steelhorse51

Hi all. I am getting my new tires in Monday and noticed today when I was out riding that my bike was jumping gears all by itself. I realize I probably need to work on the derailleur. I am looking for some suggestions on a good stand I can work off of. I am looking for somthing reasonable, not crazy $$. I am on a 2003 Diamond Topanga with 26x1.5 kenda kwests.

salreus

I used the bike rack I have attached to my car as my bike stand. Does that count as being cheap? works like a champ.

Willbird

Amazon.com : Portable Home Bike Repair Stand Adjustable Height Bicycle Stand : Bike Workstands : Sports & Outdoors

I got this one from Amazon, it is not perfect, one flaw is the clamp that holds the frame clamp from rotating lets it rotate some, but the solution there may be some carbon assembly paste but I always forget to get some :-)

Troggie

I made one out of Galvanized plumbing pipe for about 20 bucks that attached to my work bench. A good site to find info on them is www.Instructables.com.

cale

Wrap the top tube with a towel and tie the sucker to a chair. It's not going anywhere.

You don't need no stink'n stand to adjust a bike. Haha

lost_in_endicot

+1 on the stand. I find it stable enough to do my own derailleur and brake adjustments, as well as some minor wrenching on the bike.

dr_lha

Remember folks: Don't clamp your frame, clamp the seatpost!

Willbird

My old Trek 7200 is a TANK, your not gonna hurt the frame on that bike :-). I do agree one should use caution and common sense when doing so though :-). For some simple stuff you are more or less just sitting the bike in the stand, the clamp is just closed enough that the bike does not fall out, then you do not have to take your seat pack off ;-).....it is not CLAMPED in there with any force to speak of :-).

If you are rotating the bike all around or doing some real work then remove the pack and grab the seatpost, works for me so far with my Trek and my Fuji 1.5 anyway :-)...

The stand is really really nice for adjusting drivetrain, you can shift up and down, back and forth at leisure, nice rainy day project, clean and lube the drivetrain and fine tune everything.

Bill

Bill Kapaun

I frequently find that after adjusting the RDER on the stand, I still have to make a slight adjustment when actually riding the bike.

IF your adjustment is real close, just turn the barrel adjuster 1/2 turn and ride. If worse, do a full turn the opposite direction.
I also go through all front rings at least once and the full range on the back before I decide if it needs any additional adjustment.

Willbird

I think this is weight related too....no doubt our weight flexes the frame...I noticed this a lot more at 280 on my hybrid than at 182 on the road bike :-)....also on the type of frame, with my Fuji the cables run down under the bottom bracket, on my Trek Hybrid they run on top of the top tube...and the number of cogs, the Trek is 8 speed, the Fuji is 9 speed, and most road bikes these days go to 10-11, the more cogs the more finicky the shifting IMHO.

Riders with a lot more power than me may see some stuff I never see as well as far as frame flex from applying power causing a gear shift....I can currently put out about 250w for a few minutes....pretty piddling really ;-).

Some shifting issues are friction related, the cable does not move freely, so the stand will let us diagnose and fix that, even if we have to add a few clicks with US on the bike :-).

dr_lha

My 11 speed bike has the least finicky shifting of any bike I've owned!

I will agree though bikes under a Clyde load need to be adjusted for that load. This is why it's nice to have inline adjusters up front so you can tweak while riding.

Null66

Did it shift properly prior to removing the wheel?

if so, then likely need to just reseat wheel so it's aligned.

DSMRob

I use the park tool PCS 10 stand and I LOVE it. Folds up nice and is easy to adjust.

quicktrigger

I use this one.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Nothing fancy, but it gets the job done. The one complaint I would have about it, is that once a bike is loaded, if the load is unbalanced, then the horizontal shaft rotates so that the bike will be at a less convenient angle. But for what I paid for it, I can live with that. It's been excellent otherwise.

QT

Willbird

I think maybe some carbon assembly paste might fix that, worst case I fire up the lathe and make a new shaft with a rougher finish :-)

jsigone

could be just cable stretching. Give the barrel adjust a 1/4 turn at a time until it shift smooth.

Anything beyond a cable will be a chain stretched and will need replace and/or cassette is worn out.

Simple things like this can be done with the bike flipped over on bars and saddle.

sstorkel

Agree. When a bike doesn't shift properly most people seem to want to fiddle with the High and Low limit screws on the derailleur. Since these screws control where the derailleur stops for the largest and smallest cogs, adjusting them is almost never necessary...

cyclist2000

Crazy $$ isn't too defined, what is your ideal price range

Under $25 - I used a sunlite bottom bracket bike stand, used this for 5+ years.

$150 - Park tool PCS-9 or PCS-10

$300 - Park tool PRS-25

It really depends on what type of repairs you plan to do. I prefer the bottom bracket clamping type for bottom bracket work.

quicktrigger

Thanks for the tip. I will look into getting some and give it a shot. "Mr Mechanical" I am not, but I do pretty well on bikes. Most everything else, I will find every possible way to screw it up, finally figure out the details of how it works, and then do it beautifully from that point on. IN short, know just enough to cause real problems.

QT

DTSCDS

My usual strategy is start with the easiest possible fix and work up from there. Since you are not losing the chain off of the large or small cog then the limit screws are not a problem. As others have said, adjust the barrel adjuster(s) first--that's the easiest fix. If that doesn't help then maybe move on from there to checking cable friction. Is it binding in the housing somewhere? Is it adjusted properly? After that check on chain/gear wear.

For the stand, I have the Spin Doctor Pro G3 from Performance. I could not be happier with it. It's much cheaper than the Park PCS-10. I like the wide support of the 3 legs. It folds up very small so it takes up very little room to store. You can frequently find it for about $160 and if you buy it on a Tuesday you can take another $25 off since they have 15% off everything (including sale prices).

Black wallnut 

Given the age of the bike I would look at the chain and cassette first; actually just the chain. If the chain is worn too far then the cassette will be trashed as well, however a worn chain and cassette may not shift poorly but if you have a worn cassette and replace the chain it likely will shift poorly. Stiff links will also cause problems. Then check cable tension; with no tension it should fall to the smallest cog. One click and it should shift to the next gear, add tension until it does that.

For a budget stand I also just use my receiver hitch bike rack. I also have a lilac tree in my yard that has a perfect branch that works. I also sometimes just go into the LBS and use a workstand. It pays to be a ride leader and shop rat.