Old Britts
Assembling Frame on Building Stand

Last updated 03/06/04

Building Stand

We have a couple stands on wheels as pictured above to build up bikes. The advantage of this type of a stand is the frame is mounted to the stand and the complete bike can be disassembled and assembled without moving the frame. Since most restorations or bike building take a period of time and most people have limited space, having the stand on wheels lets you move the project out of the way while not in use. The disadvantage of this stand is it is not hydrolic and you will need some way to remove the completed bike from the stand. We have used a come-a-long over a garage door header, a braced up ceiling rafter or a temporary wooden frame as pictured below to remove bikes from our stands. You could mount the frame to a stand and complete it enough to have a rolling chassis, then lift it off the stand with help from a friend.

Bike being lifted
This picture shows our portable wooden frame and a bike being placed on the stand.

Lift points
This picture shows how we use tie straps and to lift a bike on to our stands.

We use hose clamps to mount our frames. With the three mounting points very near the center (one each on the bottom frame loop and one on the rear cross member connecting the bottom frame loops) everything is very secure throughout the project.

Mounting points
This picture shows the three mounting points that we use to fix a frame to a stand. Note: We thoroughly wax the frame prior to placing it on the stand and place 1 1/2" I.D. rubber hose around the frame so that the hose clamps do not damage the powder coating or paint on the frame.

Bike on stand<

Any stand that is strong enough to hold the completed bike (a little over 400 pounds) and short enough to have the wheels stick out will work. There are several lift stands on the market that lift the frame and a bench lift stand that lifts the whole bike can be made to work. A friend uses a Craftsman folding table with a strap from the top frame tube to a ceiling rafter to steady the project. You do need to have a stand that will not tip over or a strap to the ceiling. As you can see our stands are much wider at the base in a pyramid shape. The bottom frame loop needs to be at least 2 1/2" above the top of the stand so the exhaust pipes can be mounted.


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