Velo Distractions

This is a simple and cheap bike repair stand that can work just about anywhere. I got the original idea from the Instructables website. The complete build instructions, plus user discussion can be found here. I chose to build a stand as opposed to buying one because my cash was short from a recent shopping spree. (Brooks B-17, Carradice Barley, Minoura Swing Bar, 2 Lights). The plan is to use this for a while and purchase full size version later as cash comes available.

Picture of the completed stand from the left side.

Right side view

Construction was fairly straightforward, I did not do any precise measuring, just “dead reckoned” most of the sizes, cut the pipe and glued it together. It was that simple, this is a great “beginner’s” project.

The most intricate part of this project was the building of the seat post latch. To do this, you have to cut a PVC Tee in half, screw in hinges on one side, a hook latch on the other, it is fairly important to keep cut straight.

I added a threaded union to the design, to allow for easy rotation of the bike plus it would allow disconnection of the holder when connecting to the seatpost. The holder could also be turned to the side to allow attachment to the frame instead of the seatpost.

Here is a picture of me trying to connect the union with the bike attached, and take a picture at the same time.

Here are some pictures of my Mountain/Commuter bike connected to the stand.

“This old bike is heavy!”

This is from the opposite side, I had to cover the rear reflector because it was playing havoc with the auto aperature exposure logic of the camera. (Pics would come out too dark.)

Lessons learned:

#1 - I figured the threaded union would be a good idea. I added it to allow for the bike to easily rotate to multiple positions. In reality though the weight of the bike causes the seatpost latch pipe to twist at the union joint causing the front of the bike to rotate down over time. Tightening the union slows this process but does not prevent it. The heavier the bike, the worse the effect. I figure this can be remedied by gluing a piece of rubber on boths sides of the threaded union. This should induce enough friction to prevent twisting at the joint.

#2 - The back of the stand is held down using a couple of PVC pipe straps, I would recommend strapping the pipes to a small piece of plywood which would allow quick clamping in many locations.

#3 - If you “dead reckon” the size of the pipes like I did, take extra care not undersize the seatpost latch pipe that goes to the first 45 degree joint. I made this one a little short and almost could not turn the pedals without hitting the bench top.

Here are a couple of links I used for ideas and inspiration

A variation of the Instructables article posted at bitness.com, a recommended read –> http://bitness.com/?p=155

The original Howto on the Instructables website - http://www.instructables.com/id/PVC-Bench-top-Bike-Repair-Stand