So a winter of riding on and off and then a spring of neglect left the drive-train of my road bike in less than ideal condition. The chain had very quickly rusted into one unit frozen in its last moments of wending through the dérailleurs. After a can of WD40, a wire brush, a chain breaker with a cheater bar, and lots of elbow grease I freed my bike of its oxidized serpentine restraint and installed a new chain. Now I needed to recalibrate the dérailleurs, because they too did not take the winter riding very well. This is hard to do if one doesn't own a bike stand.
Inspiration came from an idea introduced to me by a former roommate about a stand consisting of a 2x4 bisected by a front quick-release skewer and mounted and an old office chair. For about 45 minutes I hacked and drilled some lumber that was laying around the garage. Voila! I refitted my makeshift workbench into a makeshift workbench with a makeshift bike stand. Now for the hard part, tuning the front and rear dérailleurs......
