Anyone know if this workstand is any good?

General cycling advice ( NOT technical ! )
MikeF
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Location: On the borders of the four South East Counties

Re: Anyone know if this workstand is any good?

Post by MikeF »

Aren't bikes transported on Southern trains "meant" to be supported by their top tubes? I've never worked out how just they should be transported and just used the straps to secure the bike with its wheels on the floor. How you use the straps is not obvious to me either, but as long they're arranged so the front of the bike can't move it seems OK.

Aren't top tubes not strong enough to support the weight of a bike? :shock: Some used to have child seats fitted on the crossbar and it's not unknown for "adults" (yoofs) to be transported on one.
"It takes a genius to spot the obvious" - my old physics master.
I don't peddle bikes.
Brucey
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Re: Anyone know if this workstand is any good?

Post by Brucey »

workaday bikes often have tubes with a wall thickness of 1.6mm. These are approximately ten times stiffer laterally and less prone to denting than lightweight tubes.

Lightweight DB tubes are 0.5, 0.4 or even 0.3mm wall thickness. No-one in their right mind would bolt anything to tubes like that, and care is needed when supporting even the (slight) weight of the bike under the top tube, esp if there is no padding. The real trouble comes when you are 'doing something' with the bike when it is thus supported....

cheers
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Brucey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
JohnW
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Joined: 6 Jan 2007, 9:12pm
Location: Yorkshire

Re: Anyone know if this workstand is any good?

Post by JohnW »

Brucey wrote:workaday bikes often have tubes with a wall thickness of 1.6mm. These are approximately ten times stiffer laterally and less prone to denting than lightweight tubes.

Lightweight DB tubes are 0.5, 0.4 or even 0.3mm wall thickness. No-one in their right mind would bolt anything to tubes like that, and care is needed when supporting even the (slight) weight of the bike under the top tube, esp if there is no padding. The real trouble comes when you are 'doing something' with the bike when it is thus supported....

cheers

I'm quite grateful for this Brucey - I'm amazed at the way I've been lucky up to now. I've only had the workstand for a few years - perhaps five or six - and not used it very often. What you said makes sense of course, and really I should have known - but I didn't. When I have supported the bike from the top-tube, I've always used plenty of padding though.
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Location: English Riviera

Re: Anyone know if this workstand is any good?

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
JohnW wrote:
NATURAL ANKLING wrote:Hi,
JohnW wrote:
I shall change my ways...............!

But have you bent a tube on your frame?


No.

I notice that you're not referring to Brucey's wisdom as "Total Rubbish".

All the theory is sound (creep, me :) )

That cheap lidl stand can only be used on the top tube to hang bike as the clamp is simply not sturdy enough to take any lateral twisting as anyone who has one has found, unless its a bare frame. Unlike a professional shop stand which from my little knowledge of seeing such in LBS workshop.
I take no notice of Halfords mechanics working in the shop in middle of store, only when I did spy one it was clamped on the head to BB tube?, IIRC some 40 years ago, memory is vague now.
The cheap lidl stand has plastic clamp with thick rubber padding, I do wrap some cloth around the TT to stop unwanted stains rubbing off the clamp to my paintwork.
The stand has not fallen apart, no screws fallen out etc, ideal for washing bike etc.

I can see all the precautions with thin tubed frames etc.
I suppose I am out of touch with what modern cyclist ride, my newest bike in circa 2000.
"Maybe your bikes are total rubbish"
Well old and scratched maybe but function ok for some 5k miles of abuse by me (5k each of two bikes) for outlay of some £120 abouts, including all parts cost to do the milage. Shed load of maintenance time on the bike stand :P

I have a Koga Miyata circa 1983 (looks like new after complete refurb ) , that will no doubt maybe have a thin TT.
IF I was doing a bike repair job I would have to outlay for some stand suitable for them modern bikes I am sure.
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope
You'll Still Find Me At The Top Of A Hill
Please forgive the poor Grammar I blame it on my mobile and phat thinkers.
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Gattonero
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Re: Anyone know if this workstand is any good?

Post by Gattonero »

MikeF wrote:Aren't bikes transported on Southern trains "meant" to be supported by their top tubes? I've never worked out how just they should be transported and just used the straps to secure the bike with its wheels on the floor. How you use the straps is not obvious to me either, but as long they're arranged so the front of the bike can't move it seems OK....


Since when Railway companies would use some wisdom? :lol:
the ways a bicycle is supposed to be held in a train are often the most absurd ones :? for comparison, in Germany and Austria you will have one short carriage that is arranged for bicycles and winter sports alike: folding seats all around and folding hooks from the roof, very simple and incredibly effective!
It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best,
since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them.
Thus you remember them as they actually are...
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Gattonero
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Re: Anyone know if this workstand is any good?

Post by Gattonero »

Brucey wrote:workaday bikes often have tubes with a wall thickness of 1.6mm. These are approximately ten times stiffer laterally and less prone to denting than lightweight tubes.

Lightweight DB tubes are 0.5, 0.4 or even 0.3mm wall thickness. No-one in their right mind would bolt anything to tubes like that, and care is needed when supporting even the (slight) weight of the bike under the top tube, esp if there is no padding. The real trouble comes when you are 'doing something' with the bike when it is thus supported....

cheers


I remember checking a quality Dutch bike that was D-locked on the frame (IIRc was the top-tube) when a van reversed onto it :shock:
All that was wrong, were the forks to be replaced, no damage on the frame 8)
But it won't happen with any frame made out for the sunday ride or the likes, say any 531/631 or Columbus SL, etc., it's a different ball game.

And yet, there is a big difference in clamping (=squashing) the tubing vs. the normal use of a bicycle, where the tubing would do the job it's meant to: to stretch and to slightly arch and bow across the length.
It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best,
since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them.
Thus you remember them as they actually are...
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