Store a bike vertically in a small flat without scratching the wheel

A bike parked in a hallway takes the width of the hallway. Standing it upright against the wall gives most of that back, and the usual hardware for the job is a steel hook. Here is what a hook does to a wheel, what the alternative is, and how to decide where the mount goes.

Why vertical storage wins in a small flat

A bike lying against a wall occupies about 1.8 metres of floor. Hung by a wheel, it occupies a strip roughly as wide as the handlebars and nothing else. Turn the bars parallel to the wall and the bike sits close enough that you can still walk past it with shopping bags. That is the whole appeal of vertical bike wall storage: it uses the one surface in a small flat that is not already full.

Hook or wheel clamp

A hook carries the bike on the rim, at a single point, on bare metal or a thin layer of paint. That is survivable in a garage. In a flat it is not, because you lift the bike on and off every day, and each lift drags the rim across the hook. Rims get marked, and on a light wheel the load sits exactly where you would rather not concentrate it.

A wheel clamp works the other way round. You push the wheel into a clamp that grips the tyre, and the tyre carries the load. The rim never touches the mount at all. It is also easier to aim, because you push the wheel in at chest height instead of lifting it over a hook.

High mount or low mount

Mount it high and the bike hangs by the front wheel and stands on its rear wheel. This is the space saver: the frame is off the floor, the floor sweeps clean, and the bike takes a strip of wall.

Mount it low, near the floor, and the same clamp holds the rear wheel of a bike that is standing on the ground. Now it is a stand rather than a hanger. The bike stays upright and straight without a kickstand, without leaning on the paint, and you never have to lift it. That is the better answer for a heavy e-bike, or when you take the bike out several times a day.

Where to put it on the wall

Measure the bike standing on its rear wheel, from the floor to the top of the front wheel, and add a hand's width. That is roughly where the clamp goes for a high mount. Measure it in the room, not from a spec sheet, because a long fork and a big wheel add up.

Then look at what you are drilling into. Plasterboard, brick and concrete all want different plugs, and this fixing carries the weight of a whole bike plus the pull you put on it when you lift. In plasterboard you want a stud or a proper cavity anchor, not a friction plug. This is the part of the job to be conservative about.

Leave clearance for the pedals and the bars, and think about where the bike ends up when the wheel goes in: most people put the clamp about a hand's width in from a corner so the bars can turn flat against the wall.

What actually touches the bike

With a clamp, only the tyre is touched, and what touches it matters. The Wall Wheel Clamp is built from two materials for this reason: a rigid ASA shell that holds the shape and does the work, and a soft TPU liner that grips the tyre. The rim never contacts anything hard. The housing comes in black, gray or white, and the liner is always starry black, so it disappears against the tyre.

It takes the front or rear wheel of road, gravel and mountain bikes. Fat bike tyres are too wide for it. If you are unsure about your tyre size, send it to us and we will tell you straight; the same fit notes for every part are on the fit guide.

Two bikes, one wall

Two clamps at different heights let two bikes overlap, bars above and below each other, in the space one bike takes lying against the wall. Both clamps ship in one parcel from Slovakia at one flat rate, as set out on the shipping page.