normal apartment walls i kept inside and often touch the wall, it is quite irritating, online search reveals warm damp cloth which I tried but seems largely ineffective. Is there a much better way to clean it off without damaging the wall?>

Fresh paint?

I've had nominal success with yer average household cleaner - Mr. Clean, Pinesol etc - and a blue shop towel. ... and HOT water.
Wasn't easy though.

new paint is probably best, maybe the magic eraser ? Fortunately my dog ate the section of door that had marks from my rollers and tires so I didn't worry about it.

mr clean magic eraser

This works quite well depending on your paint finish.

Similar situation to the OP, I store my bikes in an upstairs loft/pain cave and have a few tire marks at the top staircase landing. The Magic Eraser tends to do better at eggshell wall paint finishes than flat or satin. Otherwise you may be better of painting it over.

Windex. If you don't have windex, a few drops of dish soap in a cup of water will work. Use a soft sponge or bunched up rag to clean off the mark.

Dawn dish soap

maybe WD40

A "magic eraser" is actually a fine abrasive. Think extremely fine sandpaper. I'm guessing it won't scratch very hard surfaces, like glass. But the paint will likely have it's shine or matte finish altered. That may or may not be very noticeable, but will likely depend on where the light is coming from. I'd only try it as a very last resort, and then perhaps feather it out with a very light touch away from the marks.

It isn't really magic? Or an eraser? I feel ripped off. How do they get away with that kind of false advertising?

Thanks for posting this question, I'm interested in the answers, too. My bikes are currently in a basement room with unpainted drywall, but at some point I may want to paint the walls and I might need to remove some tire marks, chain lube stains, and the like. I'm not sure that a light color paint will cover tire marks, so I'd like to at least lighten them up before painting. Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (R)? sounds like it might be ideal for this, though sandpaper might work just as well, I'll try that first since I have it lying around.

if the paint is not at least a semi-gloss finish, the chances of causing more of a problem will increase with the use of a liquid concoction solution.

Trying a warm mix of a common "multi-surface" cleaner, powder laundry detergent, & water soaked into a sponge might lift it up. Once the wall is cleaned, you might consider painting that particular wall with a quality gloss finish paint.

Are the joints done and the nail/screw holes mudded and sanded? Was the base coats already put on the drywall. Drywall that hasn't been painted eats a LOT of primer. Meaning by the time you do a proper primer job, you've covered your bike tyre and lube stains without even bothering clean them. If you must, do the magic eraser. It won't matter after you get enough of a proper priming job done if you got too happy with the magic eraser at all.

It erases the magic, leaving you with regular old hard work.

Noimag-
Dry wall is faced with paper, sanding it will change the surface. People use shellac as an undercoat to prevent knots in unseasoned wood from bleeding through the paint, might work for the chain lube, to prevent it from migrating through what ever paint you eventually apply.

Forty years as a housepainter here and part of the family that invented the Chicago sash brush. Preferred cleaner for normal interior paint is sodium sesquicarbonate. You buy that at the hardware store in a white and red box that says Savogran Dirtex. Price on that has gone way up in recent years, still much cheaper than most proprietary cleaners. No need to use a lot, maybe a tablespoon to two gallons of warm water in your bucket. Preferred tool for wiping down the wall is a Mediterranean sea wool sponge. A rag works too.

If in farm country go to the feed store and buy a hundred pound bag of sesqui- for about same price as a five pound box at the hardware. Used as feed additive for cattle. Digestive aid. Very safe stuff.

I’ve lived in third floor apartments where no matter how much care was taken tires would rub the wall. I was the one who had painted the wall and I was the one who cleaned it. Always got it off completely.

Cheap paint always has lots of clay as filler. Same kind of clay as in kitty litter. If you have that kind of paint the clay absorbs the dirt and you have no chance. Fresh paint is the only possibility. Cheap paint will always need frequent repaint whether there are bikes around or not. The worst cheap paint will suck just lots of the fresh paint as primer, almost as bad as raw drywall. Use good paint.

What marks the wall is mostly what your tire picked up off the road. Motor oil, soot, tire dust, all stuff that will mark. If the tire rubs hard you will get something off your own tire. All of it is black and nasty. If the paint is good it will clean. Doesn’t matter if the paint is flat or shiny, what matters is how well bound the paint is.

Do not even attempt to clean unfinished drywall. Suggestion above to prime with shellac is good. If the drywall is heavily marked with oil you can attempt priming and painting and see how well it works. More than a couple random spatters it could be necessary to cut off the facing paper and patch before painting.

If the wall cleans easily using suggestions above you have good paint and a good painter. If the black only smears around it is time to paint.