Makeshift Maintenance Stand?

[Bariton]

During yesterdays ride I found it difficult to engage my top gear and also experienced a noisy front shifter, so today I decided to make a few adjustments. I started out by standing the bike on the seat and handle bars, but this made it difficult to access the limit screws and generally see what I was doing. In the end I resorted to stringing the bike up from the rafters in the garage; much better to see what I was doing but a little unstable. How do you manage these sorts of repairs and adjustments without buying a proper workshop stand?

 

[si_c]

I tried the same process as you, upside down, then hung up. In the end I bit the bullet and bought a workstand from amazon for £25, great buy. My Dad picked up basically the same workstand from Aldi a month later for £20.

 

[pawl]

Before I bought a work stand I screwed a large hook into a beam in the garage.Fine for minor adjustments.
Bought a work stand from Halfords use it for all maintained work.Think it cost around £30.

 

[mjr]

A proper bike winch costs under £10. I've also got one of those £10 rear wheel stands that looks like two Us joined at the tops which holds the rear axle on both ends. Either is good enough for setting up indexing - it's quite difficult to dislodge the bike from the winch hooks (two under saddle and two under the handlebars) although it will swing. I'd probably use the wheel stand from preference because it's less work.

I dislike those tripod-ish bike stands that clamp the frame because I scratch the paint, struggle to avoid squashing cables in the clamp, struggle to lift bikes into the clamp and/or tip the whole thing over. If I get a stand, it'll be one of those team-style ones which grab the front fork and BB, with a support arm for the downtube.

 

[Scoosh]

This is a handy little bit of kit. Bought one the other day for checking some bikes Mrs Scoosh's school have bought and it was very useful for checking anything requiring the rear wheel off the ground - front/ rear gears, rear brakes, Mickling the chain ...

You could probably make up your own with a few bits and pieces ...

 

[Milkfloat]

 

[mjr]

This is a handy little bit of kit. Bought one the other day for checking some bikes Mrs Scoosh's school have bought and it was very useful for checking anything requiring the rear wheel off the ground - front/ rear gears, rear brakes, Mickling the chain ...

Stay-supporting stands easily foul the spokes, in my experience, plus tip over with heavier bikes. They're no cheaper than axle stands so why would you?

 

[CanucksTraveller]

Clever, but I don't fancy your cat's chances! I've had two of those ironing boards collapse when weight (folded laundry) was put on them.