Topeak Prepstand Elite

Price Paid:  $0.00 at ebay

Summary:
This is a portable workstand, second in line to and identical to Topeaks PrepStand Pro with the only differences being the Elite has a small parts box where the Pro has a scale built into the main arm.

After finding a killer price on this on ebay, I picked this up to do a couple of rebuilds this winter. It's nicely portable and having the included bag makes it easy to pop in the car. Its a medium heavy workstand and seems well built. Despite its weight, it folds down nicely and fits into a bag about 4 feeet long. Its nicely stable provided you make sure you tighten all the locking rings, which brings me to one of my only real complaints about the functionality - the lack of lever clamps.

Instead of Park style clamps, the prep stand uses locking rings to tighten the clamps. While they work well, they aren't as fast or convenient to work with as lever clamps. It may seem trival but I found I wanted to make an adjustment, take the bike down and put it back and this becomes a more laborous process than it might seem using locking rings instead of a lever clamp.

My other complaint about the unit is the the parts box placement. It would be fine if everyone in the world had steel frames and mounted their bikes by the top tube but given that mine is aluminum, everyone recommends mounting it by the seatpost, which turns the parts box to a 90 degree angle where all the parts would fall to the floor, rending it useless (and really a non feature) to everyone who has a carbon or aluminum frame.

So is this workstand a value for the money? While its worked out well though I can't imagine paying the retail price of $229 for it. It simply seems like way too much for what it is. If they had included the optional tool tray or handlebar stablerizer with the stand, I can see it being a good value at a $179 retail. But they didn't and its $229 retail and doesn't have enough to differentiate it from the rest of the stands on the marke. My advice, if you don't need portability, get a Park Home Mechanic workstand for less.

Strengths:
Able to hold a bike in any position
Able to hold a bike higher than a lot of other portable work stands.
Nicely portable!

Weaknesses:
Not quick clamping (aka Park style clamps)
Included parts box is useless if you attach your bike to the seatpost.

Similar Products Used:
Park stands
Performance stands