Park Tool PCS10 Workstand / Repair Stand

Why get a workstand?

Having decided to build my own bike, I thought it was about time that I actually got a decent workstand to do all the work on.  I've never actually owned a bike workstand despite doing all my own work on my bikes since... forever...

In the past I'd just relied on the tried and tested method of turning the bike upside down and sitting it on the saddle/handlebars to do any fiddly work on the drivetrain etc. All of which is fine and dandy, and to be fair I could easily have built this new bike doing it that way... but but I thought it might be interesting to see what benefit a workstand actually gives.

Mind you that said there were a few jobs that I thought a workstand would be beneficial for - pressing the headset into the steerer tube for one thing.  I could probably have done it without a stand, but given that I was using a DIY tool I'd made myself (more on that at some point soon!), I decided that a decent stand would be better to hold the frame in place whilst I pressed the headset cups into place.

So, I decided to go for a decent stand - if I'm going to be spending a lot of hours working on the bike then I might as well splash out a little bit for a decent stand.  So generally 'decent tools' when you're talking about bicycles means only one thing... Park Tools! (Actually it's 'Park Tool' - no 's' at the end!  Some crafty bugger has registered 'parktools.com' and it certainly ain't anything to do with the bike tool company!)

Which stand?

There are untold variations on the theme when it comes to buying a workstand and Park Tool have a huge variety.  After a bit of research on the various Park Tools stands, I narrowed it down to the following two models:

Park Tool PCS-9 Home Mechanic Repair Stand

Park Tool PCS-10 Home Mechanic Repair Stand

To look at, they look almost identical, but from what I could get from the various reviews I read the main difference is that the PCS10 was a bit more substantial / higher quality in it's components/build, with better legs and a better clamp.  The price difference was quite a bit as well, around £80 for the PCS9 vs £120 for the PCS10.

In the end I went for the PCS-10 based on the various reviews I read on various bike shop sites and on Amazon etc - it just sounded more substantial than the other.

Ordering the stand

I ordered the stand from Tweeks Cycles on 10/10/13 via Ebay for £129.99 and they dispatched it the same day to my surprise (I expected it to be 3-5 working days at least).  In the end it arrived the very next day as well, so top marks to Tweeks for that (I've ordered other bits from them as well and they always arrive very quickly, would highly recommend them).

The parcel arrived via Parcel Farce (long story but I have history with PF so try to avoid buying from anyone that uses them to deliver items), and true to form the box had a nice little nick in it.  Of course maybe it wasn't Parcel Force that carved the nick but it wouldn't surprise me given what I know they can do with items from previous experiences.

Anyway thankfully this item wasn't really the kind of thing that even Parcel Force could damage (short of taking a sledgehammer to the box perhaps!), the nick was just on the outer box but the box the stand was in was fine inside.

Unpacking the stand

The stand itself is extremely solid and reassuringly heavy to boot.  Putting it together was reasonably straightforward, the instructions included were fine to follow really (the only thing that threw me a bit was the fact that the springs they mentioned in the inventory list didn't seem to be included... I only realized after a couple of minutes of headscratching that the springs were already inside the legs!).

Initial impressions

The main stand upright section and the legs are made of what I presume is solid steel (feels very heavy, maybe 5-10kg or so total weight?), powder sprayed in the obligatory Park Tool blue colour. The stand extends to about 5'10" / just under 2m in total when fully extended and can be shortened to about 1.5m if need be.

The clamps that you tighten the stand upright in place with are very solid, good quality quick release levers which make it easy to quickly change the height when you're working on a bike.

The main 'head' clamp unit is extremely solid / heavy duty, feels like a really high quality bit of kit.

It has a knob at the back that can be tightened or loosened to alter the rotational angle of the clamp.

So for example if you want to work on the bottom bracket of a bike easily you can just loosen the clamp head at the back, rotate it 90 degrees, and then re-tighten the clamp in place to go to work on the bottom bracket (it's reasonably easy to do this with the bike in the stand as well so you don't have to adjust the stand first before clamping the bike in place).

The head clamp is also very clever in it's build due to the way it uses a combination of a cam based rotational locking mechanism.  Somewhat hard to explain, but the gist is that you initially lock the clamp in place loosely using the cam mechanism, and then tighten the clamp to just the right amount by turning the mechanism clockwise. 

Portability / collapsing the stand

Finally, the whole thing is portable - albeit a minor bit of a faff to get it collapsed.  With a bit of practice though it's actually very quick and it takes about 30 seconds to collapse.

Basically, to collapse it, the drill is:

1. Release the quick release at the middle of the upright sections and push the top pole inside the bottom pole all the way down.
2. Flip the stand upside down (with the legs still extended) - I find it easiest to rest the clamp/head on one of my feet!
3. Release the quick release at the intersection of the legs and the main upright 'pole' (near the bottom).
4. Release the spring from the intersection of the legs and the main upright 'pole' (there's a little ball bearing spring at the back of the stand that you press in to release it).
5. Slide the legs (still extended) up the upright pole until they meet the central quick release, fasten the quick release to hold it in place.
6. Press the ball bearing spring release mechanism in on each of the legs to 'release' the legs and then collapse each leg upwards until it slips into the plastic 'retainer' clip ready for storage/carrying etc.

If you do all that ^ right then it should looks something like this!:

Actually a lot easier to do than those instructions make out, like I say it probably only takes a half a minute with a bit of practice and it's so much easier to store when it's collapsed (there's also a bag that you can buy from Park Tool to fit the stand in if you need to carry it around regularly on bike race meets etc).

Pros and Cons

So... all in all I'm very pleased with this stand.  The benefits / pros I've noticed so far are:

• working on the bike is just a lot less hassle without having to bend over all the time.
• manoeuvring the bike into position is very simple thanks to the clever two-part locking mechanisms - it's fairly easy to rotate the bike a full 360°s if need be by adjusting the locking mechanisms granularly.
• the general feel of the stand is 'quality', all the components are well made and you generally get a feeling of reliability from the thing.
• the stand is reasonably portable - in as much as it's easy to collapse the stand once you get the knack of it.  I wouldn't want to lug it around too far though without a good bag and some transport!  But for just collapsing to make room when it's not in use, it's fine.

The few downsides I would mention are:

• when a bike is in the stand, the handlebars can easily whip around and can hit you in the head if you're not careful or used to it (hey, guess what, there's even a Park Tool accessory you can buy to 'isolate' the handlebars / stop them moving around in the stand!).  To be fair though that hasn't happened to me yet too catastrophically.
• the stand takes up a lot of room if you're in a small workshop.  This is mainly to do with the geometry of the stand - the back part of the stand takes up a large amount of room which you can't really access if the workshop / space you're working in is only a little larger than the width of the stand itself.  This is mitigated slightly by the fact you can rotate the bike in the stand though.
• there are no accessories included 'by default'.  There are however plenty of useful accessories you can purchase for extra wonga.  This is a slightly annoying thing, you've shelled out a considerable amount on a stand so you'd expect some of the accessories to be included (especially a tray to put your tools in, which is only available at extra cost).
  Still... I suppose the counter argument for that is that it's 'modular' and you only have to buy exactly what you need (eg not everyone needs a disposable towel holder which believe it or not IS actually an accessory you can buy for this stand!  ... I would actually find that quite useful!!).

Summary

I would highly recommend this stand if you work on your bike frequently and are fed up of bending over to do it.  OR if you know you'll be working on your bike a lot for some reason - in my case building a new bike.

There are cheaper options out there, but for the amount this stand costs I think the extra quality, reliability, durability and usability are worth paying a bit more for - high bang for buck ratio as it were. ;)

It's not likely to go wrong in the next few years - or even decades! - so it's the kind of thing you'll probably be buying once in a lifetime and better to splash out a bit extra now rather than have to fork out again later because you scrimped on it.  And actually even if it DOES go wrong, apparently you can buy replacements for most of the components which is a sign of a quality product.