Hi
I’m not really too tight, I was showing off - I simply don’t have much space for something I’d rarely use.
It’s gear indexing time and my back isn’t what it used to be. Does anybody have any good bodges (I think the young people call them ‘hacks’ these days) for getting their wheels off the ground so they can get on with the task?
And remember, there are no bad ideas.
two chairs and a broomhandle. Broomhandle acroos the backs of the two chair with them back to back, nose of saddle on the broom handle. Thats how I usued to do it
telescopic bike stand, fits in a really small space
Feedback sports ultralight - shove it in a cupboard or car boot.
Collapsible wife. That way you'll get good at doing it quick.
Collapsible wife. That way you’ll get good at doing it quick.
Sex advice is another thread
Decathlon do a really small stand that hooks under the seat and chainstays, lifts the rear wheel off the ground enough to fiddle with gears. Only £10 or so.
Or failing that upside down, worked when I was a lad (kinda).
upside down on the kitchen table?
Nose of saddle over door frame chin up bar?
upside down on the kitchen table?
bike or wife?
Take your bike to one of those public workstands that seem to be appearing at railway stations?
Trapeze artist. They can hold it up while you work.
Just be mindful of the Lions.
Hook in ceiling and strap
Works for the bike as well
Washing line
Has the simple art of 'turning upside down' been lost?
Has the simple art of ‘turning upside down’ been lost?
Are you new here? 😂
Odpod.........otherwise you end up with something very different
I just hang mine by the front of the saddle on a beam in the garage which gives the perfect height.
Saying that, it does wobble about a bit and has fallen on me as least once so maybe not the best idea...
I've got a normal work stand and work bench mounted one but 99% of the time use an old bike lock on a nail above the shed door - just hook the nose of the saddle into it, perfect for quick jobs where you don't need the bike to be held in place as such.
In 20 years of building and maintaining bikes iv never come across a job that couldn't be done by turning upside down or propping up against something. If the forks are off just rest the down tube on my toolbox + towel. Iv thought about getting one often but always decided to spend the money on shiny bike bits instead
Is £15.59 too much for your wallet?
https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/clarke-cbws-bicycle-repair-stand/
Prior to getting a stand - when I wanted a stand equivalent I used to strap/hook my bike rack to the fence and put my bike on it. It worked pretty well.
I went into a bike shop in France and they used three dog leads hung from beams, two for the bars and one for the saddle. It worked really well.
Thanks for the replies. Turns out I was wrong - there are bad ideas 😉
@mikewsmith Feedback Ultralight sounds great, but quite expensive
@tjagain Broom on chairs - now that's more like my kind of idea
@scuttler Collapsible wife sounds great. Unfortunately I'm a tinkerer, so it would be collapsed wife by the time I'd finished
It does remind me of when I was a Dive Instructor in Thailand. We had no tank clamp, so when we had to inspect the tanks we asked Fern, the Thai massage woman from next door. She was tiny and flexible and could wrap herself around the tank to stop it moving while we removed the top. It was both practical and amusing.
@globalti 15:59 seems like a bargain, but the stores are a long way from me
@eddiebaby odpod seems good, I'm considering that
@smiffy That's the kind of lines I was thinking along. I reckon I'll be trying that first. Cheers.
Thanks for all the other suggestions. Upside down works of course, but it never seems to come out 100% right when I do it that way. I also might get access to a vice on a workbench, which would make everything a whole lot simpler.
Andy stand or Scorpion
I have a bike stand now, but I used to open a kitchen drawer and hang the saddle from it.
I hang mine off the apple tree by the saddle if I have to do anything at home.
Helps if you have a big apple tree. And that it's not raining
If you have a garage or are sure where the beams are in the ceiling, string or rope. Loop tied in the end, nose of saddle through loop.
Done me well since 1989.
What's happened to STW? 28 replies and no mention of singlespeed or Rohloff. This place isn't what it used to be...
You'll notice the bike in the Odpod pic IS a singlespeed. All I use the stand for now on that bike is to store it away from the shed wall.
If you've got a beam or hook available, use an old inner tube suspended by the nose of the saddle, works well and cost is basically zero. Otherwise, lidl or Aldi workstands for 25 quid are a good shout.
Just trying to think what I'd do in this situation, i've not tried it but could you turn the saddle to 90 degrees in the qr and hang it over a door? you'd have to wrap a rag around the inner peddle to protect the door paint as you turn it? Not sure, might work?
This is from a lad who got a seatpost stuck in a frame and went to the local park and wedged the saddle in between two tree branches and turned the frame to unjam the post...the local dog walkers must have thought wtf!... I know the pain of living in small spaces!
I got around to the indexing today.
I was so tempted by the collapsible wife idea, but my gf was reluctant. Women, eh?
In the end I went with inner tubes from a hook in the roof. This worked quite well once I anchored the front wheel. My gears are now shifting silkily smoothly.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Indexing? Just N+1 it's much easier, the shop will index the new bike and you can just hang the old bike on the wall 🙂
Doesn't everyone just have a turbo for this purpose?
I wish you'd asked 2 years ago. I binned one that a mate made as I had no use for it due to aquiring a MASSIVE garage & getting a 'proper' stand. It bolted to a bench top & clamped the top tube.
Which was a pain if your cables ran along it. Otherwise it was brilliant.