The B’Twin 500 Bike Workstand is not one of the best repair stands on the market, but for the price it does a decent job. Which makes it a reasonable option for the occasional DIY home mechanic.

Let’s get the obvious bit out of the way first – B’Twin 500 Workstand is incredibly inexpensive. Although nominally priced at just under sixty quid, at the time of writing it was discounted to a frankly unbelievable £49.99. Even without the discount, to get a proper workstand at this price that holds the bike completely off the ground (without removing the front wheel) is impressive.

Out of the box, it assembles quickly with no tools required. The construction is, understandably, to a budget, with lots of plastic rather than metal, but it’s reasonably sturdy. Having said that, we probably wouldn’t use it for e-bike maintenance – B’Twin rates it for bikes up to 20kg, so it’s just about usable for a diet e-bike like the Orbea Rise or Specialized Kenevo SL.

The tripod base has a small footprint, so it’s not the most stable design, and there’s enough flex to make it feel a bit out of its depth when really wrenching on bottom bracket cups and pedals.

The working height is good, in fact the best here, and it folds up quickly – although the bike clamp doesn’t fold inline with the main support.

There are a few problems with the B’Twin 500. The first is that you can’t fit the supplied tool tray with a left hand pedal installed and still spin the cranks as the two interfere. Secondly, the cam on the quick release seatpost clamp is too large, so it’s hard to close. And finally it won’t clamp most dropper posts as the jaws are too large to grip a 25.4mm tube.