mjac

Quod Erat Demostrandim indeed.

TommyTwoTone

And....in a pinch you could use it for a fire at your camp.

madpogue 

Original stand works for one bike, or at best, one size of frame diameter. If my needs were that limited, I wouldn't need a stand. Quick-Fists make a lot more sense. Still trying to figure out how to make one that can hold a 20"-wheeled DK BMX or a 62 cm Schwinn Continental with 27" wheels at the same height. Or how to hold a mixte, or how to hold the bike vertically in order to read a BB shell serial number, or....

stephr1

+1. I put a 2"x2"x~2ft. into my bench vise and rest the front underside of the seat on it. I wrap the wood in an old flannel shirt to protect my bike seat. Keeps my cables free (Mtn bike) and works great for pretty much most maintenance and repairs. Since the bike isn't clamped down or wedge-fit into anything, it can kind of start to slide backwards if I'm not careful. No nails and already had the 2x2 left over from another project

I like the OP's creativity, tho.

Duragrouch

Those are all cool and cheap, very much my philosophy, however:
- A bike work stand should have the bike at a comfortable work height, whether sitting or standing is preferred, and neither of those do. That really saves your knees and back, and even your feet from plantar fasciitis.
- I have 20" wheel folder with a large down tube and no top tube, those won't work.
- My bike is heavy even unloaded, so lifting assist would be nice.

With regard to the latter, a bike shop here has a pro stand with seatpost clamp, which then slides in a steel U-channel on a hoist. Clamp it on with the bike on ground, then raise. Custom and very slick. I can envision something with a bike lifter pulley (used to be expensive but now $8 at harbor Freight), but that is not really mobile.

My current work table is a skinny table, 18" wide and 5' long, typical sitting height of about 29", the length handy to hold my tool box. I work on the bike inverted with me standing, I need to use spacer blocks under the handlebar grips for stability because of the clip on aero bar in the center. I have also used a "Workmate" copy, clamping work table, with the bike inverted and clamped around the seat post to hold the bike. Both setups work for any shape frame, though not a recumbent.

u235

Any form of a "bike stand", even if the definition of a what constitutes a bike stand is applied loosely is probably way better than leaning it against the wall or flipping it upside down. Not ideal but hopefully better.
Sliding under my car while it is up on ramps is not comfortable but I don't have a lift....yet

Duragrouch

The medical bills for my knee and feet are much more expensive than buying a proper work stand. just sayin'.

mjac

Not necessarily so. If you have multiple bikes with differenot width cross tubes, merely make the blocks to the widest one and layer in towels or whatever between the blocks for the others. If not just turn the stand around and put two quick fists on top of the two flat legs. The beauty of it is its simplicity and more importantly it's portability. You can put it on any height surface to hold the 20" and 27" at the same height. You can even hold a bike semi verticle by clamping rear or front wheel into the chocks. Wheel rests comfortably between the legs. Can it work in every single situation, no. But it is very versatile and as mentioned, very portable and very simple. The only thing is if you do not have it fastened down you do have to use adequate weight. With that the bike is very stable and won't be moving around as you spin the crank while adjusting your Derailleurs like it would if you had a stick clamped in a vice tucked under the seat. Which was the purpose of building it in the first place...Thanks,mjac

mjac

You can have the bike at any height you want by putting the stand on any height surface you want. It's portability is one of its great advantages. It was not built with folders with no cross tube in mind. Just general use on the Vast Majority of Bikes in existence. Not every single bike, useful in a lot of situations...Thanks,mjac

deltafour1212

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[/QUOTE]

I'm just letting you know, I am going to "steal" your idea

pbekkerh

I made a stop, so my tailgate/hatch stays open and hang my bike there on a strap for servicing the bike on travels but can of course be used at home as well.

Or you can turn your bike upside down, as cyclist have been doing for over a century. I bought these little stands, to keep computers etc. clear of the ground.

Duragrouch

Hey, I like those ideas above! Didn't make sense when I read in my email, but now does with pics. For me, "tailgate" means a flip down one, that one above to me is a "hatch". I like your pipe-props on the gas-lift strut; Many decades ago, I did the same for a lifting window on a wagon that had a lower tailgate; The window lifts were dead and the replacement costs (from dealer only at the time) were a fortune, so I used a piece of pipe that just nested around the strut body when the window is down. But for your application, be careful about overloading the gas-lift mounts, as each ball end is loaded in cantilevered bending; I'd recommend putting that style stop on both struts, not just one side.

I also like your small handlebar stands, those look light and fold small, so could be taken with you on the bike, for mobile flat fixes or other field service. I may look for those, would be a big help for my bike which won't stand inverted due to clipon aero bars. If you'd like to share an amazon link or description to look for, please do, thanks.

HEY! That blue bike looks like a folder! What kind? I can't see well enough. Looks like swinging rear triangle and not mid-beam hinge.

pbekkerh

The handlebarjack.com s are designed to fold and nest inside each other held by small magnets, so they form a small cylinder when packed.Mine are an older version a bit lower than the recent ones and narrower straps.

Yes that is my permanent car bike. A Bike Friday Tikit Hyperfold.

Duragrouch

HAH! Somehow I thought it might be a BF due to the trademark tubing bends at the rear dropouts, but the linkage looked wrong (for a New World Tourist); I hadn't thought of a Tikit. I had never bought a BF due to price, but I'm a fan of BF based on their reputation of customer support, and now realize they offer a good value given that, and that each bike is custom made to size. I passed right by their shop in Eugene Oregon on a trip on a shuttle bus between the train station and the Pacific coast but could not stop. That said, the bike I created at much lower cost, I prefer for a number of reasons, it's a 20" wheel Dahon that I have outfitted like a BF NWT, except the mid-beam folding hinge, I find much more user friendly; It's still not a "frequent folder" like a Tikit/Pakit or Brompton, but is a neater fold; The NWT is more for a "trip" bike, as it's a major endeavor to fold and pack. Mine, I can fold without removing the rear rack, though would need to for airline checked luggage, which I will eventually do. I've stayed away from 16" wheel folders because a) wheels are small enough to need an internal gear hub for a tall enough top gear (overdrive), with attendant maintenance issues (in wet environment, needs annual $100+ teardown and lube with marine wheel bearing grease), and no chance of field service on a tour; With 20" wheels and 50/34 x 11-32, I have 21-85 gear inches, not high enough for the tour de france but enough to pedal down a gentle slope, and the low gears I need for hills, and I can service anything in the field, and b) internal hub gears are not as good for high tractive or cargo loads, such as for loaded touring, and c) unless in direct-drive hub gear (2 on a 3-speed hub), about 5% energy loss due to gear friction, d) weight, e) Cost. EDIT: I see now your Tikit does not have an internal gear hub. Huh. Either you have one of those cassettes with a 9 tooth small cog and perhaps an XL chainring like a 60T, or you just are limited in top end speed.

My folder is also my daily bike, I'll never go back. I used to be a 700c race bike fanatic, but then added cushier tires, a beam rack and bag, then went to a hybrid bike as my daily, but now the 20" folder; I don't need to fold it often, but when I do, it's great, and it makes a tremendous townie, holding front and rear panniers with low C.G., trunk bag, and huge space above front wheel for boxy cargo like package pickups.

Thanks for the info about the handlebar stands, I will look for them. EDIT: Looked on amazon, dang, them's expensive little buggers, $35 for a set of two, $140(!) for a set with 2 jacks, seat cover, and nifty bag to hold other tools, but that's an even worse deal. I'll have to think if I can fab something cheap.

choddo

Since you can get a real bike stand for about £25 this all seems a lot of work to create a bad solution to a non-existent problem

Duragrouch

The handlebar stands are nice for in the field, not home.

I'd have a Park Tool stand by now, except my townie with panniers, a) has a tall-section monobeam frame so not rackable there, and b) It weighs a ton with racks and panniers and thus a pain to lift to grab by the seatpost. I saw a repair rack at a bike shop years ago, it grabs the seatpost, then is counterweighted and slides up a channel to lift the bike. Only a couple months earlier I saw an old multiplate weight machine for sale cheap at a surplus sale, could have made same from exactly that, but didn't make the connection. But it wouldn't fit in my small city room anyway. If I had a house, I would just rig a bike/kayak pulley-lift, which are now as little as $8 on sale at the discount tool shop here. My room landlord does not allow drilling into the ceiling to mount such a thing here.

choddo

Saw a motorised one at a bike shop on a Spanish island and thought that was a bit odd then realied they probably have to work on a lot of ebikes these days!

Duragrouch

Exactly. Occupational injuries are expensive to a company, far more expensive than improving ergonomics, you'll see evidence of that now at things like auto plants, where they often rotate the vehicle on its side to install things underneath, versus people constantly with their hands over their heads, and lift assists for things like mounting wheels with tires, etc.

My bike with racks, panniers, trunk bag full of tools, aero bars, etc, weighs 55 lbs, and is thus near max limit for me hauling up stairs, I have no elevator in my building. An ebike would be even worse, I'm glad I don't yet have a desire for one as I bike for exercise in addition to transport. I have a car but use it very seldom. But if I ever get to where I need an electric, I think I'll need to move someplace with an elevator.

Steel Charlie

I've had two like that. Gave one to a friend. They're about $40 in the US. My time is billed at $200+/hr. Building a POS thingy out of wood or anything else for that matter simply does not compute. $40 for something that will last effectively forever and go anywhere ? You have to think about that? The price of a couple six-packs? That's a really strange interpretation of "thrift".

Duragrouch

Point taken. I'm retired and poor. Only new bike I ever bought was the year before college graduation, I was already working and a Cannondale race bike at $700 for what would have won the Tour de France 5 years earlier, was a great deal. Oh and a new recumbent 5 years after that, those were so new, there were none on the used market. But ever since retirement, I find good used bikes very cheap, either online local or pawn shop, and completely rehab to like new. It's why I have a Dahon folder which cost me, bike and parts to restore, about 5% of the cost of a Bike Friday. But yeah, if my time was worth more, I wouldn't do. Also, the cost of used bikes skyrocketed during the pandemic, but things have settled back down since then. I'll also say that Dahon's retail prices have nearly doubled in that time, and Bike Friday not, so the difference is less, and BF has WAY better customer service. I'm also blessed with a local bike shop that has half the store devoted to used parts bins, just fantastic, for parts not available new and cheap on Amazon.

Like I said, the only reason I haven't bought a good bike stand by now (and I would invest in quality, rigid, and a good clamp interface), is the difficulty in using with my bike frame style and weight. Plus I live in a tiny subsidized room (like I said, old and poor), and there's no room to use a stand; The skinny table that I store the bike on to keep it out of the walkway, also doubles as a repair stand with the bike inverted.

sbrudno

I have used my trainer for years and have been happy with 90% of repairs, excepting headset.

pbekkerh

I used to have 62T but went down to 53. It's my townbike and I'll just freewheel downhill.

35$ expensive? Makes your life easier, protects your 100-400$ computers for less than one good tyre!!

Duragrouch

I can do all maintenance with the bike upright and just using the kickstand (yes, it has one, it's not a racer). But for anything removing the wheels, or for truing the wheels, I need the bike lifted or inverted. I tried lifting it by just over-extending the seatpost down below ground level (It's a Dahon Speed, you can do that), and weighting the front or back to lift the other end, but it was a b!tch, it would have been much better inverted. As it is, it's still better than original, which had the Dahon "compact" rear derailleur, mounted well forward of the axle, which makes it impossible to remove the rear wheel without much manipulation of the messy chain with one hand and much swearing, whereas with a standard rear derailleur, the rear wheel just drops right out. To improve that and allow a front derailleur, I mounted a mid-length rear derailleur with a "claw mount" under the axle nut, as this early frame does not have a proper standard rear derailleur mount. And yes, whenever the rear wheel is off, that means the derailleur is hanging in mid-air by the cable. Fortunately, Dahon has converted to standard rear derailleur mounts on later frames, integral with a steel frame, and a bolt-in-place steel hanger for aluminum frames. During the transition, there were frames that had both a compact AND standard mount.

I haven't put a shooter on the aero bars, though I'm just the kind of guy able to devise one . But it has made a convenient mount for a bell, headlamp, water bottle (designed specifically for those aero bars), and a "mid-cable" front brake lever so can emergency-brake when on the aeros; Mid cable levers are all designed for road brakes so are short-pull, but it works with my (long-pull) V-brakes, provided I have the brakes well adjusted so I don't run out of lever travel. The aero bar also makes a nice hanger for a large shopping bag, one I have has handles just long enough so the bag also rests on top of the front rack, and this is good for travel and faster access versus the panniers.

Duragrouch

Yeah with my 50x11 top gear on 20"/406, so 85 gear inches, I can pedal down a gentle incline, but coast for steeper. I don't need the speed of pedaling down grades, but for a lot of coasting, it does wear the freehub bearings more. When I regrease the main hub bearings, I try to drip some gear lube into the freehub bearings, but those tiny bearing balls still wear the most, with resulting lateral play in the cassette, and that's the most frequent cause to replace the freehub body, usually greater cost than the cassette, and a pain in making sure I order the correct freehub body, and I need to guess by weight and moment arm length on the correct bolt torque, as I don't have a long enough allen socket to use a torque wrench.

$35 is not too bad, and would pay for itself in easier repair on a tour. I could also lay the bike down on its side, but inverted is better. Making the tripods multi-purpose, like having a camera mount, would be a plus. To space up a computer tower, those don't look stable (at first I thought they were computer stands used for bike, but I see they are designed to interface with bike handlebars and not a computer); I would just use a couple bricks . But I think they make better stands for a tower computer.

Camilo

Like every other commercial van and pick up truck