Recommend me a good, mid-range workstand

Equipment
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I have moved continents last year and had to give away a lot of bike tools. Among them was a POS workstand. Now that I am settled in one place long-term, I want to invest in some quality tools. One thing that is missing a quality workstand. I cannot justify a $500 pro-level workstand.

As far as I can tell my options are:

  • Feedback Sports Ultralight: seems to get great reviews, the main criticism being the clamp has trouble with aero tube shapes. I have an aero road bike.
  • Park Tools 9.3/10.3: seems to be not as good as the Feedback Sports Ultralight and the 10.3 model is more expensive, too.
  • A used pro workstand: these pop up for sale every now and then. But usually their condition is rough. Someone offered Park Tool’s professional clamp plus immovable stand (metal plate, not a tripod) for 280 € (new 800ish), but the clamp clearly has seen better days.

Ideally, I want to stay in the 200–300 € range.

Are there any others I’m missing? Do you have any experience with the work stands I mentioned or others I should consider?

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I’ve had a couple of Park Tool 9.3 work stands and never had any trouble with them – the clamp worked fine when I had an aero seat post on a Specialized Allez Sprint as well. Simple to use and they get the job done. :+1:

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I have both the Park Tool 9.3 and the Feedback Sports Ultralight and use them both regularly. Which one I use depends on the task. I mostly use the Ultralight, because it is so (light and) easy to setup quickly.

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What about the clamps: are they equally good (at least in the sense that one is better at some things but worse at others)?

And is there any other company I should have on my radar?

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I find the clamps equally good. All my bikes have standard round seat posts, though.

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Will you be using it just for working on the bikes or as a wash stand as well? I have a pretty cheap Lifeline stand which clamps the fork instead of the frame, then has a strap that goes over the BB area to secure the back of the bike. Folds up nice and small, adjustable height, no worries about where or how hard to clamp the frame, I find it great for most jobs. Obviously no good for anything that requires having the front wheel in like adjusting caliper alignment! But I don’t really need a stand for that. But also not much use as a wash stand as you can’t clean properly around the BB area.

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Ideally both. I was thinking of those stands where you have to take one wheel off, but wasn’t sure whether that’s a better solution as a general purpose tool.

When I lived in Japan, I had a POS workstand where the clamp mechanism was just atrocious. It wasn’t strong enough to keep my bike level or tilted (depending on the use case). I really want something tangibly better.