Feedback Sports Sprint Workstand

The Feedback Sports Sprint is an excellent workstand that's a joy to use on normal or disc-braked bikes. It's genuinely hard to fault.

The Sprint arrives almost completely assembled. The only thing you need to do is insert the single quick-release (QR) skewer, so you're up and running in a few minutes.

The three legs are folded out by sliding a centre ring down the pole which pushes the legs out to the desired width, and these are then locked with a QR lever on the ring. Your bike sits on the sliding arm of the Sprint, which is secured by a QR underneath the welded head at the top of the pole. This lets you move the arm back and forth on the stand to get the balance just right, then lock the arm in place.

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The pole itself slides up and down by 46cm, locking by another QR clamp. The folded package can be stored freestanding or leaned against a wall. When folded it's a pretty compact 82cm tall and 24cm across at its widest point. It weighs 5.7kg - light enough to hang on a wall or back of a door, and easily included in luggage for that training camp or holiday flight/road trip.

If you use the stand for washing bikes you'll want to keep it reasonably clean to ensure friction-free sliding - a rag with a bit of WD40 does wonders on the outside of the pole and the sliding pole that holds the bike. Plus it makes everything shiny again.

First impressions

With a bike clamped on there's no rocking in any direction - the Sprint has a massive nylon bushing at the bottom of the black pole inside the body that removes any hint of wobble. The feeling is of very tight tolerances and a high quality design - over three months of daily use nothing loosened or lost its rigidity. The red anodised aluminium used throughout looks great, and will never rust no matter how dirty or neglected it gets.

A major benefit of the Sprint over some designs is that you can turn the bike with an easy push to access the other side. On the pole there's a sliding collar with a QR to lock it at the desired height. A second QR locks the spinning action or holds the bike up while you adjust the sliding collar. As the pole cannot be pulled out of the body there's no problem lifting it to relocate in the workshop. Also, as the legs are locked you know it will be fine to put back down, even on an uneven surface.

Ergonomics

The height that a bike's bottom bracket sits at can be adjusted between 79 and 125cm above the floor, so most people can work comfortably on drivetrains or brakes or you can drop it down to easily reach the levers for shifter/brake fettling.

At its maximum setting, the foot of each leg sits 57cm out from the centre of the stand, giving a triangle-shaped footprint a metre on each side. This is a large distance compared with other stands. With an average-size/weight road bike on the stand, 35 Newtons of force is required at the fork to tip the whole lot over - the force required to lift 3.5kg - so a decent amount, and in comparison with another stand on review, it's twice the amount of force to tip over with the same size bike on board.

As the legs can be locked at any distance the Sprint could easily be used in a confined space such as a van, shed or small hotel room. Feedback rate the stand for bikes up to a whopping Dutch/e-bike 38kg.

The welding around the head mechanism is industrial-strength, so no concerns about longevity.

Fork mounting

The bike rests on its bottom bracket, sitting on two 12cm-long rubber-covered metal strips that support the BB shell. The rubber is 8mm wide, with a 52mm gap between them, allowing 25mm of clearance underneath for any cable routing, power meter accessories and so on. On arguably the most common setup - a 68mm BB shell with external Shimano bearings - the fit is perfect. The strips protrude 4cm out the back so the rear wheel can be placed between them, removing the risk of the bike moving sideways off the stand.

The fork slider has a large plastic-coated wingnut. This is easy to loosen so the slider can move in or out to centre the QR axle underneath the fork. The QR has a good cam action, and once you have the distance set right the QR opens clear of any but the largest of 'lawyer lip' retainers on the fork tips. As the fork sits directly on the 9mm-thick QR, if you need to adjust the QR skewer distance by winding the nut in or out you can do so by holding the bike so the fork presses down and stops the QR spinning while winding the nut. Designs that mimic a 9mm axle with a thinner QR through it require two hands to adjust the QR closing distance, leaving the bike at risk of tipping over while both your hands are occupied.

Once the QR is locked and the slider handbolt done up, the bike can be further secured by passing a spare toe-strap (remember them?) through slots under the BB mounts. This is particularly relevant for BB shells with no external cable routing or external bearing cup to act as a natural sideways-movement limiter, as it removes the risk of the bike pivoting around the headset, slipping to the right and off the stand. It's a belt and braces approach, and in practice I didn't find bike security an issue.

The silver adaptor that the QR assembly slides inside is standard front hub 100mm spacing, with the QR having two additional red bushes of 15mm width on either side to space a 130mm dropout (normal rear hub), plus a further two silver washers of 2.5mm each to take it up to 135mm (for a rear disc hub).

The QR skewer is 9mm thick for standard road/mountain bike dropouts. Inside the silver adaptor is a 15mm diameter red bushing that the 9mm QR slides inside. Remove the 9mm QR and 15mm bushing and it leaves a 15mm hole that then accepts 15mm thru-axles. For bikes fitted with 20mm thru-axles, an additional screw-in adaptor is available for £20. It's quick and easy to swap out.

In the box you get a 142mm-long, 12mm inside-diameter tube that can be used for mounting frames with the new '142x12' rear axle standard.

This is a lot to take in, but in practice it works very well. Unlike other designs that have two normal fake axles/QRs for front and rear mounting, or a large number of loose adaptors to lose, Feedback have found a way to mount pretty much every current standard for road and mountain bikes, disc or rim braked, in one package. And because the design uses a large generic sliding carrier to put the adaptors and QRs inside, it's future-proof too.

Katie Macarelli, marketing co-ordinator for Feedback Sports, advises: "Feedback Sports will always make available for purchase adaptors that are compatible with the current wheel spacing standards. The Feedback engineering staff are constantly developing new and innovative items that are made for (and tested by) all levels of cyclists". Good to know that with a new axle standard seeming to appear every year or so, your top-shelf workstand will remain relevant.

Rear axle mounting

Mounting using the rear dropouts is much the same - remove rear wheel, position BB on the rubber strips and lower onto the QR. There are three options for rear axle width - 130mm or disc brake-friendly 135/142mm.

Usually you wouldn't want to run the chain over the QR axle - it's a bit of a faff to get it mounted because of the derailleur tension, and if you're doing drivetrain work you'd be better off mounting the bike by its fork. But if you really need to, the chain will pass pretty smoothly over the 19mm outer diameter of the spacers. When mounting using the rear dropouts, the bike is slightly more front-up than it would be with wheels attached - so you need to come up with a way of holding the handlebar straight to stop it flopping to one side. Feedback sell their Flop-Stop handlebar holder for about £20, which is more or less a compulsory purchase for front-end work unless you want to spend a lot of time faffing with bungee cords.

Optional extras

Feedback also do a sturdy double-layer nylon tote bag for the Sprint, for £30. The stand fits inside snugly, with the QR removed and popped into a Velcro pocket along with any other bits and pieces like thru-axle adaptors and tools. The strap is offset for easy carrying over one shoulder or as a backpack. I'm loath to call anything 'baggage-handler-proof', but it seems like it could take a good thrashing.

A tool tray (£35) will, with the help of some adaptors, fit any of Feedback's stands, either on the body or the sliding pole. The attention to detail here is exemplary. There are holes for 2-8mm hex keys and screwdrivers, slots for cutters/pliers, a hook for hanging rolls of cable, and a large area called the 'Washbasin' complete with drain plug. The tray can be removed or added to the stand in a few seconds using a couple of plastic shims to space the bracket the tray clicks into. The pole won't slide down completely to go in the bag with the plastic bracket still attached, but you can lift the tray off the bracket in a second if you want to use the stand for washing, to empty out used cleaning fluid, or it gets in the way of a tricky procedure. Once on the stand it can be slid up, down or turned while loaded, and still hold steady when needed. But most importantly there's a space in the tray dedicated to either a large mug of Yorkshire* tea or a pint glass of real ale, with or without handle.

*Yes, it has to be Yorkshire. It's The Rules.

Finally, Feedback Sports won't like me telling you this, but it is perfectly possible to mount their 'seatpost-clamp-stand-only' bottle opener on the Sprint in a few minutes using a 4mm Allen key, a block of wood and a mallet. This is a major USP that enlivens any workshop and Feedback really should think about making this an option at purchase. Just be warned that if you do fit the bottle opener, it makes getting the folded stand into the tote bag a squeeze. But worth the effort for the training-camp-race-wash-area kudos of opening team or competitor beverages.

In use

The Sprint workstand is a joy to use. The tight tolerances, range of height adjustment and faff-free nature of a single QR that does multiple frame widths and axle diameters all add up to a consistently excellent experience. The wide legs give confidence when working on heavy bikes doing high-torque jobs; setting up and folding away quickly becomes second nature; and the ability to work on different parts of the bike, spinning or locked, high or low, means you don't have to leave your bench. In three months of heavy use as both washstand for filthy road bikes and mountain bikes, and a workstand for everything from £5K titanium whippets to full-sus disc-braked behemoths, it didn't skip a beat. The 5.7kg weight and small size in the padded travel bag mean you can easily fly with the Sprint as cabin luggage or shove it into a car boot.

This is a rare product that I cannot think of a way to improve; after three months I'm stumped. The Feedback Sports Sprint workstand really is that good, and the customer support is, by all accounts, exemplary.

Overall the Feedback Sports Sprint Workstand is a great-looking top-class bit of kit that you'll look forward to getting out to use. If you can bring yourself to put it away, that is.

Verdict

An excellent workstand that's a joy to use on normal or disc-braked bikes