Why
I have been riding bikes of all varieties in the UK for over a decade which means I’ve spent a considerable amount of time in car parks and lay-bys doing the pre ride faff, oiling chains, indexing gears, bleeding brakes…the odd shock rebuild…or after a ride with a bike propped up against my car, pressure washing off pints of mud. I quickly got bored of lugging around a full bike work stand when, in reality, I just needed a third hand to hold the bike.
I also live in shared rented accommodation where space is at a premium. Storing a large and bulky work stand just so I can fettle my bike on occasion was a pain.
I looked at the compact bike stands on the market and wasn’t satisfied; they were either unstable, low quality, folded poorly or just plain ugly. So I sat down to design my own.
Eleven prototypes later and I was finally happy, The Stand was ready!
I made one for myself, and was buzzing - it was exactly what I was after. I use it for everything short of building bikes, but have even done that in a push.
Content, I thought that would be the end of it…
How
…using The Stand everywhere I went, it started to garner a bit of attention, with people asking after if they were available to buy. I like a challenge so thought ‘why not make a small batch of them for friends’.
Where possible I made the components myself, but with the limited equipment I had access to I couldn’t achieve the high quality I wanted for certain components. For these, I found UK SME’s to produce or supply the parts. This forced me into making a larger batch than I anticipated, so I needed a proper outlet.
I quickly realised my skills lie in engineering, not in e-commerce, and it took much longer than I anticipated to get a website up and running! But, we are there now, and that’s how I got here!
Who
Hello! I’m Dan Hicks, designer and maker of The Stand.
Since the day the stabilisers came off I’ve been chasing that pedal powered freedom! I was fortunate enough to grow up in Bristol riding the South West’s finest dirt jumps and South Wales’ best trails and haven’t looked back.
While completing my MEng at the University of Leeds I got introduced to all sorts of things with curly handlebars and no suspension - only serving to deepen the itch!
After an unreal season in New Zealand I spent a few years designing electric motor trials bikes while cramming in as much riding, and a bit of racing, as I could.
In 2020 the opportunity arose to combine passion and profession and I took a job designing mountain bikes for Privateer bikes. I’ve been in my element since.
My experience in product design, tubular chassis design, testing and compliance, and low volume manufacture combined with my love for bikes and fed into this project taking it to a point where I am very proud of it. I hope it works as well for you as it does for me!