.
I have two bikes to reassemble - with one being a frame replacement job, and the other is the rebuilding and upgrade of an old racing bike with new powder coating, crank shaft, cranks, pedals, goose neck, etc., etc., etc.

I was mulling over the need to make a easy to make, portable bicycle workshop stand.

This is what I came up with.

The Super Simple Bicycle Workshop Stand.

It's basically lumps of wood and some thick dowel or broom stick and some glue.

It's fastened with clamps to the table or work bench.

Step 1: The Assembly.

.
I prefer to sand all joints before gluing.

The base needs to be wide and strong enough as a workshop "tool".

Also I assembled the base in two sections.

I glued the base together, I glued the pole holder, then I drilled the pole holder to suit the pole, then I glued the pole holder to the base.

Then the pole was inserted into the hole.

Step 2: The Super Simple Bicycle Workshop Stand.

.
Good Eh!

Step 3: Clamping It

.
This design is brilliant - because it is so simple and so portable.

Anywhere you can clamp or bolt it, you can use it.

Step 4: Another Really Great Thing About It Is....

.
The pole - and I prefer to use wooden poles if the whole thing is made to a good working height, it's comfortable to work with.

And the pole provides a "spin feature" - which also enables one to rotate the bicycle during assembly, which makes routing all the cables and screwing up different parts etc., so much easier.

What is it?

Brilliant!

Step 5: Fitting on the Running Gear

.
First as it was an OLD bicycle - the original steel 2 ring gearsets were not available, so I modified a 3 ring gearset, and then moved it closer to the frame by fitting a 110mm length crank shaft, instead of the 122mm crankshaft - so that the front derailer could reach to the outer gear and the chain alignment was pretty right with the rear gears on the back wheel.

Here are images of the modification and the fitting clearances.

First I mostly ground off the inner small gear - remember this is a deep reduction gear for a mountain bike, which is not needed on a road bike, and I had to mostly remove it, to get the third - or the outer gear back on - closer to the frame.

Take ONE small angle grinder, grind kind of slowly around the entire gear to distribute the heat and then when the almost exactly right height is reached, use a sanding disk to polish it and remove ALL sharp edges by polishing them and rounding them over - as they are stress raisers; and razor sharp edges are a pain in the ass when one has to do clever things like trying to loosen a tangled chain from around it later.....

So now I have the derailer reaching the third gear, the chain is in proper alignment and the inner chain ring - or the remains of it, will not be cracking or slicing up my fingers.

Step 6: Fitting the Running Gear

.
Now on goes the quill, handle bars, gear levers, cable brackets, derailers and cables.

Step 7: On With the Wheels

.
On the older style bikes they had FLAT brackets to mount the front wheels in and safety washers to stop the front wheel from dropping out IF the nuts just happened to not be done up tight or were caused to work loose....

The SAFETY washers had little locking tabs on them, to hook into a slot in the bracket. Unfortunately they are kind of difficult to get hold of.

So in figuring that $1 worth of washers is a better investment than $10,000 of dental work, is I set about to make the special locking washers by modifying some large plain washers.

The drawing was done in Open Office Draw - and for the most part the double decimal place measurements are irrelevant, except in the width and location of the bending tab.

The edged of the cut were beveled to remove the stress raisers - not that this is really an issue in the soft grade of steel or in it's service, it's just a good habit to get into.

The wheels were then serviced by having the bearings stripped, cleaned, new fully crowded balls put in - with my patented super lube.

Then on with the chain etc, setting the derailer travel limits, and the gear cable lengths; along with the brake adjustment.

Step 8: The Trial Runs.

.
I think some people must be asking themselves, "How can you build a bike upside down on a stick?"

Well in case you hadn't noticed - the SEAT is the very last thing you need put on a bike.

And the HOLLOW seat post tube is one of the very best ways to "mount a bike" for putting it all together.

So having achieved the milestone of "Roll out the Door" status; next came the handle bar adjustment, fitting the handle bar tape, and the seat - and the lights and the reflectors - followed by some short trips including a night test run - to see how it all looked.

The main reason behind the total rebuild - aside from the generally poor state of many critical components, was that the original metallic flake dark blue frame, was as good as matte black in poor light.

And for me - at night that is just not on.

I also "double marked" the head stem and seat post tube on their fronts and backs; as the true distance between the real front and rear of the chassis, is around 600mm or 2'; which hardly compares to the distance between the front and rear of a 18m or 40' truck.

This "double marking" greatly increases the area to apply front, rear (and side) reflectors; and as people on bicycles are always approached from an angle to the axis of the bike, doubling the frontal or rear reflective area, is a good and useful thing.

So the "Beech White" powder coated frame more or less glows in the dark and the reflectors and reflective tape fairly sparkle in the head lights.

A day or so later, a HUGE rear reflector has been mounted under the seat when I finally found where I had put the bits I used to make it.
.

Step 9: The Finished Bicycle

.
The motto:

"From humble sticks do great bicycles hatch"

That wonderful Super Simple Bicycle Workshop Stand, made building the entire bicycle up to the roll out the door stage, so simple and so easy.