I do all my own work on our fleet of bikes and I always have. I am a bit of a hands on guy, decent with tools, and I like to have at least a pretty good idea how things work, how they might break, and how to ‘un-break’ them. That is really nice when you are a mountain biker, when mechanical things go wrong, and when you are a helicopter’s ride away from a bike shop. Back in the day, I bought a bike repair stand because without that you are making it waaaaay harder than it should be. It was a Blackburn model, steel, folding, and it got the job done. But the years have taken a toll on it, with the rubber-ish material in the jaws finally wearing out and some other parts getting a bit loose. I could not see any way to buy parts for it, so it was time for a new work stand. The Blackburn will serve as a standing testament to bygone things, festooned as it is with the decals of past companies, many now in the wind. Park Tool blue. You know you are an established brand when there is a shade of a color that is part of your company’s signature. Park makes very nice tools and at decent consumer level prices. I have several tools made by them in my tool case and I have an old park shop-level quality wheel truing stand on the bench, so it was the first stop on my journey for a new work stand. I wanted a few features in the new stand: Stability, portability, a clamp that is faster to tension/release, and a clamp that is versatile enough to use on aero seat posts, etc. Talking with the good folks at Park tools, we settled on the PRS-25 Team Issue Repair Stand. From the website:
- PRS-25 FEATURES -The 100-25D Micro-Adjust clamp grips nearly any tube from 7/8″ to 3″ (23–76mm), including aero tubes -360° infinite position clamp rotation -The clamp jaws are nominally 2.75 inches (7cm) wide -Quickly and easily folds down to 47″ -Clamping height adjusts up to 60″ -Proprietary Hexatude hex-shaped aluminum tubing ensures low flex and no rotation -Aluminum leg straps ensure all parts slide, fold and unfold together -Base when open forms a triangle of 36″ x 36″ x 45″ (92 cm x 92 cm x 115 cm) -Weighs just 13 lbs. (6 kg)

Solid review. I bought my PRS-25 a few years back, thinking it would hold me over until I got a beefier “shop quality” stand. Haven’t had to upgrade yet! That octagonal tubing is really quite stiff. I bought a PCS-9 for outdoor repair/bike washing duties, and that thing flexes all over the place
Man, I need a new stand…