At just 4.8kg (10.6lb) this new stand from portable workstand wizards Feedback Sports is the lightest professional quality stand we’ve seen, and it’s slick and easy to use too. Setup is a doddle: the tripod legs fold out quickly and smoothly, the rubber feet keep it steady, and the head folds out and locks into place using the same dial that adjusts rotation.
The head provides infinite rotation through a full 360° and the clamp has room for tubes up to 48mm across. The Slide-Lock clamp can be operated with one hand while you lift the bike into place with the other. It unlocks with a quarter-turn, although it does lack the push-button instant release of Feedback Sports’ Pro Elite stand.
Once your bike’s in place the stand is stable, and it’s easy to adjust the height. The action of the clamp and rotating mount have a real feeling of quality, and the fact that you can turn the bike to any angle you like makes it easy, for example, to swing the bottom bracket up to head height for easy fettling. All the components are aluminium or stainless steel so it’ll tolerate getting wet if you’re doing field repairs or using it as a very expensive washstand.
Compared with a hefty static workstand, it’s a bit ‘twangier’ and doesn’t provide the solidity you need to do brute-force jobs, but you’d rarely be doing those in the field anyway. If you’re a home mechanic spending this much on a stand, you’re hopefully committing to looking after your bikes well enough that the bottom bracket won’t get seized in the frame in the first place.
The Pro Ultralight will be especially appealing to anyone short of storage space. It folds down to just under 37in (94cm) long, 6in or so shorter than most folding workstands. It’s a pity that unlike many of its competitors it doesn’t come with a bag though – that’s an extra £35. It’s not cheap, but you can see and feel where the money’s gone. Think of it as a long-term investment in making it easier to maintain your bike anywhere and it’ll still be doing sterling service a decade after you’ve forgotten the price.