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How do you grip yours?
Your bike that is. Ahem.
My workstand has a diamond shaped set of rubber-coated grippers to clamp on the bike. I understand that Carbon frames aren't great under compression forces applied perpendicular to the tube length (I'm not sure where I heard this mind). On my Cube I've always clamped the bike up by the aluminum seatpost, rather than on the Carbon frame itself.
My new bike has both a carbon frame and seatpost however. The frame itself has a huge downtube which is too large for the clamp. The top tube has a "D" profile which I'm a little hesitant to clamp around. The seatpost is round but also made of carbon (and not particularly thick carbon either http://ritcheylogic.com/road/seatposts/wcs-carbon-llink-flexlogic-matte-...).
Am I worrying unnecessarily? This has got to be a common dilemma, how do you clamp yours?
If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.
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6 comments
Seatpost for the reasons said above (also, seat posts don't have paint to scratch...)
Just rotate the clamp on your work-stand by 90 degrees, and raise it up a bit higher..... and uncle's your bob.
Seat posts, even carbon ones, are designed for clamping force. That's how they are fixed to the frame. Frame tubes are not. So clamp the work stand to the seat post.
I also have an allegedly flexy carbon seat post. Having my full weight on it when striking Cambridgeshire's finest potholes is likely to exert more bending force on it than my weedy arms can exert on an Allen key, so no great worry there either.
My inexpensive solution. Look around for a used (ebay / car boot / charity shop etc.) cycle carrier which would normally fit on the on the tailgate of an estate or hatchback car. Clamp this in a normal workstand with the jaw facing the opposite way to normal. (Rotated 180 degrees.) This puts the top carrier rail behind the stand, the lower one in front. By sliding the clamp arm backwards or forwards you can have the carrier arms horizontal. Now simply hang the bike on the rubber coated arms. Works for me.
Never had a problem clamping around the top tube. Though I'm not clamping my bike to apply torque to parts on the frame.
That's a good point about the replacement cost and the relative failure danger. It's not like I'm hitting things with a hammer either, the workstand is just to facilitate relatively gentle maintenance.
Always around the seat post.
Think about which is cheaper to replace; the frame or a seat post....
Also a catastrophic failure of a seat post would be less dangerous than a frame failure.
Yet another reason I will never buy a bike from my local Evan's as they clamp around the top tube