Feedback Sports Sport Mechanic workstand

More and more riders are buying a workstand for the shed, and for taking with them to events: it makes tinkering with the bike that much easier. The Sports Mechanic stand from Feedback Sports sits second from bottom in their range and is a good compromise: sturdy enough to cope with years of shed-based fettling, light and portable enough to sling in the car for the next sportive.

The frame of the stand is a mixture of powder-coated Aluminium and steel with a full tripod base. The telescopic upright extends from 1m up to 1.65m, and Feedback rate the stand to hold loads up to 29.5kg. The clamp is a robust-but-basic spinner, and there's a friction assembly at the upright end that allows you to rotate the clamp, and fold it down for transport. The tripod and upright clamps are resin with steel inserts.

Sling a bike on the Sport Mechanic and it's a nice stable workhorse. The friction grip allows you to easily swing the bike around to get at hard-to-reach areas, though the bike tends to creep back to horizontal unless you do it up really tight. The tripod base is good in that it's more stable through 360° than a two-legged base, but when you're working on the bike it doesn't make a great deal of difference unless you're wrestling with a bottom bracket or something equally brutal, where you're pushing against the bike. The spinner clamp is fairly basic but works extremely well, grabbing most frames firmly although it struggles a bit with more esoteric tube sections. If your bike has cables running under the top tube it can affect the run, but you can switch to clamping the seat tube if you want to meddle with the gears.

Build quality is very good, and you'd expect that from a fairly expensive workstand. It's competing with stands such as the Tacx Cycle Spider and the Minoura RS5000 at this price point, both good units. The feedback sores well for packability – it folds down small and at 5.7kg isn't particularly heavy, and you can get a bag as an optional extra. There's a good range of add-ons available too, including a truing jig and a tool tray.

Verdict

If you're looking for a good quality workstand that'll do the time in the shed and also survive being chucked in the car for every race or sportive, then the Feedback is certainly worth a look. It's simple to use, well made and sturdy.