Park Tool Economy Home Repair Stand PCS-9

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Wrenching on a bike without a repair stand can be a pain and often makes the task way more time consuming and difficult, but repair stands cost a ton! Lower end stands tend to have plastic parts prone to breaking and creating a wobbly stand. High end stand are often shop specific and too expensive and heavy to move around or be in a home mechanics shop. Enter the Park Tool PCS-9 Repair Stand, which is billed as their “economy” stand for the home mechanic, and I’d say this is a pretty good gauge of what the stand was designed for. It is stable and has adjustability, but it is not going to be as heavy duty or as stable as the two bike Park Tool stands you see in most shops or as light as the stands you see in the pro pits. The PCS-9 however is made of a durable steel and has a nice “Park Tool Blue” color that looks pretty professional and this far has held up to being thrown around and sprayed down with water.

The clamp has a nice lever that allows you to change sizes quickly, but some that are used to the fancier clamping system found on the high end Park tool Stand may find it a bit clunky. I like the simplicity though and because i am using this on a number of different bikes, being able to easily change the clamping size is nice.

There is a lever on the back of the stand that when loosened allows the clamp to rotate 360 degrees, but on my stand this was super tight and made changing the angle near impossible. I took the stand apart and sanded down the friction surface that holds it in place and added some grease, less than ideal, but now I can change the angle with ease. This is something that is likely due to lower manufacturing tolerances on the lower end stand, but it also made the price reasonable and was an easy fix so i can’t complain.

As far as portability goes, the stand can fold up somewhat, but it is still about three feet tall and the clamp does not fold down. The other slightly annoying part is that the legs are loose whether folded up or not, this means they can swing around when carrying the stand and this usually happens in the worst possible time banging into walls and such. I fixed this with a bungee cord, but again locking legs would have been a nice touch.

As far as functionality goes when repairing bikes, this stand has been great, never failing me in any task. I have built bikes from the frame up, serviced forks, and of course completed simple tasks like tuning the derailleur and replacing cables.You can rotate the bike in the stand, but at certain angles will be a bit tippy. This is generally at extreme angles like having the bike vertical and not something I dealt with on a normal basis. The soft jaws did not leave any marks on my bikes and held the bike in place well without any slipping.

If you are a home mechanic who wants a cheap stand that will hold up well unlike other cheaper designs with plastic parts, this is the ticket. It may not be as light, stable or have as many bells and whistles as higher end stands, but it simply works. Professional mechanics who like to change the angle often or work on bikes at weird angles may find this stand to be a bit tippy and cumbersome, but I think for the average joe this will not be an issue. I would recommend this stand to anyone looking to start working bikes themselves or those who want a simple, but functional repair stand that will last.

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