Workstand question

seanorawe

Im sourcing materials for bro in law to make me a workstand, he's a diesel fitter, so he loves all this stuff. What kind of clamp do I need to be looking for? Something big enough for the seatpost? or do these stands clamp around the top tube?

Vmlopes

Mine adjusts to do both??

keef66

Where you clamp it depends on what it's made of. My carbon bike gets clamped via the seatpost; the top tube isn't thick enough to resist clamping. Alu bike has a meaty top tube so I can clamp that without problems.

seanorawe

Its an alu frame, so mine would be fine, my mates bike is carbon so ill make sure it clamps to his seat post. Im thinking of using an old speaker stand I have and trying to fit an adjustable clamp to it.

slowbike

TBH I use the Lidl stand clamp on the top tube of my carbon bike - but it's not done up tight so doesn't compress the carbon at all. Heavyweight adjustments are done with the bike on the ground.

Buff40

Can you make one cheaper than you can get one off eBay?

I think I paid £28 for mine inc delivery, it's perfectly sturdy, stands solidly, folds down reasonably small and has an adjustable top/seat tube, soft lined clamp.

Carries the weight of both my bikes fine, Carbon road and Alu hybrid.

seanorawe

Buff40 wrote:

Can you make one cheaper than you can get one off eBay?

I think I paid £28 for mine inc delivery, it's perfectly sturdy, stands solidly, folds down reasonably small and has an adjustable top/seat tube, soft lined clamp.

Carries the weight of both my bikes fine, Carbon road and Alu hybrid.

I have a stand, just need a clamp and bracket. So I hope so. If not, ill just buy a workstand

g00se

You could go with a different design - something like the portable workshop stands. Then you can use quick release levers to fix the bike:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/tacx ... p-prod5209

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/park ... p-prod7859

wongataa

Cheap workstands are on sale at Aldi on Sunday.

pippi_langsamer-2

I would definately opt for a workstand as shown in the link just above- ie one that secures the front of the bike on quick release mechanism, and suppirts the bottom bracket.

Id imagine these type of "stands", would also be a lot easier to fabricate for someone with the time and inclination due to the fact you dont need clamping jaws- just a correctly spaced bar/ spacer for the front.

I got one of the Lidl clamp stands a couple of years ago- and its fantastic for the money, but its still fiddly to do any proper maintenance with...

That Tacx one looks like a good buy.

fudgey

Make one.
here is one i made earlier....

I wanted a decent solid stand that could fold up to hang in the garage, have the bike at a decent standing height to work on, and not cost the earth.

i could not find anything reasonably priced so decided to make one using scrap parts out the skip at work to my own design. so total cost was £0, just my time.

and this is the final result. little rough but does the job perfectly. (although i have not used it for the road bike yet, will need to make some more dropout clamps as they are a different size)

pippi_langsamer-2

Fantastic!

southdownswolf

Fudgey wrote:

i could not find anything reasonably priced so decided to make one using scrap parts out the skip at work to my own design. so total cost was £0, just my time.

It's always nice when the exact bits that you need just happen to be in the skip at work when you need them to be...

Looks very nice.

wishitwasallflat

Nice skip is it accessible to all?

fudgey

Cheers, unfortunately i doubt i could get much more of the profile in those lengths.

At work the management want to make things more streamlined and ergonomic and all that crap, so that involved modifying my work bench to enable putting our tool boxes under them. So thats where the longer section came from ha.

It was a design as you go job, but worked out ok!

I dont work in the department that makes the profile, but they were happy enough to let me go through the skips!

seanorawe

Fudgey wrote:

Cheers, unfortunately i doubt i could get much more of the profile in those lengths.

At work the management want to make things more streamlined and ergonomic and all that crap, so that involved modifying my work bench to enable putting our tool boxes under them. So thats where the longer section came from ha.

It was a design as you go job, but worked out ok!

I dont work in the department that makes the profile, but they were happy enough to let me go through the skips!

What did you use to hold the bottom bracket, and what did you use for the quick release part?

fudgey

The BB just rests on a rubber pad that is carpet taped to the profile
The front forks came with a plastic protector thing clipped to the 15mm bolt-through axle, so drilled holes and fitted some chunky cable ties that are tight, but not so tight that i cannot slide the axle through.
The rear axle is also a bolt-through but 12mm, for that i used some profile cut to exact length with plastic end caps to protect the frame, then drilled the centre to 13mm to allow the axle to pass through.

For the road bike i have some tube i can cut to length, then just use the QR skewers to hold in place, but i have not done this yet.