Australian Mountain Bike

GRANITE DESIGNS HEX STAND

- WORDS: MIKE BLEWITT IMAGES: TIM BARDSLEY-SMITH

Keeping your bike out of harms way at home doesn’t need to involve drilling holes for hooks, or investing in massive racks – it can be done quickly, simply and efficientl­y with a few products on the market. There are already a couple of products out that use the hollow axle of BB30, Shimano Hollowtech II and similar crank arms, but the Granite Designs Hex Stand also folds up for easy transport, which makes it ideal to bring along to an event. By using the hollow centre of the crank axle instead of around the rear axle of the bike, you neatly sidestep changes in wheel size or tolerances between frames and disc rotors. The Granite Designs stand comes in a carry bag, and the two legs slide down, and the support for your bike can be changed depending on your wheel size. The support arm can actually be adapted to suit 10mm or 19mm hollow axles, and there’s even a little adapter for Shimano road cranksets, making the stand more versatile for road, cyclocross and gravel bikes too. With a trail bike mounted on the stand, I had no concerns it was about to fall over. As the stand’s legs sit flat on the ground, it isn’t as stable on rocky or uneven terrain, which is where ‘race racks’ that hang a few bikes by the saddle work really well. But they’re massive and expensive and overkill for one bike. Instead, the Granite Designs rack is small, light and easily portable. It makes things like lubing your chain, pumping up tyres or shocks, cleaning, or even minor adjustment­s to brakes and shifting possible without a massive work stand. The Hex Stand is also a highly mobile storage solution for your garage, hallway, spare room... or wherever you need to keep bikes. Setup time is less than 30 seconds for something that keeps your bike off walls, and stable. The only downsides to the rack are it’s not as solid as the one piece racks that hold a bike in the

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