jeirvine 

Well, it's a sample size of one, but it's worked for me for 20 years and hundreds of bikes. The rope is very short, so not much movement.

Vintage_Cyclist

Ropes/string work fine. That was my stand for years. My Park stand hangs out in the secret underground laboratory, but I use loops of string for quickie adjustments in the garage.

cyccommute 

The tool to which I was referring was the Stein internal seatpost tool. And, for that matter, the Park internal seatpost tools as well. Yes, I know I own two of them but I hardly every use them. If you are going to use one of them, you have to remove the seatpost anyway.

Marking the post and moving it to clamp it doesn’t disturb the saddle height. The seatpost goes back to exactly the same point and, as has been pointed out above, occasional removal of the post is not a bad thing.

cyccommute 

Here’s the PRS-6 I modified to have an adjustable height. You can find these on Craigslist and Facebook market place all the time. Originally they are way too short to be useful but modification is relatively cheap (about $65 for the extension and upper clamp). The spring clamp works well enough if you avoid clamping the frame.

non-fixie 

Well, I got a slightly bigger sample. There are about 2,500 bike shops in my country, servicing a population of 17 million inhabitants, who own 22 million bikes among them. I have yet to find one which doesn't have the bikes hanging from the ceiling. Their equipment is slightly more advanced than ropes, but not much:

smd4

I’ll stick with a stand.

Headpost

Wow, cool idea! You could buy this fork mount clamp for $15 on Amazon and easily turn pretty much any bench into clampless bike stand like that. If I didn't already have a standard one by Park, I would probably do it!

Velo Mule

Having spent some formidable years in a bike shop with a "proper" Park double stand with a heavy round steel base, I got used to having the frame rock steady in the stand. We always clamped the seat tube back then. Fuji foil wraps were sometimes a casualty with this technique.

I picked up a Park PCS-1 long ago because it was a Park and I had less knowledge of the availably stands at that time. "It's Park, it must be good even for a hobbyist stand". But it has some issues. It is not rock steady. It is not height adjustable. I cannot adjust it to a good height to camp to the seat post and it can be difficult to store and transport.

I picked up a Lidl Crivet stand and actually prefer this stand at this time. But I am concerned about how long the plastic pieces are going to last. I could always buy another one when it fails because this stand is so inexpensive.

I have considered the bench stand that requires the removal of the front wheel. Bike stands seem to be like diets, there seems to be is no perfect solution, otherwise we'd all be using the same thing. Each solution has it's pros and cons.

I think my next attempt at a better solution to working on the bike will be to use the hanging the bike method. I think it was @jeirvine that mentioned that he preferred this method in another post a while back. Considering the few, but credible recommendations, including @non-fixie that hanging the bike, I am going to have to give this a try. One other advantage that I see with this is that I can get the bike up to a better working height.

After all this discussion, the Park ISC-1 has my attention. I may be able to create a copy with a bad, old unicrown fork and some welding.

Manny66 

Ive been clamping bikes at the top tube and seat tube for over 40 years now,,never had an issue. Not a single frame has ever been damaged . I will put the bike on the ground to remove the pedals from the cranks because those are sometimes brutal to remove but thats it. . Clamping at the seat post makes then Uncomfortably low to work on .

Ive had several bike repair stands over the years different makes and models , some cheap junk and some high end stuff . When the rubber around the clamp wears/dries out or it starts to get wobbly I toss it and get another one. A stable base is very important , I had a vintage one for awhile that I think weighed about 100 pounds. Im not a fan of the springloaded clamps as they dont work well on some of the odd shaped carbon frames . Im using one right now that I dont know what it is, but the clamp snugs down and then you can adjust the tightness by turning the knob which works great on my Eddy Merckx Carbon bike with the weird shaped top tube..

I have a old Park clamp that I welded to a square tube that fits inside of a larger tube with a stop bolt so it telescopes up and down and its used for brazing in my back shop area.

Schlafen

Got one already a while ago, planned to upgrade from wood to extruded aluminium at some point, then I'll fit the fork mount as well. Mainly as I need front mudguard clearance for.my rando bike, which has full stainless mudguards.

Otherwise it works perfectly fine as is, can fit rear wheel and adjust gears no problem, as opposed to having front and rear dropouts clamped.

Even after the upgrade, it would owe me less than £50, not to mention that it paid for itself a few dozen times in the past 4-5 years.

cyccommute 

One of the stands I posted in post 39 is a PCS-1. It’s the 1996-2001 model with folding legs. I added the extender linked in the post to the stand and it is greatly improved. As for stability you can see that I use it in less than ideal conditions…that’s my daughter’s backyard. I’ve never had any issues with it falling over. Granted it’s not as good as the PRS-6 that I have at home but it’s still a pretty good stand. I’ve used any number of other stands that are far worse.

non-fixie 

I'm sure you've guessed that the Stein tool isn't an option I'd use, for exactly that reason. And yes, using a piece of tape or a Sharpie enables one to get the seatpost back in the same position. But it's a hassle, and as I have my bikes on the stand every other week for some tweak or other, I can do without that. Which is why I prefer a stand that only takes 5 seconds to put the bike on: remove front wheel, lift bike on stand, close the stand's QR.

storckm

I have a Park Tool stand that bolts to my work table. PCS 12 or something like that.

cyccommute 

You may consider it a hassle but most wouldn’t. I put bikes on stands several times per week…my own and those at my local co-op. I never think that moving a seatpost if I have to is much of a hassle. It’s part of the checklist at the co-op to see if the post is still removable. If the seatpost isn’t removable, the bike isn’t worth working on and it goes to the strip pile.

Different strokes, I suppose. I’ve owned a Minoura RS stand like this one. It was a hassle to use without having to remove the front wheel. That’s why I bought a Park stand roughly 30 years ago. Even if I have to move the post…which isn’t something I have to do very often…it’s far easier to clamp the seatpost then to release the brakes, flip the quick release lever, unscrew it to get it past the lawyer lips, remove the wheel, load the bike onto the stand, then screw the stand’s quick release down to get it past the lawyer lips, and finally tighten the stand’s quick release. And when you are done, you have to repeat the whole process in reverse.

And that says nothing of the fact that there’s even more hassle if you need to work on the front end of the bike. A clamp type stand allows for easier adjustment of the brakes (a common repair), headset adjustment (a less common repair), or check any bearing drag. No disassembly required.

79pmooney

+1. Cheap, don't have to put it away and walking into it in the dark doesn't hurt. The easiest out there to maneuver large objects around (for various house projects). I've been using a rope with a loop forever and only rarely want more. I usually just slide the seat nose through the loop. Only do the front if I need a steadier bike. I like how easy it is to spin the bike around to work on the other side. Best part is that the one/off is so fast and it's impossible to damage anything. I always set the bike down to put in rear wheels and tighten the QR. So easy with the rope.

Prowler 

+1. My rope loop is about 3/4” dia and hangs at about forehead height. Again, no trouble hitting it walking by and floor stays open for other projects. Mine hangs down about 2’ away from one of my vices so if I need to prevent the bike swinging around, I just tie the rear wheel off to the vice.

I have two options for a solid mount. One is a simple trunk rack with the two arms. I clamp that into the other vice and the cradle holds a bike off the floor. The other is the head of an old Ultimate/Feedback stand. I created a holder from lumber which clamps into the vice too. Three options is enough and I mostly just use the rope.

I use the Park professional work stands at the LBS (including the monstrous 33.2 Power Lift, really dislike that lump) and do not miss them at home.

smd4

Well, some people still see the light:

Work Stand, Boy was I Dumb!

non-fixie 

And I thought grease was a sensitive topic ...

Kabuki12

Don’t even get started with the “wax the chain” topic!

Classtime 

Two things:
1.) If you attach your ropes to the ceiling 3 meters +/- apart, it will eliminate much of the swinging.
2.) I need to get a tool rack for my Park stand.

cudak888 

You freaking Dutch. Not only have you perfected bicycle infrastructure, you've also invented the impossible bike shop - clean, organized, and perfect.

-Kurt

Calsun

Many of the "solutions" require removing the wheels and are based on the bike having traditional skewers and not thru bolt axles. I wanted something that would work with my carbon fiber and my aluminum frame bikes and with road bikes and e-bikes and my mountain bikes. The Parker stand folds up so I can store it in a corner of my garage when not needed. The Silca bar is adjusted to be parallel to the stand and so it can be left on the stand while it is stored.

With this approach I can work on a bike outdoors and then return it to my bike shed. Not everyone has a large space indoors that they can dedicate to storing or working on bicycles.

non-fixie 

I looked on the internet for a picture of an average Dutch bike shop, and recognized this one immediately. It is a family-owned shop a couple of miles from my home, which I visit regularly. Even though they have no real interest in old bikes, they know I do. I have bought at least five bikes from them they took as a trade-ins, as well as a lot of old parts. I've even refurbished an early eighties bike for one of their clients.

Forgot to take the "after" picture, but you can imagine this was a fair bit of work. And that they weren't about to take on that job in their nice new workshop.