The proliferation of heavy e-bikes and cargo bikes has created a strong need for assisted-lift workstands in bike shops around the world. These assisted stands, offered by the likes of Park Tool, Unior, VAR, and Efficient Velo Tools, are built and priced accordingly for the busy professional shop. And even if you could afford one for a smaller business or dream home workshop, most of the designs demand significant space and aren’t so easy to move.
Launched last year, American-based Remco Tools was the first to bring the hands-free bike lifting of an electric stand into a compact and surprisingly affordable package (pricing from US$595). And while getting a heavy bike off the ground without risk of injury is the big selling feature, my longer-term testing over the past nine months has shown such a height-adjustable stand offers a lot more benefit than that.
Good stuff: Modular design intended to bring new life to thousands of popular workshop stands, incredibly reliable, simple operation, as solid-feeling as a fixed height stand, plug-and-play design, a whole lot of stand for the money, overbuilt for claimed weight capacity, compact design, height adjustment is a super handy feature.
Bad stuff: More limited total height range than larger (and more expensive) professional options, no load sensor so care is needed in lowering bike, provided clamp chuck lacks clamping force, power cable moves with height adjustment, not suggested for long wheelbase cargo bikes.
Intro to Remco's Bike Lift
A decent workstand is a necessity for any professional bike mechanic and also forms a rather central piece for any home mechanic, too.
The story of Remco is that one of its founders had a back injury and was struggling to comfortably lift their bike into a workstand. It just so happened that this founder was one of the designers behind a leading electric-lift standing desk and quickly started to research whether that tech could help solve the issue of lifting a bike in a more affordable way.
Fast-forward a couple of years, and the company of two made its first public appearance at the inaugural 2023 MADE Bike Show with a polished-looking electric-lift workstand. Featuring a telescoping centre column and basic control panel, this workstand took the same floor footprint as a traditional Park Tool PCS-3-style shop stand and aimed to be a direct replacement for the centre column of those stands, too.
Multiple generations of Park Tool PRS-3 workstands are a bread-and-butter item from the blue tool company and remain a staple in bikes shops around the globe. Built with a steel centre column, these stands can be bolted to the floor or mounted to a hefty steel base. They offer a quality clamp and smooth angle adjustment. They’re effectively bomb-proof. They’re priced where just about any professional operation can justify the expense (approx US$635), and I know a number of home mechanics who have treated themselves to them, too. However, while the latest versions do offer some level of height adjustment, it’s certainly not going to help lift or lower a bike.
Remco’s modular design borrows Park Tool’s four-bolt pattern for bolting it directly to a floor or mounting it to a heavy steel base – whether Park Tool’s or Remco’s own. At the centre of Remco’s creation is a powder-coated telescoping column with an electronic control box. On top of that you’ll find another four bolt holes for mounting a post that can be used with either the 2" chuck adapter from a Park Tool PCS-3-style stand, Remco’s own equivalent chuck adapter, or the whole clamp assembly off a number of Feedback Sports’ folding stands.
If using Remco’s or Park Tool’s 2" chuck adapter, you can then fit workshop-style clamps from Park Tool, Feedback Sports, or EVT. These workshop-style clamps all feature a 2in cylinder for where they fit into the chuck adapter and Remco has a compatibility list on its website. Remco is also working on its own clamp, something it hopes will be ready in a few short months and may even help to make the complete stand package even cheaper.
If you already own a suitable stand or clamp then Remco will sell you fewer required parts, or if you need everything, that’s an option, too. For example, if you already own a Park Tool PCS-3 type stand, then for US$595 you can upgrade it to be an electric-assist workstand suitable for professional usage. Or if you’re in the market for a whole new workstand, then complete options are available from US$694 without a clamp, US$914 with a Feedback Sports Pro Elite Commerical clamp, or US$1,164 with the addition of the steel base. While the company is based in the US and offers free domestic shipping within the Lower 48 States, Remco also has local distribution in Australia (AU$1,800 for the whole package), some European countries, and ships direct to many other markets.
Details
The Remco Bike Lift uses similar tech to the standing desks the founders had previously succeeded with. Internally you’ll find a linear actuator motor that runs a hefty steel lead screw. The design is wonderfully simple, with the electric motor only used to adjust the height and not hold it in place. Given this, it is possible to use the stand unplugged once set to a preferred working height.
Officially the Bike Lift has a lifting capacity of 45 kg (100 lbs). That figure is playing it plenty safe, with the stand showing no signs of slowing, increased noise, or faults at that maximum figure. Remco themselves tested a stand for over 25,000 full height cycles with 45 kg before going into production. According to Remco, that’s enough to be used every 30 minutes, seven days a week, for eight hours a day for 4.25 years and without any service intervention. The stand carries a five-year warranty.
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