How to build a bike repair stand for cheap
Want a heavy duty repair stand but just can’t spring for Park Tools $200 wall mount clamp? Ya, me either; so I made one. It’s a fairly easy straight forward construction that uses standard iron plumbing pipe and a woodworking clamp.
Mine is mounted to the ceiling but it could just as easily be mounted to the floor. The clamp shown is a Pony 3/4 inch pipe clamp from Home Depot for $13.36 but if you have a Harbor Freight nearby, you can get the same clamp for $7.99. Next step is to drill some holes through the clamp with a sharp metal bit (and cutting oil). To clamp the tubing of seatposts and bike frames, I made a “V” shaped cut in some scrap wood then stapled scrap innertube to it to provide slip resistance and to cushion the clamping force a bit. You can make this cut with a handsaw, a table saw or even a circular saw (just be careful of course). I originally used douglas fir but that cracked after a month of use so I made a new one out of oak (much harder of a wood).
The clamp simply slips on to plumbing pipe (in this case 3/4”). From there you thread on elbows and fittings to attach it to wherever you like. At the ceiling or floor, a flange is used.
My flange is attached via four through bolts with fender washers on the back; this is plenty of support. If you can find the pipe at a salvage yard or free on Craigslist that’d be ideal but otherwise you can get pre-cut pre-threaded sections at your local big box
A setup like this is by no means as versatile or fine tuned as a commercial offering like Parks bank breaking clamp. For instance, you can’t rotate and lock it in position and you can’t raise or lower the height but I’m more than happy with it even without those luxuries. Even with the daily use/abuse it takes in the shop it still holds up great.
18.Apr.11 
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This is a great idea! I wish I would have thought of it. I’ve been wanting a bike stand but refuse to buy one. I think I’ll be heading to the HomeDepot tonight to get the parts. I’d bet that one could rid a way to allow rotation and height adjustment as well. I think I’ll adapt the design so that I can use it free standing. Maybe use a railroad tie as the base.
Any thoughts on home-brewing a truing stand? That’s my next big challenge.
Sweet stand! Thanks for the idea. There’s got to be a way to make it rotate how you want…
Thanks to both of you
I think Ive seen people make their own truing stand out of a fork or the rear triangle of a busted frame. Bit of a tricky problem though. I ended up buying one
I think someone with some ingenuity could definitely get it to rotate. How mine is designed right now it can rotate (pipe threads and unthreads) but it doesn’t hold the position. If there was some sort of lockring on the threads it could potentially work.
Even without being able to lock the rotiation though it does 99% of what I need it to
If you add a 90 at the top with a 1″ nipple into the flange mount, you could mount it to the floor joist and then it would swing up out of the way when not in use. You could also put a union near the clamp which could be loosened to allow the clamp to rotate. Great design, BTW!
Thanks Steve. I like your additions, good ideas
Thanks for the great idea and very serendipitous. I was in the LBS today and they want (choke) $300 for a work stand that does not even include their shop-grade clamp? I’ve been mulling over the bike stand clamp idea for awhile and yours looks great! I think I’ll do it. I would also suggest that you could attach a straight section of pipe to the clamp which you could clamp into a bench vise. I sort of do that already with a short section of pipe which I hang me seat from. I suppose there are a bunch or ways for creating a stand for a clamp. Thanks.
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