BikeStow Stance

The BikeStow Stance is a simple but effective way to store your bikes if you're blessed with the floor space. Check out our best bike storage guide for more ideas.

The Stance is a bike storage solution designed for those who are rich in floor space or who are looking to avoid leaning their bike against a wall whether at home or on the road.

> Buy now: BikeStow Stance for £69 from BikeStow

It's a very simple design: four pieces of plywood with a grippy textured plastic coating, three thumb-screws, and four hex bolts with four barrel nuts. That's it. Setting it up took me less than five minutes; it was like the simplest piece of Ikea furniture, but without the inevitable quarrel with your significant other.

There are two positions for the left-hand piece, to suit road tyres (up to 3in) or wider rubber (up to 4.8in), and you then use the thumb-screws to adjust the right-hand piece to fit it to the specific tyre size of your bike to hold it securely in place.

The security comes from the wheel sitting on the two horizontal pieces of the stand, while the pieces on the left and right fix it in place. I used this for several bikes, from my L'Eroica bike running 21mm tyres to my gravel bike running 42s, and they were each held securely without any issues. I couldn't push it over thanks to the wide feet on the base – the worst that could happen is that the stand itself might slide, while the bike stays in place.

The BikeStow doesn't offer the kind of clever use of space as a pedal hook or wheel hook, but it has several advantages. Firstly, there are plenty of people who either can't or don't want to attach things to their walls – if you're in a rented house, for instance. The Stance is a great non-drilling option for storing your bike. Secondly, it packs down small enough to fit easily in a holdall, so if you're in a hotel room, for instance, you could easily put this up and safely store your bike within a couple of minutes.

I found it useful in my garage, which is currently very floor rich and wall poor, so being able to leave a bike safely in the middle of the floor without any danger of knocking it over was a real plus.

One thing I particularly like about the way a bike is held is that it doesn't need to be clipped in. You can set up a bike for an early morning ride and just grab it on the way out, no unclipping or anything more complex than lifting the bike slightly to make sure the stand doesn't get dragged. Similarly, getting back after a wet and windy ride, I didn't need to fret about clipping or lifting anything, I could pretty much just wheel it into place without even needing to take my gloves off. It's a small thing, but something I really appreciated.

Some may baulk at the £62.99 price, but this is actually quite reasonable compared with other bike stands. The Granite Hex Stand, for example, which we tested a few years ago, is £79.99 from Amazon (Granite no longer lists it), and though it's more stowable it's more of a faff to use. Similarly, the Topeak Tune-Up Stand X, tested on our sister site off.road.cc, is also more stowable but has gone up to £74.99, and isn't as secure as the Stance.

Overall I was impressed with the Stance. It's easy to put together, easy to use, and fairly innovative in its simplicity. The price for essentially four bits of wood with some grippy texturing plus some bolts might seem a bit much, but it's actually good value when you compare it with other bike stands on the market.

Verdict

Simple but effective way to store your bike (and show it off)