Collapsible Bike Repair Stand

Repair stands are a common search term on Bike Hacks and we have seen our fair share of sweet DIY submissions.  Ideas include bike stands that are:

• bombproof
• ceiling mounted
• pipe based
• fork based
• weight stand based - it will pump you up

One day I hope to brandish a flame that is mega hot to stick metal things together, something reader Ben has experience doing as described in the following write up.  Ben does the Flickr and can be found at thedidley's.  Take it away Ben . . .

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

I finished this repair stand about 2 months ago. After I bought a welder, this was one of the first projects on the list. I had made a PVC stand about 4 years ago and it was not much better than leaning the bike up against a wall so I really wanted to make something worth using.

Another consideration was that I do all my projects in a storage shed (or outside it) and I wanted to be able to collapse the stand down to store flat. The parts include:

• 1 1/2" angle iron,
• 1 1/2" black pipe
• 3/4" square steel tubing
• 5/8" solid steel rod
• a floor flange for the black pipe
• a pair of welding vice grips.

The vice grips are mounted to the square tubing and the rod is sized to fit snugly inside the square tube. I use a towel or piece of foam to protect my bike when I clamp it in. I put a set screw on the square tubing using a weldable nut so that I could secure the bike at various angles. The floor flange is welded to the bottom of the stand and the black pipe threads into the flange. The way it's set up I can rotate the bike on the clamp post and on the vertical part of the stand (black pipe), so it's pretty easy to access just about any part of the bike.

All of the parts are available at the big box hardware stores. If you know someone who does metal work or has a farm, they probably have some angle iron or black pipe you could score. Metal bed frames are also a good source of angle iron. The project cost about $50 (using all new materials) so it's not as cheap as some of the PVC or hook type DIY stands, but its as sturdy as some of the $100+ stands out there.

Comments

[Dave]

Seen a lot of bike stand hacks, but this one looks particularly good. Like the use of vice grips and the way the angle is adjustable.

[Scott]

Bar end shifters for the win. (The stand is pretty dope too!)