Homemade Center Stand for Bicycle

When you are working on your bike, you need a stand that can take all the force you can put on it without collapsing. By using a steel pipe, bar clamp and car wheel for a counterweight, you can make a stand that will outlast anything out there. It will come apart and reassemble in minutes and be there when you need it.

  1. Gathering Steel

    • Go to a wrecking yard or nearby tire store and buy a wheel without a tire on it. Ask for a 16- or 18-inch wheel. It doesn't have to be pretty, so just get the cheapest, oldest one you can find. This will be your base and counterbalance. Next, go down to Home Depot or a similar store and get a rubber bathmat, an 18-by-1-inch bar clamp threaded on both ends and a 48-by-1-inch piece of steel pipe also threaded on both ends. If it's not threaded, have them thread it for you. Then buy a 1-inch coupler and 90-degree elbow coupler. Then pick up a piece of 1/4 plate steel approximately 6 by 6 inches. If they don't have that, go to a scrap yard and get something approximately that size. It only has to be big enough to span across the inside of the wheel.

    Welding

    • The next step is to weld the coupler in the center of the 6-by-6 steel standing on end. Then weld the 6-by-6 into the center of the wheel. If you have a welder you can do this yourself, or you can stop by a machine shop and have them weld it for you.

    Make your Clamp Setup

    • Remove the ends from the 18-inch bar clamp and place them on a workbench. Using a 3/16-inch bit, drill a hole on both sides of the flat jaws of both ends. Put the ends back on the clamp, and screw two blocks, 2 by 4 by 3 1/2, onto the jaws of the clamp with 1-3/4 screws. Now cut two pieces of bathmat the same size as your 2-by-4 blocks. Contact cement both blocks and both pieces of bathmat, place them dry side together between the wooden jaws and clamp them together, letting them dry for an hour. The rubber is to protect your bike.

    Assemble, then Hang the Bike

    • Screw the 48-inch pipe onto the coupler set into the wheel. Next, screw on the 90-degree elbow, and then screw the threaded end of the pipe clamp into the 90-degree elbow. You are ready to mount your bike in the stand.

      There are two options now. You can either keep the jaws of the clamp facing straight up and clamp the bike's top tube, or you can turn the jaws parallel with the ground and clamp your bike's seat tube.