I am looking at repair stands. I notice that many people clamp on the top tube, while my LBS clamps on the seatpost. Is there more of a danger of squashing the top tube?
Your input appreciated.
Clamp it to the seat post. A seat post is cheaper to replace than a frame if something happens. For a frame that doesn’t have a round seat tube (Cervelo) the best option is to use a stand that supports the bike at the bottom bracket.
You should be OK clamping it to the top tube but the seat post is the best.
ALWAYS clamp the seat tube! Especially with modern ultra-thin-walled tubing, crushing the tube is a real possibility. Get yourself a cheapo seatpost if you’ve got a sexy carbon one, and use that to clamp in your repair stand.
If you’ve got a P3C or some other such bike with a bladed seatpost… well… I dunno - maybe get one of those stands that clamps your fork tabs/dropouts and cradles the bottom bracket.
Might be 'cause you can’t test/adjust the rear brake with the top-tube clamped. Clamping the seatpost doesn’t impair any cables, so that’s why I like to clamp there.
I also have a carbon top-tubed bike, but an aluminum Thomson seatpost, so that is another reason to clamp on the seatpost. Seatposts can ALWAYS be replaced if for some reason some bit of nastiness gets in the clamp and ruins a tube; a top-tube cannot be so easily replaced…
Depends on the material and clamp. Most steel and Ti you can clamp anywhere. Anything else it’s best just to clamp the seatpost, unless you have a carbon fiber seatpost. Then you should replace the post with either an aluminum for mounting in the workstand or use the thing Park sells that takes the place of the seatpost so it can be clamped.
Some folks claim that the Ultimate stand clamp is safe for most bikes as it doesn’t have the leverage one gets with most of the Park clamps - you sort of guess the size with the Park clamps and try it so the penalty for making a mistake too small is very high. YMMV.
The Ultimate is AWESOME. Definitely hard to overtighten since it uses screw with a small rubber handle to tighten as opposed to the big lever clamp of the Park… I love my Ultimate stand.