Not having a workstand or anything like it is killing me

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BoLiles

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Seriously,

Was I asking for scraped paint (which happened) and a night of sheer frustration as I tried to reassemble my first bike without a stand? Why yes, yes I was. Not having space, a stand or vise, and dirtying up the apartment is making me go crazy with frustration. I want to get decent at bike building but the lack of tools and basic things is killing me...my bike is looking beat up in the reassembly...I guess there is nothing more rat than that.
 
well, if your starting from scratch, take your frame, install the headset cups, bearings and fork ... then the neck and bars ... then the seat / post ... that way you can set your bike upside down (on the bars and seat ) to install the wheels / fenders/ sprocket / crank / chain / guard ... and then flip it back over to adjust the seat and bars where they need to be. ive assemled plenty of bikes that way ... in the living room ... without getting grease on the carpet or furniture :mrgreen:

i can understand the aggrivation though, i enjoy my bike stand :D
 
Performance Bike up on 75 and Walnut Hill sells Park work stands about as cheap as you can get them.

That's where I got mine. :wink:
 
This is the model I bought...it works great.

http://www.performancebike.com/bikes/Pr ... 005_400152


40-1861-NCL-TOP.jpg
 
I have the same dilemma, my back's no good for working on the garage floor for long periods.
I've been looking for one like that too. I've got a buddy who just grabbed one exactly like it on CL for next to nothing. I keep looking but no luck so far.
I've got an old tripod light stand I was thinking about converting into the same thing.
 
I haven't done more than a little red rattlecan and a bunch of part swapping since finding RRB, but in my 20's I filled a tool shed and empty horse stall with bikes built from the trash and abandoned properties, using the method CCR described. The closest I ever had to a stand was a pair of crappy handle bars w/the skinniest stem I could find, and a 6x6 block for the seat post to sit on. A workstand is nice, but it takes up space, you have to be able to be able to turn it or walk around it to get to things, just like without one. A decent set of wrenches and a few bike specific tools are definitely a major plus. Just keep telling yourself, it's only a bicycle. :wink:

edit: a folding chair is your friend!
 
That Park stand collapses and folds up into a pretty small unit.

It can be stored anywhere pretty easily. :wink:
 
ONLY A BICYCLE :shock:
Not having a workstand sucks. destroying a lot of painting time is no fun. I haven't been working on my dauters bike because my back isn't happy about working on the floor, or messing up a lot of work.
 
I love my bicycles, but over the years, crashes, theft, and not owning a 2 acre warehouse, has forced me to see it that way. Sorry to hear about your back, their is very little in this world more debilitating and tiresome than back pain. :x
 
Before I finally got a proper stand, I always put the seatpost and seat in the frame and then hooked the nose of the seat over the beam in my basement. It gets the frame up to a decent work height and is pretty stable. I find that if you put the bike together by fork, rear wheel, front wheel, it stays pretty balanced. If you have higher ceilings or no convenient beams, screw one of those cheap, plastic coated bike hooks into the ceiling (make sure you hit a floor joist) and hook the set into that. I got so used to it that even when I worked for years as a bike mechanic, I would hook the seat over a beam at the shop to work on a bike. You can use a low branch of a tree outside if the weather is nice :)

It isn't as stable as using a stand but I've repaired hundreds of bikes this way so it can't be too bad.
 
No bike stand here either, I used a shopping cart :lol:
wheelson.jpg

If you look at the back wheel, you'll see a blue nylon strap I used to tie the bike to the cart in order to mount the front wheel. The rear dropouts will hook onto the cart, allowing you to mount it lengthwise on the cart.
I used it to hold the frame while welding,grinding, painting and rebuilding, and all I needed was an old towel and that strap to protect the paint!
I have a couple of smaller ones, one has my welder sitting on the bottom rack, with the cables wound around the handle ready to go, and all the tools, welding masks and stuff in the basket/hung from the back with shower curtain hooks.
This other one has my bench grinder and vice mounted on top, with my toolbox underneath.
torchnshifter.jpg

I keep meaning to buy a stand, but somehow the $ gets spent on the next project instead :mrgreen:
Rick
 
When I first started I was useing aan old trunk rack mounted on the wall. a hitch rack with a base will work too.
 

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