PCS 9 at £83 any good?

I wouldn’t buy one again. Clunky and hard to store. There are many more user friendly and easy to store options.

What he says ^

Any recommendations nothing too pricey

I’ve got one, same opinion as above. Got mine with 3 for 1 Tesco points and wish I’d spent the bit extra on the proper folding one. As a stand it’s great, but if you regularly need to park it up in a crowded garage it’s a faff.

But it is bombproof and stable compared with a few others I’ve tried around that price point. If you’ve got the space, it’s a decent option. And the legs do fold up with no problems.

Now Ive got a big garage I like mine, but in our old flat it was a pain in the arse, I think i got mine on sale for £60 tho

Difficult to adjust, weighs a ton, not very portable; tough, rugged, stable, cheap. It’s all a compromise, overall I’m happy enough with it.

Haven’t had any issues with mine for the last 12 years, fits in a small car nicely, as above robust bombproof and stable and a good clamp. Tend to leave it up in the kitchen but it folds up in the corner easily enough.

Mine must be getting on for 15 years old and has only ever lived outdoors.
Generally just stood up waiting to be used. They’re certainly robust.
I think the only time I unbolted one of the legs was to gain extra leverage on a large adjustable spanner when removing a very seized bottom bracket.

I use one and I like it. It’s solid, a bit clunky but moveable when needed. Holds the bike, which after all is it’s job.
But the best thing was when I clumsily broke the handle the spare part was easily avaliable.

I’ve got a Feedback Sports Ultralight and would definately recomend it. Pretty stable, very easy to adjust and fold up, excellent. Only snag is it’s £lots, but there is one on fleabay starting at £15 just now…

Bike Stand
I’ve had one of these for the last ten years. Been very good. Not so solid as the park but much more adjustable and easy to stow.

I hated mine, the head was a pain to get moving as it wedges in.
The legs are not retained so you have to get a strap to keep them in one place
The leg bracket is also not retained so that wanders when you pick it up

Get a Feedback sports stand, you won’t regret it for a second.

https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/feedback-sports-sport-mechanic-repair-stand/rp-prod21388

They do a ultralight or something but this one is not remotely heavy anyway.

I’m happy with my £20 Aldi one. Not perfect but very stable and sturdy and does the job for the handful of times I use it. I really cannot see how a bike stand should cost £83….complete rip off for what it is even if it is significantly better than my Aldi stand. If you’re a pro mechanic and using it all day every day then you can probably justify it but for the average bod at home and the occiational use it will see than the cheap ones are perfectly adequate.

i’ve had the aldi, the feedback is considerably more expensive but so much nicer to use, lighter, folds up smaller too.

I had a minoura stand that use the same stand as that Bike Stand linked to, but a much better head.

However it wasn’t stable enough and I gave it away eventually.

I’ve had several other stands that were cheap but various degrees of poor, then got a feedback.

Buy cheap, buy twice is a motto I should have listened to as I wasted a lot on those cheap stands but won’t be changing the feedback stand.

I just don’t understand the love for feedback sports bike stands. I bought one due it’s supposed ability to extend high and it was incredibly unstable.

Even with my pretty darned light bikes, it tended to bend and, on anything other than completely level ground, fell over at a moment’s notice.

Replaced it with a Park PCS-10 and I’ve never looked back. Night and day when it comes to stability and works at height too.

Wow, not much love for the Park Tools stand!

PCS-10 here, its been great for the last 10 years or so. I had a cheap £20 one, but that was way too unstable for a 26″ full suspension bike, let alone a LT 29er. Park Tools takes heavy bikes and its still stable and no hint of it wanting to fall over even when extended high. I don’t find it heavy, but it is heavy compared with other workstands.

I would definitely recommend one.

Good:

It’s robust, will likely last forever – it’s bright blue and says Park on it, so my next door neighbour with a non-branded Aldi one knows I’m a Playa and better than him.

Bad:

It will fall over fairly easily if it’s not on a 100% flat surface.
The head rotation doesn’t without extreme provocation, I can’t work out why, or how to fix it.
The clamp that adjusts the height is a bit pony.

Really, given the cost of the alternatives, the 9 shouldn’t exist, the only model should be the 10 (which is 90% the same bar 2 quick release cammed levers, but costs twice as much) and it should be the price of the 9, but I guess Park has the brand to pull it off.

I’ve got a PCS-9. Sits in the corner of the garage until it’s time to use it. It’s a bit unweildy but it does it’s job. Goes up in seconds & I find it very stable.

I’m not expecting to ever have to buy another work stand.

I’ve a PCS-10. used a lot of PCS-9’s and they’re OK. difficult to move about with floppy legs and the rubber plug sticks in the metal head so you can’t always rotate the jaws easily.

The PCS -10 has a plastic head and spring locators for the legs.

both just as stable as each other as the legs are the same length. Works well for home use.

If I couldn’t stretch to the 10, I’d look for something else.

I use the puregadgets one.
https://oypla.com/sports-leisure/outdoor-sports/home-mechanic-folding-bicycle-bike-repair-stand?gclid=Cj0KCQjwjpjkBRDRARIsAKv-0O1J-sBcdPFE-xuL5E2nxOaAnaKFg_vD-6Kz3NcvbWFz6NU97gwiDj8aApvWEALw_wcB
Does what it is supposed to and better than the tree in the garden I used to hang my bike in before I got it.

Sorry, another happy cheap Aldi owner here. Had it for ages, used it split from the base onto a bracket on my bench for a couple of years, then using the base when I was doing a lot of work inside in the lounge (for about a year). I kept it with me when I moved to Sweden.

It is stable and can hold a 2012 stumpy FSR but… it is not brilliant at keeping it level unless you really tighten things up.

I’ve got an Aldi one too, the only issue I have is the legs seem to spread out a long way in all directions. It can make it awkward working in a small space. Some of the other stands I have seen have seen have a better design so they are just as stable with with a smaller footprint.

had an aldi one, coldn’t keep the clamps tight enough.

it’s a bike washing stand now and stays out in the rain.

Does anyone use a bench or vice mounted stand? Are they a pain in terms of not being able to walk around the back of the bike?

I like my pcs-10. Its heavy, but it holds a bike steady when working on it. I have had mine for 5+ years

Went to a PCS-9 from an Aldi stand, much more stable and as someone has already said,has a smaller footprint for my shed . Folds up well.

PCS 10 user here for the last 6 or so years and its been brill tbh… stable and works well for everything from DH bikes to XC skinny framed stuff. only thing it needed from standard was a tool tray.

I use a park one mounted to a tv wall stand so it folds out of the way when not in use

I got one from Halfords for £45. Not an expert but it holds my full sus Ebike well enough to recommend it on here.

I like that set up Tracey ,good TV stand hack.

PCS-9 here.

Not overwhelmed.

The vertical clasp has broken (threads stripped). Is now set at a constant height, but living with it.

In terms of the head rotation, just pack it full of grease. It still tightens and locks fine, but is easy enough to twist when required.

I’d not get another, but it will likely last many years as is.

Way I see it is there’s only really 2 good options. 1, a cheapie- like the lidl/oypla/ebay one, under £30 and does the job just fine. Or a really really awesome one. What’s the point in an expensive one that basically just does the job just fine? The Park PCS9 is a wee bit more solid than the cheapies but that’s really all you get for your money.

PCS9 here, it’s a bike stand that stands up with a bike in it. Not sure what else people are looking for in a bike stand.

Owned it for 12+ years and not had any issues at all, I’d recommend it. Used a couple of the cheaper models listed above, they stand up with a bike in as well, BUT they don’t feel quite as sturdy and the ‘sticking’ head on the Park translates into a constantly slipping head on some of the others.

YMMV.

If you’re a pro mechanic and using it all day every day then you can probably justify it

If you’re a pro mechanic, you buy a Kestrel stand…

Park tool stands are heavy but robust.
Wouldn’t bother with a cheap Aldi etc stand there crap and the clamps don’t hold a bike well when putting a decent amount of force through them. Good for the occasional hobbyist

I’m another underwhelmed Park PCS 9 owner. I only paid £54.99 for mine brand new from CRC in some silly deal back in 2016 so overall quite happy with it for the price but here are my gripes;

1. The weight a bike pulls the stand forward a bit so the clamp isn’t completely horizontal. I rectified this a by installing some shims on the legs but its still a slight annoyance.

2. As others have noted above, the clamp head binds when tightened and refuses to rotate unless there is a bike attached. This is annoying because if I am working on two bikes, one of which I want to secure using the top tube, I’ll have to attach it via the seatpost first to get the leverage to unbind the clamp in order to rotate it so I can attach via the top tube.

3. I’ve never really had an issue with portability / storage because I leave it up all the time in the corner of our dining room. However, without the quick release clamps of the 10, you need to collapse it using a hex key and even then, you’ll need some sort of rope or strap to hold it all together.

There’s no way I’d buy one at the cost they are now!

Wow, not much love for the Park Tools stand!

PCS-10 here, its been great for the last 10 years or so.

Have the PCS-10 as well.
Fantastic work stand!!!

Yes – needs plenty room. But if you work a lot on bikes…