A tremendously useful reply, as always, Dan. Thank you ever so much.
The one I like is the hydraulic motorcycle lift, but it's a bit large and would probably require so much modification as to justify designing and building something from scratch.
The truth is that I just love tools. My bike is designed for absolute minimum maintenance, now reduced by my factory-chain-lube experiment to changing the oil in the Rohloff gearbox once a year, a chain every second year or third year, new tyres possibly every six to ten years, cogs now that I have stainless steel front and rear very likely never. I don't really need a stand, I just want one!
All of that said, today I will be dropping the front wheel, which still runs the 47mm Kenda banded medium pressure knobbly the electric wheel came with (a much less uncomfortable tyre than the bare description suggests -- a fairer description would be: not quite a low pressure Big Apple, but surprisingly close considering the price, concept and intended use). Before I order up a Big Bull rim and Sapim Strong spokes with Polyax nipples from Germany at considerable expense, plus tools for another hundred bucks or so, into which to build a motor that may not survive much longer, I want to see how the Big Apple runs in the narrow rim the motor came with, only 16mm across the beads.
Now, would any stand help with that? Not unless it hydraulically turns the bike upside down and holds it with the dropout at a comfortable working level. See, the most critical thing about a powerful pedelec installation is to get the anti-torque washers seated properly. The ones that come with the Bafang 8FUN motors, of which for present European laws I recommend the QSWXK, look like the torque washers on Shimano's Nexus 8-speed boxes, but the tongue is shallower. On the other hand, the anti-torque washer is steel rather than alloy as on the Shimano. Fitting it correctly is both trickier and more critical. Fiddling around lying on your back, or bent over double under a bike on a stand, or using a mirror, -- all of this is just impossible because the plated steel shines, the steel fork shines, and if you eyes aren't the hottest, it is very easy to make a mistake that will rip the wires out of the motor, ruining it beyond repair, and then let the motor spin, probably wrecking the fork as well.
The only right way to seat the anti-torque washers properly is to turn the bike upside down. The difficulty of getting good photographs illustrates the problems, even when the bike is upside down, multiplied ten times when the bike is right way up. See
http://coolmainpress.com/BICYCLINGbuildingpedelec3.html I might have to do that a foreseeable maximum of three times more. Once to fit the Big Apple to the narrow rim, once to remove the Big Apple if it doesn't work in the narrow rim, once more to fit the new wider rim if it proves necessary. That's three times in all, spread over a period, and perhaps only once. After that the wheel is in there until the motor goes, or I decide to fit a BPM climber motor instead, or the tyre wears out.
Bicycles have come a long, long way from requiring several tubes patched on any day's ride!
The ceiling hoist might do it but you'd still be working uncomfortably overhead.
By the way, my bike has a side stand, attached to the reinforced leftside frame end at the back, and can take a Tubus front stand for stability in loaded touring configurations.
So, Dan, thanks for your help, but on investigating the true need, the likely cost and space requirements, and the likely amount of use, I'm out of these small bike racks.
The one thing i would be interested in is a hydraulic bike stand, like a normal folding stand (I keep mine in the oilskins cupboard in the mud room). I imagine that you would start with a bike standing on the floor, clamp the seat post, press a button or pump a lever, and the bike will be raised magically to a working height.
Andre Jute
