Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

A park tool repair stand for $150 is highway robbery...until you buy this thing. I'll walk you through the disappointment to save you some time: Open the instructions and wade through the mislabeled parts, broken english, and worthless pictures. Do your best to guess which parts go together, then consult the photos online to actually get it together. Next, make sure to go through and tighten the factory installed bolts after you realize they are all loose. After that, give the company a call to order a new "clamp" hook because the one in the box is missing a couple threads. While you're waiting on that, take a contractor's knife and reshape the bottom bracket "cradle" so it's actually the shape of a bottom bracket. After the new clamp comes, hoist up your bike and, with arms outstretched, quickly realize there isn't enough clearance between your down tube and front tire to allow the front wheel to sit straight. Curse. Apologize to anyone who heard you and find some string. Use the string to tie the front wheel to the bike frame to keep it from pivoting. Begin working, but make sure to ALWAYS keep one hand on the bike. After the bike falls the first time, find a child to help you hold the bike upright while you work (perhaps they should wear a helmet?) The second time the bike falls, send the child to their room then find some more string. With the second piece of string, tie the bike's down tube to the down tube "cradle" to tighten things up. Spend the third and fourth falls figuring out which parts of the bike are off limits to wrenching. Each fall makes your reflexes faster and teaches you about the physics of applied torque. Once you're a master, the sky is the limit (as well as the seat post bolt, the brake mount bolts, and the rear wheel quick release). There you go! It only takes six days, ten feet of string, and a bent deraileur hanger. Let those other chumps spend $75 more dollars. Long-term Update: 8/11/14: While I should have donated/scrapped this stand the day I wrote that last review, somehow it's followed me around the last couple years through two apartment moves. I've used it a dozen times on several different bikes and come to realize I may have led people astray with my last review. I've since updated my rating to better reflect the long term utility, durability and portability I've come to expect from this stand: One star should do it. Utility: While the accessory tray was helpful, the stand is less versatile than a strawberry huller. Fixing a standard mountain bike? Great. Fixing a small frame road bike, Japanese/euro vintage bike, cruiser, 29-er, recumbent, BMX, or children's bike? Forget it. Because of the design, the clearance between the front wheel and the down tube of your bike must be AT LEAST 2.5" (If you have less than 2.5" clearance read above for instructions on keeping the bike "stabile.") Even worse is if you have an odd shaped down tube (cruisers, recumbents) or if the down tube has a weird cross-section shape (huge diameter, oval, triangle, whatever Trek uses on their hybrids); In those cases you may need even more clearance. It also has problems with abnormally narrow or wide bottom brackets or if you have cables running under the bottom bracket. If you like problem solving then this stand may be the way to go, but for everyone else it could be a turn-off. Durability: While the rubber feet have held up, the "clamp hook" has bent, the hex-bolt that holds the main support arm up has stripped, and the paint has worn through. For the 10th time, you get what you pay for. Portability: You should notice in the utility section I mentioned the accessory tray WAS helpful: This reflects one of the biggest long-term problems I've had with this stand: keeping all the parts together when storing it or moving it. Unlike virtually all other stands, the legs don't fold into the frame. To disassemble this guy, the main structure of the frame EZ folds down (watch your fingers!) and the legs are EZily removed, but from there on the thing resembles a 15lb pile of painted steel: one 36x10" frame, two 23x5" leg pieces, and one accessory tray. For a while I tied all the parts together with the ole trusty string.. The accessory tray was lost after one such maneuver while moving apartments and it's been sorely missed ever since. I now suggest either industrial shrink-wrap, or a large duffel bag. All in all, there are plenty of reasons to NOT buy this stand. If I wasn't in grad school I would have upgraded to a real stand asap, but until then hopefully my experiences can help others make a decision. Run!