Daily Archives: November 18, 2010

I did an enormous amount of research when evaluating bike repair stands and learned a number of good pointers. When choosing a bicycle repair stand for a mountain bike, you need to keep in mind a few tips, which are not necessarily different than if you own a road cycle but are more prominent and important.

I’ve listed them below in order of importance:

#1 Stability is King

When buying a bike repair stand for any bicycle, you want it to hold your bike stable. Mountain bikes tend to weight more than the urban road cycles and as such you really need to watch that your stand will hold your bike well. Your stand should not tip over, it should not wobble and it should hold your bike solid no matter how much your bike weights. You may need to pay a little more for this quality, but you will be far happier than buying something cheap and having to upgrade later on.

#2 It is All About the Clamp

The second most important feature on a good stand is a good clamp. The clamp is the part of your stand that holds you bike at an elevated level and if you have a bad clamp on a good stand, then you have a bad stand. The clamp needs to be as solid as the stand and be functional enough so you can position your bike any which way you need it. If stability is King, your clamp is queen. For a heavier mountain bike, you again want to pay extra attention to getting a good one as a good stand will make you happy.

#3 Look For a Good Brand

Brand is important when it comes to bike repair stands because you will have so much more support and confidence with a good brand than if you buy a stand from a lesser known brand. A good brand has a reputation to protect, and their reputation depends entirely on you being happy with their product. With a mountain bike this is important because we tend to beat up our bikes on the trails more than our tamer urban brothers and sisters. This means you will use your stand more often, and it will suffer more wear and tear in the long run. If something on the stand breaks somewhere down the road, the company behind the brand will likely fix your stand or replace it for free. Good brands come with warranties. Stands from lesser brands often do not. In most cases, you do get what you pay for.