NINJA STOKE BIKE STAND REVIEW

Words by Travis Reill | Photos by Sourpatch

Ninja MTB covers almost everything in mountain bike skills progression. From kicker ramps and airbags to manual and bunny hop trainers, Ninja MTB can be instrumental in taking your riding from blue to black trails. From everyday trail rides to bike park laps, Ninja MTB even has your elbows and knees covered with their lineup of popular elbow and knee pads.

The company also tackles bicycle storage with the Ninja Stoke Bike Stand. I put the Ninja Stoke Stand to the test, using it to hold a bike in my garage and to wash and work on my bike. Here are my takeaways.

ABOUT THE NINJA STOKE BIKE STAND

I don’t think there is a bike in your garage that the Ninja MTB Bike Stand won’t fit. The highly and easily adjustable stand squeezes to hold tiny 1-inch (25c) road bike tires, and stretches to accommodate fat bike tires up to 6.75 inches. The stand can be made wider or narrower by loosening the wingnuts on either end and retightening them at the desired width. And while it will likely fit your dirtbike tire, the Stoke Bike Stand’s weight limit cuts off at 68 pounds so it’s not dirt bike rated. This means it will hold most e-bikes on the market though.

In total, six pieces make up the Ninja Stoke Bike Stand. Assembly is in four steps, with the included directions having the stand set up in just minutes. Similar to skateboard construction, the stand is made from 11 layers of wood laminated together. The wood is clearly of decent quality, as each piece of the Stoke Bike Stand feels sturdy despite a total weight of less than four pounds.

The Ninja Stoke Bike Stand holds a bike using the front or rear tire, and is also claimed to be usable to store your bike vertically against the wall. While I tried to figure this out, I assume that vertical storage would also require securing the other wheel to the wall somehow. For your standard 2.4–2.5 size mountain bike tire, the Stoke stand will take up roughly 22 x 25 inches of floor space. For a 1-inch road bike tire, you save a couple of inches of space, with the new area being about 20 x 25 inches. When fully extended, the stand is roughly 25 x 25 inches.

THE DIRT

Assembling the Ninja Stoke Bike Stand was incredibly easy. The instructions that came along with it were clear and straightforward, and, with only six different parts, there are only so many ways it can go together. Even without the directions, I feel I could have had a pretty good shot of getting it together correctly.

That said, I think the “quick assembly—1 minute” that Ninja boasts on their website might be a bit misleading. A one-minute build time may be a stretch, but the actual five minutes it took me was nothing to shake a stick at. It seemed that the most complicated part was which order the washers and lock-washer go on the bolt before it is screwed together with the wingnut.

Once I was done, I was done. Stoke Bike Stand complete, ready to hold bikes. And hold bikes it did, pretty well. I especially like that Ninja designed this stand in such a way that it will hold the bike by the front or the rear wheel. However, regardless of which wheel you choose in the Stoke stand, the bike will likely settle to one side or the other. While this isn’t a deal breaker, it would be nice if the bike was a bit firmer, especially when I used the stand for quick maintenance or component switching. To be fair, the Stoke Stand isn’t marketed as a repair stand, so in that regard, it did its job very well.

The only other issue was that the top of the tray ended up being slightly narrower than the bottom. This pinching on one end prevented me from quickly placing either tire in the Stoke Stand from the top, allowing me only to roll the bike in. While rolling the bike in is the recommended way of using the rack, I found that wasn’t always the easiest thing to do in tight spaces, such as my garage with a car parked inside. On several occasions, while fixing or swapping components on my bike, I had to switch the stand from the front to the rear tire. This was made difficult because I couldn’t pick the bike up, spin around, and place the tire into the stand from above. Instead, I had to do some sort of three-point bike turnaround in a tight garage and try to roll the bike in the stand from an awkward angle.

This brings me to one of the things I found using the Ninja Stoke Stand quite a bit for – working on bikes. From washing bikes and cleaning drivetrains to switching and adjusting components, the Stoke Bike Stand was a great asset. Yes, the bike doesn’t stay straight up and down, but that was easily compensated for. Because the Stoke Stand is relatively small and lightweight, I could easily see this coming with me to the trailhead for specific situations. It would be worth it even if I had to take it apart to make it fit in my vehicle and put it together once I arrived – I can usually spare a few minutes. Any testing process that involves back-to-back testing of handlebars, grips, saddles, or other cockpit components would be more efficient with stands like the Stoke to hold bikes while we switched components.

While I used it several times to wash my bike, I am not sure how well the Ninja Stoke would do with prolonged water exposure. That said, Ninja does say it is “finished with a durable laminate coating” and is “suitable for indoor or outdoor use.” Thus far, I have had no problems with the Stoke Stand following it getting wet; however, I can’t attest to issues that may come from prolonged use of water.

The Wolf’s Last Word

The Ninja MTB Stoke Bike Stand is pretty damn good at doing what it is advertised for—standing up bikes. Its solid construction, lightweight design, and easy assembly make it the perfect bring-along bike stand. While it can hold a bike up for some mechanical work, it’s not billed as a repair stand replacement and that should be considered if you are actually looking for a repair stand. As far as bike storage solutions go, the Ninja Stoke stand is one we’ll be keeping in our shop.

Price: $89
Website: Ridelikeaninja.com