be fine, a plastic or metal guard would be likely to jam or bend. Maybe experiment with height to get a good-enough hold below the hard mudguard on the exposed wheel section.
Note that for horizontal use the back wheel goes in the Clug, not the front.
Once installed, the Clug can be removed easily and relocated in a minute – the insert covering the screws pops out and away you go.
Tight spaces
I'd say the Clug is the best solution I've tried for keeping bikes in tight spaces. Other solutions often need the bike lifting vertically or sideways to get a hook or arm of some sort engaged, whereas your bike goes straight in-out of the Clug.
It can also double as a coathook, bag hook, for a rake, electrical cords... the list is pretty much endless.
I installed the Roadie clug in a small, unused space beside my workbench, too small for any other form of bike stand but just enough for a bike with cranks at a just so angle to slot into. I screwed the Hybrid Clug to the workshop doorframe, making for a very handy pace to put a bike for pre-ride fitting of lights and so on, or on return from a ride, or prior to a fettling session when there's another bike in the workstand needing removing.
The Hybrid Clug is spec'd for tyres of 32mm minimum, but when holding a road bike horizontally I found it gripped the 22mm outside-width rim just fine. The 28mm tyre wasn't touching anything, but as all it's doing is providing a tiny balancing force this wasn't an issue.
Longer-term storage
One point about a device designed to grip an inflated tyre is what happens over time as air leaks out. A trawl of t'internets turned up a couple of examples where people claimed their bikes fell out of Clugs after tyres deflated over a period of months, to which I would say – Ride Your Damn Bike More.
Obviously, if you are using a Clug to store a 'summer' or 'winter' bike (do these things still exist?) then just diarise a monthly check of tyre pressure, and berate yourself at the same time for letting a perfectly good bike sit idle (no correspondence will be entered into).
Value?
As the distant thunder of a thousand 'Why not just buy a £1 hook' emails rolls across the road.cc server farm, let's review: the Clug is designed to be small, pretty, wall-mounted, and to work with a bike vertically or horizontally. Hooks are large, ugly, and only really work screwed into ceiling beams or studs, with the rear wheel off the ground. They certainly do not work in drywall at all, or brick unless you have the correct masonry insert to hand (which would be huge, and I have never seen a hook sold with), and require a fair bit of trial and error to get the angle correct to work on a wall (I have installed a lot of hooks in my time).
Yes, £15 might appear to be a lot of cash for some grams of plastic – but that's to miss the point. You pay that much for some fermented grape juice, and it's gone after one dinner. A Clug in your life is forever, and you'll enjoy the satisfying 'clug' pushing your bike home or taking it out for a ride, thousands of times. (And Cycloc's Super Hero is £44.95!)
> 10 of the best bike storage systems
For those living in flats or working in offices with scarce space for bike storage, Clugs can be scattered about the place with abandon, ready for any and all bikes to store. I'd say a Clug would make for a handy bike-washing solution, if you are in an apartment situation and need an inconspicuous, low-cost and relatively theft-proof way to hold your bike vertical while washing.
If you wanted multi-bike parking outside a cafe, a simple round post in the ground with a circle of Clugs around it would hold maybe a dozen bikes, easily – certainly much smaller in footprint and cheaper than the traditional racking options, with their inherent risk of damage to rims/disc rotors due to wide tolerances and tendency for bikes to flop about.
No, the Clug won't be for everyone, for every application. That's the beauty of cycling being a very broad church – there's room for innovation and specificity all over the shop. If the Clug looks like it will meet your needs, you won't be disappointed.
Verdict
Tiny, beautifully functional, space-enabling and secure in use
Make and model: Hornit Clug
Tell us what the product is for
It's for anyone needing to store a bike, anywhere, pretty much.
Hornit says:
WHAT IS CLUG?
The CLUG (patent pending) is the world's most minimalist and convenient bike storage. You won't believe something so small works so well, but it does! No pfaff, lifting or scraping, just a satisfying 'clug' and you're all set. It comes in three sizes: 'Roadie', 'Hybrid' and 'MTB'.
Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?
From Hornit:
We designed the CLUG to be a great fit with just about every bike tyre out there. We sell three versions of the Clug - one to fit standard road bike tyres between 23 and 32mm (1' - 1.25'), one to fit hybrid tyres between 33 an 42 mm (1.3' - 1.75') and one to fit big fat mountain bike tyres between 43mm and 62mm (1.8' - 2.5').
Rate the product for quality of construction:
10/10
The choice of plastics and how they are built is excellent – artful, even.
Rate the product for performance:
10/10
It holds the bike exactly as described.
Rate the product for durability:
10/10
I can't imagine it ever stopping working.
Rate the product for value:
5/10
This would be the only drawback in some minds; that £15 is a lot for a few grams of plastic. But that's to miss the point of the Clug.
Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose
Cannae fault it.
Tell us what you particularly liked about the product
It's the vibe, man. Taking your bike in and out is strangely, repeatably enjoyable.
Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product
Nothing.
Did you enjoy using the product? Yes
Would you consider buying the product? Yes
Would you recommend the product to a friend? Yes
Use this box to explain your overall score
I'm only marking the Clug down on price, because £15 is a fair amount of cash for some plastic. If it were less than a tenner, it'd be perfect.
Age: 44 Height: 183cm Weight: 72kg
I usually ride: Merida Ride 5000 Disc My best bike is:
I've been riding for: Over 20 years I ride: A few times a week I would class myself as: Expert
I regularly do the following types of riding: cyclo-cross, club rides, general fitness riding, mountain biking, Dutch bike pootling
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30 comments
Following on DaSy's excelent suggestion of screwing a toe strap to a wall - Why bother with the toe stap ~ For the ulitimate in striped down simplicity...Why not simply screw the wheel to the wall?
Sucker - I just incorporated the wheel into the wall as I built it.. Don't even need the screw. And, it's suitable for long-term storage. Win-win.
I very rarely comment, but this, sorry, 4.5 stars for something that will only hold a bike as long as it's tyre is the correct size, and inflated, and costs twice or more than equivalents?
I would like to question how many other wall hooks you've installed, even the most basic are very cheap, (yes, even the £1 hook) and easy to install (yes, with only a 7mm masonry drill and plug - or 10mm wood and drywall plug). You save £14 and don't have to diarise checking your tyre pressures (was this a serious recommendation?).
I have three bikes on the wall at the moment, two on Lifeline hooks (sadly no longer available) and one on a bargain basement pack for 99p red plastic coated metal hook. No trial and error was required to get any angles right.
I don't really care about the form of the hooks, they're not aesthetic things, what I DO want is for me to be able to hook my lightweight, and BB30 bottom bracketed (allergic to wet weather) carbon bike, and leave it there over winter, and get my little boy's bike down/my steel touring bike and swap with my Ti commuter as required, and not be worried in the slightest that anything's going to fall down! .
Yes lots of us do have bikes for seasons, it's pretty normal/de rigeur. N+1 and all that. As for ride my damn bike more? I've covered just short of 2,000 miles this year, and that's been curtailed because of injury and illness.
So, to summarise, sorry, we are all entiteld to our opinions, I am not having any of this, I disagree sir, nice looking product and nicely marketed and all that, but fundamentally design flawed and ergo I say not fit for purpose.
Sadly these kinds of reviews make me question whether to trust road.cc's reviews, or are they just clickbait to get users like me, on the site and commenting?
Hi Nick0, thanks for taking the time to express your concerns regarding the review. Who thought a £15 bit of plastic could get folks so engaged? Just as well I didn't mention leaving valve caps in place
I'll try to address and explain.
Firstly, and foremost: just because I rate the Clug 4.5/5, doesn't detract from other options. The review is circa 1300 words, basically explaining my rating. That's the Road.CC difference. We live with products for months, then offer our opinions. We don't regurgitate PR or base findings on a day or two's use.
Secondly, and this is the main point: *it's an option for certain use cases*. If you want to store a heavy bike for half a year, it's probably not the best option. That doesn't detract from it being an awesome day-to-day solution for many use cases, as I illustrated. Your hook drilled into a wall cannot, *ever*, work for a scenario where a bike is stored horizontally. Also wall hooks rely on the whole bike hanging to remain stable, therefore the whole bike has to be lifted a distance up, and the front weel guided in. That can prove tricky in some spaces, or for people of less strength. Does that mean no wall hook, of which I've reviewed several from the likes of Feedback Sports, Topeak, BBB and others, can be 4.5/5 either? No, of course not. I gave the FBS Velo Hinge a whopping 5 stars, even though it's 100% useless for bikes horizontally. See?
You claim the Clug has 'fundamental design flaws' - let's unpack that a bit. Your point of view is that of someone wanting to store a bike, vertically, for half a year without touching it. I'd agree, if that's your yardstick, then the Clug isn't for you, and I haven't disguised that view in my review. Long-term storage is not what the original designers had in mind - if it were, they would have probably invented something different, or added a strap or something. They didn't fail, you've chosen to assess it against criteria outside the original design's use case. If I assess your hook against my criteria of needing to quickly, and with one hand, park a bike horizontally on the floor of my workshop, your hook us utterly useless. Maybe worse than useless. Horses for bikey courses and all that.
I would also question the cost and size of a drywall plug capable of retaning a hook holding a bike weighing 10+KG - it would be huge, in order not to pull out under load. But hey - that's the thing - there's no perfect, catch-all solution here, just the one that works best for you.
A world where the only bike products are ones that work for your or my use cases would be a sad world indeed. Choice is good. The Clug's initial Kickstarter success, subsequent sales and many positive reviews from purchasers, here and accross the web, shows that far from having 'fundamental design flaws', for the price, size and function it really hits the spot for customers.
I'd like to think that the time I spent to explain the Clug here has been found useful by some - either to confirm that it could solve a need, or to prevent folks spending money on something that might not be right for them. That extends to all reviews - you may remain cynical as to my motives, that's your perogative. I'd hope that you continue to visit here and appreciate the time myself and others put in to bringing you the most independent, detailed and honest reviews of bike kit.
Cheers
Mike
So don't buy one, they're not for you. I do care about the aesthetic and have purchased four.
I bought 4, 2x road, mtb and Mrs' town bike. MTB tyre deflated and we had a very expensive set of dominoes. So reverted to hooks for 2 bike and will go to hooks for the rest shortly. That said, great solution if you use each bike evry day. Unfortunately i don't have time to ride all mine.
img_6893.jpg
Just thought on use with mudguards. Would using one of these on the front whel and also one on the rear wheel holding the bike slightly off the ground work? I don't know if it would hold but just a thought.
If you put it on a wee block of wood, I don't see why not. That said, it'd be a very long mudguard that caught when vertical.
Diarise is a horrid word.
You, sir/madame, just made my day
Using the mtb and road versions. My MTB has had no use all winter, tyre soft but it is well and truely locked in firm. the road one is used regulary, pricey for a what it is but it does a very good job. tidy.
The only niggle is I chain the bike up, the chain is heavy and the weight has pulled the road bike out of the clip once of twice., you just need to be careful how you position it.
Going to order another once I reorganise my space. I guess 3d printers will put all these companies out of business at some point, but not for a number of years yet.
>> I guess 3d printers will put all these companies
>> out of business at some point
3D printers are for prototyping and very complex pieces but they will never be as fast at manufacturing as injection moulding or forging and by their nature can't produce smooth surfaces.
I have two of these set up in the kitchen of my (very small) flat - they're great bits of kit, and keep two bikes up really well.
My only real gripe is that if you want to store your bikes vertically you cannot have a full rear mudguard fitted. This isn't a massive problem with my road bike, but my single-speed clunker (used to) live with the mudguards on since there was never any reason not to - until the clug.
It's a relatively easy fix, but if you want to ride in the rain the five to ten minute job that fitting rear mudguards can be is a little onerous (that and storing mudguards is a pain in my flat!).
A video test of the force required to remove a 31PSI 28mm tyre from the roadie Clug - it came out at 6.5Kg/65N, which is only marginally lower than what it was 10 days ago. I’ll diarise to check again in another few weeks NOTE: the force required to keep this bike vertical is 15N.
...in other words, even though the tyre is what many would consider ‘flat’, it still requires over four times the force to remove from the Clug, than what it requires to stay vertical in the Clug.
video_30-04-2018_09_44_05.mov
OK, so a week further on, another test. This time the tyre's down to 14.5PSI (as measured with the same digital gauge).
This time it took 55N of force to pull the bike free - so for a halving of PSI, the force required dropped by 15%.
Set another alarm for next week...
I have two of these - instead of fixing directly to plasterboard I used a strip of painted wood with multiple plasterboard specific fixings then screwed these into that. Avoids any chance of pull-out. If you’re using this for long term storage then when you mount the Clug screw a strip of Velcro in behind and use that to wrap around the rim once the wheel is in the Clug.
I have three of these. Two mountain bike size and one road bike size. I can only add - make sure you have a good wall to attach it to, mine is a crunmbling old mess, and one of the units just pulled itslef out of the wall when I tugged on the bike to release it. Otherwise, cheap functionally perfect.
Than you. I appreciate all the photos you guys post in your reviews of the gear in real life usage. They're completely different to the marketing photos on the bike/gear manufacturer's websites.
And in Ultra-Mega-zoomed Close-Up: the 28mm grippage:
7592c404-2950-41f7-989f-8b458c169e70.jpeg
Not sure photos of my bikes in Clugs adds anything not already on their website, but here you go, dear readers: an insight into the jumbled mess that often constitutes a Road.cc lab
e6fa0891-dc13-4109-84c2-f36ef8524db2.jpeg
If you used it, you should include photos of it in use.
Have three bikes hanging in them in the garage - really easy to install and store.
And yes some of us do have seasonal bikes and did find them one day all scatered across the garage because the commute bike had a puncture so released itself overnight
Someone else posted the best solution to that problem, put a zip tie behind the clug when you install and tighten the bikes with the tie to the clug , so if even if one comes down, the whole series doesn't crash down.
I did ask Hornit PR about this - they said any such thing would detract from the simplicity.
I'd say if you wanted to rack bikes long-term, you could simply pop an old (or new - they're a few quid) toestrap in behind it, and trim short. It'd be unobtrusive, fast, re-useable and bomb-proof.
I thought initially that a toe-strap was the ideal answer, but then it dawned on me that you could do away with the Clug altogether and just screw a toestrap to the wall with apropriate penny washers, and have pretty much the same result. Maybe it would be a bit floppy from side-to-side I suppose though.
Several issues here I'd see:
1. Stability - I couldn't see a toestrap, no matter how tight, being able to hold a wheel vertical
2. Faff - the beauty of the Clug is that you can push a bike home with one hand, into a tight space, and be done. If you had to reach past (around?) your bike to do up a toestrap with both hands, that would be a faff. and if the space were tight, possibly impossible, or highly-likely to see your arms/hands covered in filth from your rim. Possibly cut to ribbons by your steaming-hot disc rotor too.
...just spend the £15 alright?
I think my point was that we'd already decided to add the toe-strap to the whole affair for security, it was in fact your idea!
Would have been nice if they just created a channel behind the clug where you can position the zip tie, so you could still have it nicely flush with the wall. I was happy enough to use a 1p zip tie purchased myself.
Downside is that as i applied the trick after installing bikes are stored a bit too close to each other to have easy access to undo the zip tie ... next garage reorg will need to have them spaced wider.
DUPLICATE = pls delete.
Check it out
https://www.thehornit.com/hornit-clug-roadie
Can we see it in use?