Feedback Sports Velo Hinge

The Feedback Sports Velo Hinge is literally a new twist on an old bike storage idea – and it's executed beautifully.

Firstly, let's get one thing out of the way: yes, you can purchase a hook to hang a bike from for a few quid. It will have a plastic coating so as not to gouge your rims, and will offer years of elevated cycle retention service. If all you want to do is hang a bike from a wall, do not read any further, and certainly don't feel obliged to post comments along the lines of 'Nearly THIRTY QUID for a HOOK?'. To do so is to miss the point of the Velo Hinge, and somewhere a road.cc comments fairy will die.

If you are looking for a more nuanced wall-centric space-efficient cycle storage solution that's re-configurable, future-proof and highly likely to be passed on in your will, read on...

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Take your marks

The secret sauce of the Velo Hinge is its ability to hinge your velo (never let it be said the FBS Marketing Dept don't earn their crust). The plastic-covered hook folds out from the wall plate, your front tyre rests on the plate, and the whole thing swings from perpendicular to as far over left or right as your handlebar will allow. The resultant bike or pile of bikes then only protrudes as far as the widest handlebar you have in your fleet.

You can choose a left or right-hand swing prior to installation by undoing the hinge bolt and flipping the hook bit over, and there's a small bit of curved metal called the 'wheel bumper' that your back tyre sits against, so when you swing the bike it doesn't slide along the wall.

As you can appreciate, the distance between the hinge and bumper is specific to the wheelbase of the bike concerned; 20mm or so difference won't matter, but obviously a 650C or child's bike is never going to fit the same footprint as a large road or mountain bike. If you really need to share the same hook between multiple-wheelbase bikes then a bit of wood, handle or just about anything protruding from the wall will do to keep the rear wheel vertical from the hook.

Also, you need to appreciate where the bike is going to swing to and from, so having a friend along to help measure and mark is a good idea. Think it through, then drill.

Five hefty wood screws are provided, but you'll need your own masonry kit if going into brick/concrete. The Velo Hinge is rated to 22.7kg, so e-bikes and Dutch monsters aside, it'll hold anything with two wheels. The top of the plate does flex a bit under load, but that's fine – you get the feeling the Velo Hinge could hang a moped if needed.

Get set

The hook of the Velo Hinge is good to hold tyres up to 2.4in/61mm wide and tyre-rim combos up to 74mm deep – so that's probably 95 per cent of mountain and road bikes out there. For seriously deep-section rims there's the Long Velo Hinge Hook, which takes rim/tyre combos up to 99mm deep and is an aftermarket purchase for £10 that you then swap out the original hook for.

Offerring your bike up to the Velo Hinge is no harder than to any other hook – lift, brace the saddle against your thigh, turn the bars a bit and then back to get the hook around the rim, then drop back down.

As the wheelbase is bike-specific it makes sense to hang children's and shorter people's bikes lower – which will also help with handlebar clearance when folded over the the side. This is the party trick of the Velo Hinge – if you have a garage with maybe a metre or so between wall and car, or a narrow hallway, the Velo Hinge will let you fill an entire wall with bikes you can then walk past while folded so long as they are in the right order.

When you want to get a bike out, fold open the ones 'on top' of it, remove, then fold the others back. A very good solution for cramped offices, car park basements in workplaces, flats, that sort of thing. Some bike shops use Velo Hinges to store bikes for repair, hire or even sale, where space is at a premium.

> Want to start fettling your own bikes? Here's a guide to the essential tools for beginners

There's a similar solution called the Steadyrack for £65 that does the same job, but it doesn't fold away as discreetly (when not in use, the Velo Hinge hook folds down behind the hinged section, which then goes flat against the wall), and is pretty limited on wheel sizes it will work with, from 20in to 29 (the Velo Hinge will work right down to tiny kids' bikes).

The Velo Hinge comes with a three-year warranty, and the design is patent-pending.

Go

If you need to store multiple bikes, whatever the size, type or number, up to 22.7kg in weight, the Velo Hinge has you sorted. As your fleet grows/changes, simply remount the hook and bumpers to suit. If all you have is a fiver and loads of room it's clearly not for you. Horses/bike-wall-hook courses.

Verdict

Probably the last bike wall hook you'll ever have to buy