Homebrew is for Drinking, NOT Workshop Stands

Homebrew is for Drinking, NOT Workshop Stands

Taking a brief pause from the many parts that comprise a bike, there is always the lurking issue of support.  There are many types of support - financial, child, athletic, moral, the list goes on.  But when you need to work on your ride or build a wheel, the support for the bike should be more substantial than a wall, floor, or yourself.  Similarly, truing a wheel should not rely upon the brake calipers rubbing against the rim as you tension the spokes.

Walls, fences and the ground are great when you are a long way from anywhere and you are congratulating yourself (or not) on your prescience in packing hex keys (an 8 mm and a 10 mm will account for most of what you find on a bike), levers, spoke wrench or any suitable multi-tool.  FYI if I flat, I take the holed tube home and patch it.  The repaired tube is then rolled tight and strapped with a few turns of masking tape.  Patching tubes is cheaper than a new tube, and more importantly, the masking tape can be useful for spot repairs.  If you want to be a real MacGyver, use duct tape instead.  BUT if you are just doing regular maintenance on your bike, it really sucks having to squat down, or just sit on the floor or on a box to get down to eye level with the doings.

Let's face it, you have to be roughly level with the bike, and it is better to stand.

For the last couple of years I have used a pair of plastic-coated hooks screwed into my garage rafter joists, and hung bikes from them by the handlebars.  An OK short-term solution, but the hooks may be well spaced for one bike, jammed in bar furniture on another bike.  And spinning the cranks would always set the rig in motion when I hit the right mechanical resonance frequency (WTF?)  never mind trying to shift gears.  And with a build assembly looming, I cannot very well suspend a frame from the hooks.

Walk into any bike shop, and you will see the wrenches working on bikes that are held in frame clamps, mounted on sturdy poles set into the floor.  This is pro kit, and you should not be thinking about chipping into your garage floor.  There are many sites where you can see the homebrew efforts of dedicated DIYers worldwide, and can for a few bucks buy plans for your own home-made.  And this is the point when common sense and economics step in.

I could make my own.  There are rectangular-frames, ironing-board frames made from PVC piping, and some ingenious rigs that resemble padded clamps.  A quick costing of materials and the great intangible, time and bother, drew me to the same conclusion - materials + time + effort = home-made frame that will always look homemade, and Heath-Robinsonish. 

As usual I searched the net for the best deal on home workshop stands, including postage to new Zealand.  This last point was the killer - there are many ebusinesses out there dealing in stuff bicycle, but when you start talking heavy things like stands, the deal is off.  
And then...Torpedo Seven, the premier New Zealand online bike dealer, came through with a weekly special on Union Tools bike repair stands, NZ$30 off, with free postage for orders over NZ$100 (which at $116, this qualified).  First deal done.  The crappy shots show it in action, while I serviced a bike for the school team.

And on to wheel truing stands.

The builds that I have done so far have involved me sitting on the sofa in the lounge lacing the spokes, and then hanging my bike from the roof hooks, mounting the new build in the drop-outs and using the brake pads to true the wheel.  There has to be a better way, and many home mechanics believe they have the answer.  Ranging from wooden slats recovered from a bunk bed to some old forks held tight in a workbench vice, they all become versions of the same - use brake pads to true it up.

The opportune deal arose with a special from Bikewagon, who (with little effort) convinced me to buy the Sunlite Wheel Truing Stand for the princely sum of NZ$70.86 (postage and exchange rate).  Here it is assembled.

And that prompts the first warning - there are no assembly instructions.  I am certainly not the first person to notice this, and a 5-second search found this site, with instructions and photos. The benefits of a real truing stand (not homebrew) are simple.  It will sit on any flat surface, e.g. a table, correctly centres (~re is correct spelling!) the hub for accurate truing, includes a marker gauge for rim diameter, and will hold a range of hubs and rim types.  And I do not have to use a bike to help true a wheel.

A work stand and a truing stand are the two main stands that a bike workshop should have, as one holds the bike, the other trues the wheels.  Everything else can be, should be done on the bike.