The Clug, The 3D Printable, Nearly Invisible Bicycle Mount

Everyone knows how cluttered a few bicycles can make an organized garage look. We also know that it can oftentimes be a pain in the neck to install hooks or winches to neaten things up. What if you could buy, or 3D print your very own bike rack that’s not much larger than the size of a golf ball? That’s just what a company called Hurdler Studios is doing.

The company has come out with a product called the Clug. They are looking for backers on Kickstarter, to jump start the mass production of this product, by way of injection molding. Up until now they have been printing the Clugs out on Makerbot Replicator 2s. The 3D printed versions work amazingly well, and in fact,early backers will have the option of having a 3D printed Clug shipped to them, as soon as their crowdfunding campaign is complete. In order to reduce the costs of manufacturing, they need to turn to more traditional manufacturing techniques.

The Clug can be mounted easily on all types of surfaces. Whether it’s on your wall in your garage, in you apartment, on a tree, or anywhere else which you are able to drive a screw through, the Clug will instantly save you space, create a bit of a conversation piece, and most importantly, neatly store your bike. The device is 3D printed in two pieces. One they call the ‘Clipper’, the other the ‘Gripper’. The Gripper easily slides into the Clipper to form the finished Clug.

The idea came to the team at Hurdler Studios when they noticed that the bikes which co-workers road to the office on, were cluttering the area up.

“We all cycle into the office but where to store them all became a problem, it really started to look a little messy,” states their Kickstarter Project. “When we looked a little further we saw the same thing elsewhere too…We considered installing a winch system, or some clever hooks, but being designers and with our 3D printer so close to hand we thought we’d see what we could come up with to solve the problem for ourselves.

Holding the bike in roughly the position we wanted it to be in, it became fairly obvious that all that was needed to keep it there was a very small attachment to the wall so we set about defining exactly what that attachment would be. And the result is CLUG.”

The company is seeking a total of $32,000 CAD on Kickstarter. With 26 days to go and already over $20,000 CAD, they are well on their way to exceeding that goal. Backers of the project get anything from a 3D printer friendly .STL file of the Clug, which will allow them to print it at home, to multiple Clugs created with an injection molding process. Unlike many Kickstarter campaigns, several of the rewards will be shipped immediately following the conclusion of the campaign, as some rewards are 3D printed versions of the Clug.  What do you think of this device?  Have you backed it?  Let’s hear your opinions at the Clug forum thread at 3DPB.com. Check out the video below from the company’s Kickstarter campaign: