Adjusting derailleur with bike upside down, is it ok? I need to adjust the derailleur on my bike, I don't have a bike stand.  I have three options for pedaling while adjusting the the derailleur.


Turn the bike upside down, balancing on the handlebars and seat.  
Tip it up on the kick stand 
Lay it completely on its side (if no kickstand)


Upside down is easiest, but it seems like that might not be the best choice.  Is it ok to adjust the derailleur when the bike is upside down?  Is one method clearly better then the others?
Turning it upside down seems to make the most sense, assuming it can be easily balanced. Derailleurs work by spring and cable tension, not gravity, so there should be no problem with working on it with the bike upside down. The only issue you're likely to have is reaching the shifters (assuming they're bar-mounted). Also, if your bike has disc brakes, you should check out this post about potential risks of inverting the hydraulics.

I pretty routinely will invert my bike when working on it, as I also don't have a workstand, and it's never caused problems before.