Work Stand Question
 

Hello one and all,
I have been a reader of the Forum for some time and enjoy reading the posts/responses. This is my first post, so yep, I am a newbie. My question - how do you clamp your carbon fiber tandems? I have a Park PCS 9 home stand and although our bike is not heavy it isn't very stable in the stand. I also do not like removing the Captain seat-post and replacing with an aluminum to clamp on. Any experiences or ideas will be appreciated.

Happy New Year!!

very carefully!, I "cradle" mine on the tube at the balance point. I really don't "clamp" it.
R&J

It is worth the effort to remove a seat post and replace with an Aluminum one for use in the work stand You can also use the stoker post and just put a upside down bucket under the front wheel for stability. Don't clamp your carbon tandem any other way IMHO. I don't clamp our Calfee or any of our single carbon bikes by anything but seat posts. for a real simple adjustment just hook the front of the stoker seat over the stand to get the rear wheel off the ground. I went to the LBS and got a defective Alu seat post in the correct size for the tandem and they even just gave it to me for that purpose.

I prefer to just hang my bikes from stem and stoker seat.

I also remove the stoker seatpost and install an old aluminum seatpost, it only takes seconds and works great! I do have the stoker seatpost marked so that it goes back it at the right height.

Thanks for the advice and tips!! This tells me what experience has taught you so I already have an aluminum post and will incorporate into my maintenance routine. One nice thing about our Calfee is both seat post are the same size.

Again thanks for your feedback and I have learned a lot from this forum, there just isn't anything out there that compares to tandems and tandem teams. Cya!

I also put the stoker seat post in the stand. I have it adjusted lose so when I close it it's not clamped but won't fall out. I put the front wheel on a milk crate to get the bike closer to level. In the rare chance I need the front wheel up I will put the top tube in the stand adjusted lose so it's not clamped but won't fall out. I then put the back wheel on the milk crate.

Any assembled tandem made from any material should be clamped using the stoker's seat post when placed into a workstand. Unless you're working on the headset or have a reason to remove the front wheel and fork, just let the tandem rest on the front wheel. As for the seat post material, there's no need to swap out a lightweight aluminum or composite stoker's seat post when doing basic maintenance in the workstand if the front wheel or front of the tandem is supported.

http://www.thetandemlink.com/Images/...mar5.jpg?w=500

If you do need to work on the front end of the tandem, just put a 5 gal bucket or step ladder under the front bottom bracket while still supporting the tandem by the stoker's seatpost.

About the only time I've ever used the captain's seat post to hold the tandem is when I'm working on a bare-bones frame....

http://www.thetandemlink.com/Images/...les3.jpg?w=500

I use two stands. I made a custom fork stand and I made a bottom tube strap clamp for my work stand to support the rear. Bike is always fully elevated with no stress to frame or seat tubes.

http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps3afb4fe6.jpg

http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps2049b0e2.jpg

I have the PCS-10.
I balance my aluminum frame tandem and triplet on the top tube when I wash the bikes. Would this be wrong?
The stand has a big footprint and seems to be stable. Surely I can't do any damage to the frame.

Wrong?? If it works for how you use it and you're not worried about bumping into the frame while it's balanced on the open clamp's jaw then you're good to go. However, I'm not sure how well I'd be able to do any meaningful work on a tandem that was not firmly clamped by a workstand and/or also resting a wheel on something to give it added stability to compensate for the length of the frame.

All that said, any time that you have something "balanced" implies there's a level of risk acceptance going on. The only time I've ever dinged or nicked a tandem frame is when I relied on balance... so consider me a non-advocate of things like balance or friction standing between my tandems and falling against something that will leave me with a permanent reminder of a shortcut that bit me.

Just my .02.

Call me retro but I have a 2 legged kickstand on my tandem to get the back wheel off the ground and I'll think of something if I need to lift the front. Offhand either put a block under the captain's bottom bracket, or drop the repair stand real low so I can support the bike with the captain's post and the kickstand.

There are a lot of ways to support you tandem while you work on it. I just like to have it up in the air so I can stand up to work on my bikes. Much easier on my back!

This is my $20 home made work stand.
http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=434192http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=434193http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=434194

I've kicked around the notion about maybe using doing the 2x4//4x4 boards, but tapped so that I could merely pull the Sidewinder rack off my wife's car and temporarily bolt it to the makeshift stand (and put it back on the Elantra when I'm finished). Doing anything with the front fork & brakes would be instantly problematic, but should work for drivetrain servicing.