Workstand - Tube or Bottom bracket clamping ?

alfa

Hi,

Just a quick question to all who has any experience with both types of workstands available on market...
Which one will be a better choice:

I found '' Elite Essential Workstand '' in Halfords for £50 which is bottom bracket clamp.

or maybe would be better to stretch a budget a bit and go for

Park Tool Home Mechanic Repair Stand PCS9 - tube clamp which is £72



Somehow I never had any wrokstand before , so is hard to decide what type of one of mentioned above will be better choice.



thanks

DKay

Depends on what you're going to use it for. Are you going to use it for mainly maintenance and fettling or just for cleaning and washing?

If the former, then spend a bit more and get something that clamps via the dropouts and sits on the BB shell instead. Something like a Tacx Workstand T3075, which can be had for under £80. I have one and it's a good stand.

For a tube-clamping stand, look for the sales that Aldi post up from time to time. They sell decent ones for £30.

me-109

If it's possibly for a carbon-framed bike it may be best to avoid the tube-clamping variety. It's easy to tighten them too much and crack the frame.

rowlers

Me-109 wrote:

If it's possibly for a carbon-framed bike it may be best to avoid the tube-clamping variety. It's easy to tighten them too much and crack the frame.

I never clamp the tubes on any of my bikes - always the the seat post
I have this one:
http://www.highonbikes.com/bike-hand-bi ... AiZ08P8HAQ

silverpigeon

I have both types and I can't remember when I last used the BB style. Always clamp by the seat post though, never the frame.

mfin

silverpigeon wrote:

I have both types and I can't remember when I last used the BB style. Always clamp by the seat post though, never the frame.

+1

If you are building lots of bikes, you're better with a bottom bracket / fork dropout clamping one. Holds the bike more firmly in place for things like taping bars and cabling. For the odd bit of building and for fettling/cleaning, go for a tube clamper and clamp by the seatpost with the clamp turned to be sympathetic to the center of gravity (the way the bike wants to hang when held by the seatpost).

DKay

Just to add, if you're going to clamp by the seatpost, then swap it to a nice heavy alloy version if you've got one.

mfin

DKay wrote:

Just to add, if you're going to clamp by the seatpost, then swap it to a nice heavy alloy version if you've got one.

No need to.

DKay

Probably not, but I always err on the side of caution with regards to this.

ayjaycee

I've got one of these which I find to be very good:
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/lifeline-profes ... 5360517019
I tried the Aldi one but found it a bit unstable, particularly with my comparatively heavy hybrid, whereas the LifeLine holds it with no problem. A classic case of you get what you pay - the Aldi stand worked but only just.
As to where to clamp the bike, it depends what I am doing but I usually just lightly clamp the crossbar. I have found that the balance point of my Allez is about 4" forward of the seat post and I can just put the bike there and it sits quite happily. I do tend to wrap a bit of thin rubber sheet or cloth between the bike and the clamp to prevent any scratches. Hope this helps.

paulbnix

I had an Àldi work stand that clamped the top tube. I lined the jaws with some neoprene from an old wetsuit.
I have now replaced it with a Jobsworth from Planet X (£39 in one of their sales).
It is much better for the following reasons :-
Lighter.
Quick release style clamps.
A locking rotation system for the clamp head - you can't lock the Aldi head so the bike just rotates back to the balanced position.

I use it on the top tube by finding the balance point, avoiding any cable lugs and lightly clamping with neoprene lined jaws. Its great.

nicube

paulbnix wrote:

I had an Àldi work stand that clamped the top tube. I lined the jaws with some neoprene from an old wetsuit.
I have now replaced it with a Jobsworth from Planet X (£39 in one of their sales).
It is much better for the following reasons :-
Lighter.
Quick release style clamps.
A locking rotation system for the clamp head - you can't lock the Aldi head so the bike just rotates back to the balanced position.

I use it on the top tube by finding the balance point, avoiding any cable lugs and lightly clamping with neoprene lined jaws. Its great.

+1 for this stand, also got mine in the sale, great deal. Always clamp by the seat post on both my Cubes one of which is carbon. It's great for washing the bike down and fettling, I've also just fitted the alu framed bike with a new groupset and the stand was a blessing, can't recommend it enough

alfa

OK, thank you everyone for answer, I don't know why I asked which one is better to be honest, after 10min I realized that tube clamp work stand will be all the way better...as I am not about to build bike, only essential repairs, maintenance + cleaning .


Which one for in range up to £75 would you recommend then ? I looked on planet x for the one mentioned but the seem be sold out already and price shown is £70+


Any recommendation ?

Elfed

Over budget but Tweeks on eBay are selling the Park Tool PCS-10 for £109.99 which is a great deal.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Park-Tool-PCS ... 2c8f97f783

A pound less here

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Park-Tool-PCS ... 3f44b3734a

alihisgreat

DKay wrote:

Probably not, but I always err on the side of caution with regards to this.

Last time I checked seat posts were designed to be clamped?!

DKay

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

DKay wrote:

Probably not, but I always err on the side of caution with regards to this.

Last time I checked seat posts were designed to be clamped?!

Not in the way a typical workstand does though, which localises the stress over a smaller area. Also, you can't reliably tell how hard you are clamping onto the seatpost.....last time I checked.