Workstand advice please

woodford2barbican

Can anyone advise me on which workstand to buy? I am looking at spending around £80 and will use it for building a frame up from scratch. The choice comes down to these two

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/ProductDetail.a ... 5360009217

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/ProductDetail.a ... 5360013025

They are both similar prices, however the second stand secures the bike by the front or rear fork, whilst the first uses a seatpost clamp.

Is there any advantage to either? I am tending towards the one securing by the fork as that looks like it will achieve the most solid base to work on. Any opinions?

Thanks in advance…….

rich r

I bought the cheaper one at Wiggle, seems to work perfectly well for what I've used it for so far (adjusting gears, changing chains etc), and very good value for money.

alfablue

I use the Bike Tools / Union workstand from Merlin £60, sturdy, light, very good.

woodford2barbican

I am (hopefully) going to be dismantling BBs and headsets, does that colour anyone's judgement?

alfablue

It is better to get one that secures on the frame or seatpost rather than forks and/or bottom brackets, as all repairs should be possible (eg setting up front brakes, tinkering with chainset). Having said that, one that secures on the forks/BB should be a bit more solid when applying force, but I haven't found a problem with my bike tools one.

gkerr4

Personally I'd avoid the one that holds the front axle!

Two reasons - the first is that you would need to remove the front wheel ever time you want to use it, no big deal I guess, but you can't use the stand for basic work such as centering brake blocks etc.
The second reason is that the flexibility gained by being able to rotate the bike in mid air is very useful (more so than you would think!)

I have the Minoura W3000 stand from Wiggle:
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/ProductDetail.a ... 5360012020

It's a tenner over your budget, but a fantastic bit of kit. I had one on loan from the brother in law for about 5 months while he moved house and in that time I realised that I realy needed a workstand (they are so useful). I spend a bit of time looking at a few different models and decided that the minoura was about as good as it gets. It is much heavier duty than the £50-£60 prive bracket stands and is much more secure (but heavier!).

the ability to clamp a bike by the seattube and swivel it round in mid air so that bottom brackets or rear mechs are at head height makes a massive difference to doing work on the bike

just my 2p

graham

woodford2barbican

gkerr4 wrote:

Personally I'd avoid the one that holds the front axle!

Two reasons - the first is that you would need to remove the front wheel ever time you want to use it, no big deal I guess, but you can't use the stand for basic work such as centering brake blocks etc.
The second reason is that the flexibility gained by being able to rotate the bike in mid air is very useful (more so than you would think!)

I have the Minoura W3000 stand from Wiggle:
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/ProductDetail.a ... 5360012020

It's a tenner over your budget, but a fantastic bit of kit. I had one on loan from the brother in law for about 5 months while he moved house and in that time I realised that I realy needed a workstand (they are so useful). I spend a bit of time looking at a few different models and decided that the minoura was about as good as it gets. It is much heavier duty than the £50-£60 prive bracket stands and is much more secure (but heavier!).

the ability to clamp a bike by the seattube and swivel it round in mid air so that bottom brackets or rear mechs are at head height makes a massive difference to doing work on the bike

just my 2p

graham

Thanks for the advice - sounds like I should not buy the gratuitious pair of mitts and get the better workstand.......!

gkerr4

probably!

I even use mine for bike storage - the bike is currenlty held on the stand by the seattube in the conservatory - the bike is standing front wheel down with both wheels agains the wall in the corner - fairly out of the way!

it's a nice bit of kit and although it seems expensive, after a little while you will wonder how you ever managed to even oil you chain before you had one!

PrettyBoyTim

Over the weekend I improvised a bike stand using my son's climbing frame, some string and a spade. It worked reasonably well all things considered ;-)

http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/3638/image083gw0.jpg

the_jackalcp

Just a thought, Tacx do one that mounts by the bottom bracket and front/rear fork. It is on a tripod base and can be rotated so you get the best of both world. This allows front and rear brake adjustsments depending on how you mount the bike.

I believe you want to do heavy duty work. I had a clamping stand and found it simply not stable enough for bottom bracket and such work. In addition a lot of the stand makers say don't clamp to a carbon frame so depending on what bike you have this may be worth thinking about.

veryslowtwitch

If you have a frame with an aero or ISP seatpost then you cannot clamp the seattube and may need to clamp the top tube or seat tube. If you have a thin walled carbon frame then be very careful clamping any tube because you might crack it.

It can be a pain removing a saddle bag to clamp the seattube for a quick tweak.

If you have mudguards then you may not be able to use the fork holding versions because the mg fouls the stand.

I ended up with two stands to cope with above problems. My tough alloy bike is clamped by the top tube (but then the rear brake cable is fouled). I work on my carbon bike on a fork holding stand (but have to remove a wheel to do it).

No perfect solution but any stand is much better than nothing

regards

Alan[/i]

bobtravers

Do you guys in UK have access to Park Tool stands?? They are great and are about 80-100£
Check for PCS-9, and PCS-10 at Park Tool Repair Stands

TomF

For those concerned about damaging frames or delicate seatposts in stands, it can be worth buying a cheap alloy seatpost and using that instead.

Oh, and it's often good when working on, say, the drivetrain, to clamp the seat post, but have the front wheel resting on the ground.