Bike Repair Stand

For nearly two years I have wanted a bike repair stand.  Not because I fancy myself as a world class worthless mechanic, but because it will make cleaning my bike a whole lot easier.  Living in Washington State means riding many hours in the rain.  Each time I ride in the rain, I am amazed by the amount of crap from the road that ends up on my bike...There is dirt and grime, I have found strands of cloth (seriously), worms, and bits of fur (please do not ask).

When leaving for a ride over 25 miles, in the rain, I always have good intentions...Do a serious cleaning when I get back.  However, it has been said that the road to hell was paved with good intentions, and as you can imagine my bike does not get cleaned.  This does not mean that I do not love my bike, I am just cold, wet, dirty, and tired.  If my wife would let me, I would carefully bring the bike upstairs, into the shower, and give it the soapy love it deserves, but alas Bella would kill me and then mock me to no end!  So instead I do one of two things to my bike:

1 - let her air dry
2 - turn on the hose and lightly rise the crud off.

using my race bike as a prop...she is always cleaned after a race or bad weather ride

I know both of those options are bad, but without a repair stand I had to be creative.  I discovered the best way, for me, to clean my bike was to precariously balance it against the recycle bin and start the process.  Then when it was time to clean the chain and gears, I would put my left foot behind the wheel, sit on the cold, wet ground, and then begin the process.  This would always result in dirty, greasy cleaning fluid splattering onto my pants and feet.

Yes, those are purple slippers...lets go with the UW Huskies as the reason

I know cleaning a bike is important for its proper function and longevity, but it was a royal pain.  So instead of doing all that work, I would end up doing one of the two previously listed options, then wipe down the wet chain, and finally lube it up and call it good.  Once everything was dry I would then gently wipe off the dirt before bringing it upstairs to put on my trainer.

Last weekend I finally bought my repair stand.  Now I am not much of a mechanical/put it together kind of guy but I can usually get the job completed.  In fact, like most guys, I look at the directions and think "nahhhhh, no thanks".  However, this time I decided I would actually use the directions to make sure I put the stand together correctly.

To me these directions looked pretty confusing and had multiple steps listed together as one.  After a bit of looking at the pictures, and the written directions on the other page, I was able to get the process going.  30 minutes later, I had a brand spanking new and shiny bike repair stand.

Luckily for me, I had just completed a good ride (Ride in the Weather) to test out my new stand.  I gently rinsed off my bike and then hooked it into the stand.  The whole process was so much easier, and kept me a whole lot cleaner.  As Scott said "It is a game changer."  That was probably the first time in 3-4 months that my bike was officially cleaned after a wet, dirty ride!

Cleaned

I have also used the stand to do my first "repair" work on the bike.  I removed my old worthless fenders and replaced them with better, stiffer fenders.  That job was also a lot easier and quicker...wish I made this purchase a couple of years ago.