Fancy doing my own servicing rather than paying a shop so I’m looking for a work stand and was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction.

Not looking to spend a huge fortune as I’m not sure how this is going to work out, hopefully ok 😀

Also, for those home mechanics, any recomendations for a particular brand of tools that are worth paying for?

Cheers

http://www.vartools.com/catalogue_uk.pdf

http://weldtite.co.uk/products/tools/advanced-tools

http://www.cyclus-tools.eu/cyclus.html?&L=3

quite easy to get by without a workstand, not so easy to get by without tools.

Get the Park Tools Big Blue Book as your guide.

Tools – find a local decent tool shop and use generic tools as much as possible, only buying specialist tools when you need to. They tend to end up a very personal chooce.

Merlin Cycles have got a decent looking workstand at a good price:

http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/Bike+Shop/Workshop++Tools/Workshop/Workstands/Bike+Tools+Workstand_BIKE-TOOLS-WORKSTAND-MASTER.htm

you can order it with a toolkit as well, but not sure whether it would be worth it. Depends on how you get on with it I guess.

As for brands of tool, I have found most of the cheaper ones like Fat Spanner & Ice Toolz good for home mechanic stuff. I’m not sure they’d hold up to workshop levels of usage, but for a bit of tinkering they are pretty good.

EDIT:

quite easy to get by without a workstand, not so easy to get by without tools.

While this is true – I have found a workstand does make it a lot easier and I tend to do a lot more of my own fettling now that I don’t spend half the time stopping the bike falling over etc.

Would have recommended this but not at that price!!! I only paid £60 a few yrs ago!!!

Halfords pro spanners and allen keys then buy park tools for bb, chain and cassette. If you are not a mech or used to using spanner a small torque wrench might save you from stripping threads on expensive stuff like shimano cranks.
I have a nice 1/4 drive socket set which has all the torx and allen bits needed to work on a bike

Got the cheaper park stand and tbh not having a garage where it can stand all the time rarely use it – probably why my back is knackerered :lol:. Do you have a turbo trainer to clamp bikes onto . I have asked mrs k to get me one of those mecamics stools on castors with a tool tray for woking on bkies propped against walls etc.

Tools got a wiggle starter kit then got decent, spanners for bb,s, pedals /track nuts and a good qiality chaintool -park or similar, good quality wire cutters and a tool box just for cycling kit and a big plastic case fo odd and sod bike spares. If I had more space I’d have a decent bench & vice. may buy a headset press- use a bit of hoover tube for knocking the cups on the streereer at present
Can’t stand the park blue book but the website is ok. Handy things to have are a stock of cables, cablte ties ,pads and chain links (we have a fair few bikes road and mtb – Mrs k doesn’t do mechanics)
other good bits hacksaws, good grease, wd40. penetrating oil, you pick it allt his stuff up over the years

I would buy decent tools as and when you need them, start with decent set of Allen keys, screwdriver, cable cutters and rubber hammer.

that merlin stand is not too stable – take a wheel off and it will want to tip over all the time.

If you got it then have some sandbags to put over the legs.

It is like the Minoura stands but they have better clamps. I got rid of the Minoura RS5000 for that reason.

The tripod style designs, like the Feedback, should be more stable.

or if you have the room you might be able to put a clamp on a table for ultimate stability.

the park clamps are expensive – maybe this would work:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/MECHANIC-BENCH-MOUNTED-CYCLE-REPAIR/dp/B004UFS9AE/ref=sr_1_1?s=sports&ie=UTF8&qid=1320234431&sr=1-1

However I think it is the same clamp as the LIDL stand that was cheap, and people have had to mode that to make it work better.

The Draper one looks interesting but it doesn’t have a seatpost clamp, which is where you should clamp it really, not the frame.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Draper-59304-Heavy-Duty-Work-Stand/dp/B0002GUOAI/ref=pd_cp_sg_2

this looks like it might be decent:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bike-Maintenance-Stand-Tool-Tray/dp/B000WXQYQE/ref=sr_1_6?s=sports&ie=UTF8&qid=1320234431&sr=1-6

i have the merlin stand (they are sold under several names) and it is falling apart after 2 years of average use.

Buy a park – so much better…

I’ve had a Minoura W3000 stand for 8 years. It gets used regularly for bike maintenance and bike cleaning. The clamping system is excellent and works as well now as it did out of the box.

The clamping system is excellent and works as well now as it did out of the box

the clamp is fine – my minoura worked as well as it did when I took it out of the box – it wasn’t very stable then either…

Cyclus do a workshop cycle stand that looks like it could be usefully used for bench presses when you are not working on your bike:

http://www.cyclus-tools.eu/komplettrad.html?&L=3

Cyclus tools are decent tools, quality like or better than park but at sensible prices.

http://www.parker-international.co.uk/b/31/Cyclus.html?referrer=googleBRCY&=&gclid=COeWs5SEmKwCFUtB4Qodtm0BxA

X-Tools and IceTools seem to make some decent tools as well at budget prices.

The cheaper Park stuff can be mediocre quality – the higher quality tools can be ridiculously priced.

Zinn and the Art of Mountain Bike maintence is a good book:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zinn-Art-Mountain-Bike-Maintenance/dp/1934030597/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320240159&sr=8-1

if your bike is old it can be worth buying the edition that was current in that time period as often it majors more on the relevant bits.

sometimes it is useful to look for a youtube video for someone doing the bit of work you are about to attempt – to reduce the trial and error scenarious. Sometimes the mtb magazines have a maintenance video on them. It is useful to see someone hammering in a starnut washer, or pressing in a headset, so you have an idea of the amount of force needed and don’t apply more or get alarmed when it is not happening because you haven’t ‘hit it enough’.

A workstand makes life hugely easier. Well worth it.

I got a bike stand from LIDL believe it or not! They sell all sorts of crazy stuff in there…. Was only £30 so bit of a bargain. The main clamp is not the most stable but it keeps the bike off the ground and I’ve had some pretty heavy bikes on there.

Cheapy stand here – the ones that pop up in Aldi/Lidl and on ebay now and then for ~£35

It’s lasted the best part of a year already with daily (But obviously not constant) use and I can’t see it failing any time soon for Home use I can’t really see the point in spanking big money…

As and when this one dies it will probably be replaced with something very similar and equally cheap.

when I add up my spend on inadequate workstands I get a fair proportion of what I spent on this, which I should have bought in the first place:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Reviews.aspx?ModelID=12968

however, on a cheaper theme youtube has some DIY stands that look quite interesting:

it is best to clamp to the seatpost but if you clamp to the seattube, like in this video, then drop the seatpost to give the thin, butted, frame some support….

Ice Tools / X-Tools work very well 🙂

Thing like a cable cutter, pliers (short/long nose), screwdriver, etc can be generic ones.

Other useful tools include headset cup remover, external BB spanner (open ended is good), cassette tool, metal tyre levers…. and a spokey!