Pro Bike Tool 3-Bike Wall Rack 2020

The Pro Bike Tool 3 Bike Wall Rack is a neat all-in-one solution to storing multiple bikes to help you save floor space. It's a slightly more expensive route to take than buying individual bike-specific hooks, but the end product is, I'd argue, much better overall.

Tired of putting your beloved bikes up against each other, potentially scratching them and making each one difficult to access? Pro Bike Tool's storage rack is a simple but elegant solution to the problem, and as it's designed to mount up to three bikes (or six, if you choose its bigger brother), it's great if you have an N+1 addiction.

The rack can be used in a garage, shed or even inside your house, and can be mounted to plasterboard (provided it's supported by wooden studs) or something a bit more solid like masonry or concrete.

The hooks used are quite substantial and are suitable for tyres up to 5 inches wide, so there's plenty of scope to hang up pretty much any type of bike you wish.

The rack is rated for a total of 90kg in hanging weight – if you happen to have three bikes that weigh over 30kg each, then we salute you.

Handily, all the bits you need to install the rack are included in the pack – even the tools needed to tighten the bolts with.

Installation is a breeze – if you're attaching the rack to masonry or concrete (as did I), just drill two holes, install the extension bolts in the wall, mount the rack and then tighten the bolts. The final step is to slide the hooks onto the rail and tighten these up when they're in position. The method for securing to a less burly wall is pretty much the same procedure, only you drill four holes and use screws instead.

A paper template is provided to enable you to mark up the holes appropriately, whichever installation route you choose, but unless you have a second pair of hands, it can be tricky trying to keep this planted to the wall while holding a level underneath to prevent it from sitting on a wonk. Top tip: throw this in the bin and use the aluminium bar itself to mark your holes – it's easy enough to hold and you can simply balance the level on top of it.

Once you're finished, you simply lift your bike up by its handlebar and slot it into your preferred hook. I was a little concerned that the hooks might scratch wheels, but they have a kind of rubbery coating that seems to prevent this from happening, at least so far.

The only minor issue you might encounter with this type of rack is that it's a bit narrow, so you could find that your bikes foul each other when they're hung up. Of course, this depends on the type of bike you're mounting, but I found that it took a bit of creative positioning to make all three of my bikes (road, gravel and mountain bike) fit. This orientation of bikes also makes it a little tricky to mount and dismount bikes each time, but you soon get used to it.

Pro Bike Tool actually claims this is the widest three-bike wall rack available, and this certainly seems plausible; this five-bike wall rack from Decathlon, for instance, looks incredibly tight.

In terms of value, it's hard to judge because there are so many bike storage solutions out there, and if you wanted to you could probably replicate this kind of setup using individual wheel hooks, simply by positioning them a similar distance apart.

> Buyer’s Guide: 11 of the best bike storage solutions

Depending on the type of hook you go for, you can pay anywhere between £5 and £45 – Park Tool makes a basic hook for a fiver, and we reviewed the BBB ParkingLot Storage Hook, which is now £14.95, as well as the Cycloq Endo, now a lofty £44.95. So, £60 is expensive compared with the most basic type of wheel hook, but fairly reasonable if you want to store multiple bikes and want something a little more sophisticated. And that's not to mention that none of the aforementioned hooks, or any other that I could find, are capable of accommodating really large wheel and tyre combos.

Overall, the PBT Wall Rack is smart looking and good quality, and it's nice knowing everything is included in the box for easy installation. It's also available in a six-bike version for £95, which works out a bit cheaper if you have a lot of bikes to store.

Verdict

Neat and effective way of storing multiple bikes off the ground