I just acquired my first bike repair stand (Part Tool 10.3). I hurt my back and I want to avoid working on my bike while it's on the ground. I've never liked the idea of hanging my heavy mountain bike from its seat post like I see in so many photos, and I'd like my bike to be level in the stand. There was a recent post here that promoted the Silca Hirobel Clamp and this made so much more sense to me, but the price was out of reach. So I went about making something similar.

To prevent the hanger from rotating in the repair stand jaws from the weight of the bike, the hanger's rod should be something other than circular. I found a meter-long T-slot aluminum extrusion from a robotics website for about 15 $US. I was lucky that it fit perfectly in the jaws.





I also bought a boat trailer 4"x4" rubber v-block off amazon (16$) which I cut in half with a hacksaw. Then drilled each half and the rod to receive 3/8" x 6" bolts (2$). I only have one bike so my hanger doesn't have to be easily adjustable. I'd have to drill more holes in the rod if I wanted a different spacing between the blocks.





So, clamp the hanger in the repair stand ... (sorry for all the background clutter, this is also my living room)



... and hang the bike on it. I added some safety straps but they could be done in a more elegant fashion.



Now I have my bike at a nice height and it's level to the ground.



The only thing missing is a handlebar stabilizer rod. Existing ones from Park Tool and Feedback Sports are expensive so I'm going to make one from a 15$ telescopic "clothes hanger reaching hook" off amazon which I'll cut to length and add a strap on the end to go around the seat post.

My first use of this stand is to replace my suspension fork with a Carver rigid steel fork and make some cockpit changes.