Alternatives to buying a repair stand?

Question

I'd like to buy a repair stand, but I can never seem to convince myself to drop the $100 minimum it seems I'd need to spend. Has anybody had any success building a stand themselves, or is it worth it to just buy one?

Answer 1

I can tell you from experience that your best option is to buy a repair stand.

I worked in a shop for a number of years and thought there was no way I could use a consumer grade stand when I left. I purchased park tool PRS-4W at cost before I left the shop and built my own stand from it. The consumer price is now $200 for that so that is obviously not dealing with your $ issue. And even if it did, I have since purchased and use a consumer grade stand with less features to maintain 4 bikes of different size frames for 5 years now and it was well worth the $ spent. It gets the job done. Bite the bullet, get the stand you'll be glad you did.

Answer 2

As a number of other posts have pointed out, your best option is to get yourself a proper repair stand. They are not that expensive, and you will find that you and your friends all get good use out of it. But, if you are determined to do it on the cheap, here are a couple of techniques that worked for me before getting a workstand:

• Turning the bike upside down - this is really simple and requires no additional purchase. You may want to look at putting some form of drop sheet down underneath the bike both to protect the saddle and handlebars, and to catch drips. This works well for pretty much any work on the wheels or transmission.
• A bike storage rack or car rack - obviously these are already designed to hold a bike, and you may already have one to hand.
• Suspending the bike with rope - If you have some overhead attachment points, this can work, however it is not going to provide an immovable mount for the bike - you will still need to hold the bike against the force of your tools when fastening and unfastening things. A trick to be aware of is to use two suspension points overhead and two on the bike (head tube and seat tube) otherwise the bike will spin in the air.

Answer 3

A storage stand can make a pretty good repair stand, anything that lets the wheels and pedals rotate. A car rack will also work well.

Answer 4

A lot of bicycle repair shops I've been in have metal double hooks hanging on a rope or a light chain from the ceiling such as these:

One hook goes under your saddle and the other on your handlebars on either side of the steering support. If you attach them a bit farther apart on the ceiling than the distance between your saddle and handlebars it makes for a pretty stable "repair stand". You can get them for EUR 3.95 (here for example) or you could make something similar.

Answer 5

Between the ability to turn the bike upside down and having a trainer that I can hook it to, I never found the need to buy a repair stand (and my current bike was assembled completely from components, so I had to do everything to it that one gets to do to a bike!). I see that a repair stand would save a bit of time, so I would get one if I was doing repair professionally. However, for the amateur, it seems like overkill.

Answer 6

There are a large number of sets of instructions for making your own DIY Bike Repair Stand over on Instructables, this page is the result of searching for Bike Repair Stand on their site. I keep meaning to try out one of these but I never seem to have the time to build one, some of the results look more practical than others, as ever YMMV.

Answer 7

I have a large workbench with a bench vise mounted on it. I made a jig from a couple pieces of wood to hold the bike upside down, then I clamp the bike either high or low so it doesn't twist in the jig. This holds it in place, rock solid.

Answer 8

I suggest buying one. They come in very handy for all sorts of tasks, especially if you are into doing your own maintenance.