Park Tools are ubiquitous across home and professional workshops and it offers a various workstands to suit a range of budgets. Its Deluxe Home Mechanic model is mid-priced and one of the best bike repair stands available.

Unboxing the Park Deluxe Home Mechanic stand was the most involved of all the models on test. That said, it took less than fifteen minutes to assemble and it’s a job you only need to do once. Once built, it looks and feels like a very serious workstand indeed – something you’d expect to see in the pits at a bike race or even used a spare workstand in a bike shop. In fact its heft was obvious without even putting it on the scales. Much as this is a ‘portable’ workstand, we wouldn’t want to lug it around for long.

Like the Feedback Sports Recreational Workstand, Park uses the upright as the third leg, with the other two folding out as you slide a collar down the main shaft. Cleverly, it has also angled the upright to give more room to work on the bike and increase pedal clearance. However, this does increase the size of the footprint – at 126cm it takes up a lot of floor space. A large quick-release lever secures the legs in place, but they are prone to sticking and don’t slide very smoothly when folding up the legs for storage.

The clamp is height adjustable up to 146cm, which puts the bike at a comfortable height for working on. Having said that, the jaws of the clamp are too big to secure the 25.4mm telescoping tube of a typical dropper post. As such you’ll either have to use something to shim the clamp, or pull the lower part of the post out of the frame.

The quick release handle works great though – you can quickly and easily mount a bike without giving yourself a hernia. And the stand is rated to 36kg, enough for even the heaviest of e-bikes. It’s also easy to rotate the bike to the correct angle, and tighten the arm to prevent slipping – even with the front wheel raised up.

Finally there’s a small, but useful, tool tray that comes with the stand – perfect for holding a selection of Allen keys and screwdrivers, as well as small parts that you don’t want to lose. Note, the updated version of this stand is the Park Tool PCS-10.3 Deluxe Home Mechanic Repair Stand with height adjustment, new folding leg design and a frame clamp that will hold the narrow diameter of a typical dropper post upper tube.