Stand Up For Your Right

Yesterday I got for myself a stand. A home made kind of stand albeit made by Kushu-da, our plumber. There was this DIY cycle stand design described here which I used as a basic guide. After this did a few improvisations of my own. The stand was made by Kushu-da but given the simple design I could also have made it. I showed him the video and being an ace plumber with a super sharp plumbing brain he got the idea and came to my house ready with the basic piping assembly yesterday morning.

Here he fixed a narrow plywood on top of a wider one with four screws. But the screws were just hammered in. Next he drilled holes for the flange. He inserted the bolts from the bottom of the wood. The bolts were long and were sticking out. He sawed them off. The heads of the bolts were on the bottom of the wood. He got six nylon buffers and fixed them on the bottom of the wood. Four in the corners and two more in the middle of the two longer sides.

The main improvisation and design modification happened in the clamp. He got a socket with internal threads on one side and welded a piece of three sides open iron box on the other end. This was attached to the extended arm. Here is an image of the improvised clamp. There are few good reasons for this particular improvisation. A. We did not want to spend so much time making such an elaborate clamp as the one shown in the video. We wanted something more simple and easier made. Also, the round T-pipe would suit only a bike with a round top tube. My top tube is flattish. Also it is not perfectly horizontal. Instead it is a little slanting towards the seat post. So I needed something that would be much wider than a pipe. Kushuda welded a small flat plate to the open side of an angle to make it a three side open box. Next this U shaped box was welded to the socket. He also sanded off the edges of the plates to give it a smooth finish that would not cut either a dent on the cycle or the fingers.

The size (width, to be precise) turned out to be perfect. I inserted a small piece of foam inside the clamp and it is now perfect. I haven't glued it. Deliberately. Incase it needs to be changed it will not be a neat job to take it off. The only undone thing about the clamp is it is unpainted. It doesn't really matter.

If I made another stand what would I change? Nothing really, except the height perhaps. I had told Kushuda to make it five feet tall. This is about as high as my chin. While working on the wheels and chain etc will be very easy, putting the bike up and taking it out is not going to be very easy. By the way, since the top tube sits very snug on the clamp, to pull the cycle out of it, I have to keep a foot on the base wood.

The full view with the wooden bottom stand