Gear Review: Scorpion Bike Stand
Even when not next to a KX450F, the Scorpion Bike Stand‘s moto influences are pretty obvious. Photo by Joe Lawwill
We posted a story on motocross star Chad Reed’s Shimano-equipped Specialized back in February and our inbox immediately got jammed with questions. The inquiries weren’t about the bike itself, but the thing holding it up.
That thing is the Scorpion Bike Stand, a $73 moto-style workstand that uses your crank’s hollow axle to support your bike. It’s great for a wide variety of maintenance, cleaning and adjustment tasks and makes a good stand for your garage or in the pits at races.
//www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLW2WB5YC7Y
Check out our video review of the Scorpion to see the bike stand in action.
Not surprisingly, the Scorpion Stand is the handiwork of a former motocrosser-turned-mountain biker who started riding mountain bikes and wanted the stability and look of the center stand he used for his motorcycle.
“I used to race motocross and when I made the transition to racing mountain bikes a few years ago I wanted to same style stand,” said Scorpion inventor Mike Diorio who builds the stands in his Corona, Calif. workshop. “There were none on the market so I made my own.”
Scorpion’s Mike Diorio preps steel tubing in his Corona, Calif. workshop. The tubes will eventually be welded into bike stands. Photo courtesy of Scorpion Bike Stands
Diorio’s design struck a chord with like-minded racers—riders with similar backgrounds have beaten a path to Scorpion’s door including the likes of Brian Lopes, Johnny O’Mara, Ricky Carmichael, Mike Montgomery, Ronnie Renner, Jake Weimer, and Mike Sleeter among others. Manufacturers including Intense and Shimano use Scorpion Stands at events to display their bikes as well.
Intense was one of several manufacturers who used Scorpion Bike Stands for their display at the Sea Otter Classic.
Easy to use, compatible with most
Using the Scorpion Bike Stand is fairly straightforward— simply lift your bike and slide the hollow crank axle onto stand’s spindle. A vast majority of mountain cranks use large-diameter hollow axles, making current SRAM and Shimano cranksets, as well as numerous models from FSA, Specialized, Race Face and others compatible with it’s 20mm plastic sleeve installed. The stand ships with an 18mm adaptor for Shimano Zee and other smaller-diameter spindles—without a sleeve it works for BB30 and Cannondale Hollowgram cranksets.
The stand ships with 20mm (shown) and18mm spindle sleeve to accommodate a variety of cranksets. It can also be used without a sleeve to fit 10mm crank axels, like those on Cannondale Hollowgram cranks.
If you have an older bike or crankset, the stand may not be compatible. Our old school Shimano Ultegra-equipped commuter bike, for instance, has a closed-end crankset. If in doubt, Scorpion’s website has a list of compatible cranks, and Diorio regularly fields such question via phone and email.
Continue to Page 2 for more on the Scorpion bike stand and full photo gallery »
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