Fork clamp and spacers on Feedback Sports Sprint stand
Without the workstand, where would we be? Working on a bike while it leans against the wall is no way to work. Yes, we all put off even buying the first poor excuse for a stand for much too long because those Campagnolo upgrades came first. That would have been another benefit of working in a bike shop as a teenager; the early introduction to the proper tools and stands to do the work. Thanks to @Teocalli for a review and a tale of how to get one.
VLVV, Gianni
It all started perfectly innocently.
VMW – Sighs and looks at the Conservatory last Spring. “If only I could get the Conservatory back”.
Like many, I suspect, our conservatory swings between habitability and dumping ground but in this instance had become my bike workroom. Typically, there was at least one bike in the conservatory with tools spread over the table and toolbox gaping on the floor like a man-trap (VMW trap?). Workroom might be a bit of a misnomer as I didn’t have a decent workstand and survived using axle-stands or a frame vice clamped to the table. It was all very ad hoc but a decent workstand always seemed hard to justify. However, my lower back was definitely feeling the need as at my age sitting on a low stool (how many know what a Crackett is?) working near floor level was doing my back no good whatsoever.
Me – “Well if I had a decent workstand I could work in the garage”
WMW – “Why can’t you use your cabin?” (note here that I have a work cabin for woodwork and dirty stuff and the VMW has a garden shed – terminology when it comes to man-sheds is important!).
Me – “We’ll that’s not very secure and my tools would go rusty in the winter as it gets a bit damp in there”.
VMW – “Well, can’t you put them all in the garage?”
Me – “I’d need to clear all the garden stuff out of the top half of the garage to be able to work in there”.
VMW – “OK but I’d need a new Garden Shed to put it all in as the current one is full and not big enough and it leaks”.
Gianni was right, it’s all a matter of negotiation and making sure that the other half gets the bigger slice. Hell’s teeth, a new Garden Shed is way more expensive than a bike workstand!
Me (pressing my luck) – “I could do with a decent tool cabinet too as scrabbling in that toolbox is a real pain and it won’t take all my tools and still close anymore”
VMW – “Ok if I get a new Garden Shed and you put down a base for me THEN you can buy a workstand and tool cabinet”
DEAL !
So that is how I now come to have a great tool cabinet with all my tools neatly spread out in single layers and easy to find and a decent workstand.
So the purpose of writing this was actually to comment on the Feedback Sports Workstand. I went for the Sprint Workstand model as I have never been too keen with clamping lightweight frames ever since my first lightweight Alu frame that came covered in stickers “Do Not Clamp Here” and the Feedback Sports model also has a neat arrangement of spacers on the axle QR clamp that will take variable OLD sizes suitable to my small collection and also can take Through Axle so is very versatile. It is not cheep but I highly recommend it. Sturdy construction with a wide base it is fully height adjustable and swings through 360 deg or can be clamped in a fixed position. Bikes can be clamped by the forks or rear axle depending on what you want to work on. Being Aluminium construction it is also great for cleaning bikes and hosing down as well as folding into a neat package to be easily portable.
Having the tool cabinet is an absolute joy with everything having its own place and (so far) ensures that I put all tools back in their place after using them. No more scrabbling to find that left hand widget that I know is somewhere. In fact, now I’m looking for excuses to find something to fettle on one bike or another as it is so much easier than previously. The right tools for the job do make a huge difference. The slightly funny part of emptying my tool box was that I did find that I had duplicates of a few things that were hidden unseen way down at the bottom and I had bought the second not knowing there was a lurker down in the dark recesses of the toolkit.
All I need now is a proper bike room, the VMW has okayed that as part of the new seafront house – sadly though, our combined plans for that will have to wait for the lottery win.
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@Ccos
A proper shadow board, either with foam with recesses cut or hooks and outlines, is a thing of wonder and beauty. Essential if you want to work efficiently using the principles of 5S.
And as a house-sharing renter, something I can only fantasise about
@Al__S
You mentioned '5S' in a forum post?!
I can only assume manufacturing environments have damaged us both.
@LeBelge
Re Vintage, that's why I like the Freedom Sports as it has various combinations of spacers that will work with vintage bikes - and you can always make up additional spacers if you need something completely off the wall. Most of the others I have looked at seem to come as fixed OLD mounts.
Freedom = Feedback of course.
So uhhh... just to go on a completely unrelated tangent here, @chuckp I'm noting the color of the Feedback stands and also noting what I saw when I walked in to a bar in Savannah on Thu this week
They clearly took their Campari seriously. So I had my first ever Negroni. Then my second. Turns out that there is a story (isn't there always?) behind the strange name of this drink. Cheers
I think that stand looks like a winner. I have a Park stand with a big heavy steel plate of a base so it is stable but it's not mobile or good looking or anodized aluminium. When it's bike washing time I do some heavy lifting to move outside.
And I endorse spending money of a tool chest too, another thing I put off for too long. Oh youth, why so cheap?
@Teocalli
I have the same Feedback stand. It has many positive attributes. My only issue is, you can not align the front brake and rim simutaniously (guess why?) Otherwise, it the best built and most bike friendly stand I have ever owned.
Looking at getting one of these sometime to replace the e-bay special I use at the moment;going to have to wait for a while though as new wheels have been bought,Wiggle and Chain Reaction orders made and a Dura Ace chainset,although that stand would help put all these new parts on the N1.
@Teocalli
Great article and thanks for the heads-up on what looks like a superb stand. I was looking at the Park PRS-20 which is similar, but the Sprint looks like it's the mutt's nuts.
When we moved home recently and I eventually got 'my' garage and tool room, I had great plans for the storage and maintenance of my bikes, camping and climbing gear, but I made the mistake of allowing a few archive boxes of my other half's reference books in ... big mistake. Of course the books couldn't just live in the boxes (why not?!), and so they've slowly started creeping out of the boxes and taking up shelf space. It's the thin end of a wedge I reckon and this unholy land-grab needs to be nipped in the bud before it's too late ... it's a bike workshop FFS, not a book store!
A question to the older and wiser: does Rule#41 apply to workshop stands...?
@wilburrox
Welcome to the club!