Kick-stands

Dr U Idh

Has anyone fitted a kick-stand to their touring bike? Just wondering how stable they were under load, what the best types were and how much it actually gets used.

I've seen some with a bracket which fits into he rear triangle (ahead of the dropouts) which would appear to suit my bike.

nwallace

Got a 2 legged one on my tourer.
Have to lift the front to set it but seems to cope ok, just got to be careful not to unwind it by puting too much twist when lifting the front.

Coped well with stupidly heavy bags last week, BUT it's still too high so not getting enough weight on the front for the bars to stay straight, so got to pay attention to the surface and how badly balanced your bags are otherwise chances are the bike's going to fall over, which is something a single leg stand should cope better with.

nwallace

Was no where ot lean the bike agaisnt up ghere



There was here so I kept the bars straight with it

peterbayliss

I've not used one but click-stand has been recommended on other forums. http://www.click-stand.com/

EnglishChris

I've just put one on my mountain bike (On-One Inbred) for an imminent tour. I tried one first which wouldn't fit, and had better success with a second. Both are of the type you mention that fit around both the chainstay and seatstay in front of the rear dropouts.

I first tried the Pletcher ESGE KS13. This is great and well made but just wouldn't fit my frame. One of the parts that fits around the seat stay has a folded over section at the end that holds against the top of the seatstay. On my frame where this needed to go was where the disc brake mount is. I needed to move the stand further away from the rear axle to avoid this but then the fittings wouldn't extend enough to reach around the seatstay.

I returned that and got a Hebie 671. Whilst this doesn't say it fits a bike with disc brakes (they have another model for that, with fittings that extend further but which you can't seem to find in the UK), its different from the Pletcher as the parts that grip the seat stay just sit on either side of the seatstay and don't 'reach' over and grip from the top also. This means its a bit more flexible in where it fits and it fits my frame fine. I guess it might means its less stable but it seems fine so far,

Hebie themselves weren't that much use on the phone when I rang to see what might fit, so I had to ring the importer to get them to get one of these off the shelf in their warehouse to describe the fitting to me!

Can get both these from SJS Cycles (see links above).

Dr U Idh

nwallace: I'd assumed that the two-legged type would be more stable but you've convinced me otherwise.


EnglishChris: Great info - thanks. Do you have any photos of the Hebie fitted?

EnglishChris

No worries. Some poor phone photos here

I've overdone the tape a bit as I wasn't sure of the positioning initially. The front wheel does want to naturally swing around as the bike stands, but it then seems fairly stable.





Will put some more bike photos on the blog when I get going at the weekend.

nwallace

Dr U Idh wrote:

nwallace: I'd assumed that the two-legged type would be more stable but you've convinced me otherwise.

Smaller triangle from the centre stand so less stable, especially with weight on the front wheels pulling. I want a wee bit more off the legs to try and get a bit more grip at the front when it's on the stand (and therefore also less lift required to set it).

But the advantage is that the centre stand allows ther back wheel weight to go mostly throguh the back wheels, and not so much throguh the stand. While a side prop will no matter where it is set will take a fair bit of the loading, so if you're heavily loaded at the back... My Structural maths was crap though.

Dr U Idh

Those photos are perfect - thanks. I can see what you mean about the seat stay fitting and the caliper bracket.

flester

I don't really get them to be honest. Lean the bike against something, or lie it on its side if there's nothing to lean on?

vernonlevy

flester wrote:

I don't really get them to be honest. Lean the bike against something, or lie it on its side if there's nothing to lean on?

I shared this sentiment until this summer's tour along Eurovelo 6 in France Switzerland and Germany.. There were many cycle parking places which assumed that stands would be fitted to the bikes as there were no hoops or other fitting to hold the bike upright. Equally at many campsites, seeing other cycle tourist arrive ahead of me use their bike stands at the reception area while I had to root around to find somewhere to lean my bike against go me thinking that a stand isn't such a bad idea......

Overall I think that it is the prevailing culture; stand or no stand that determines whether or not I'll fit a stand. Here in the UK probably not. Future mainland European touring definitely.

vernonlevy

flester wrote:

I don't really get them to be honest. Lean the bike against something, or lie it on its side if there's nothing to lean on?

I shared this sentiment until this summer's tour along Eurovelo 6 in France Switzerland and Germany.. There were many cycle parking places which assumed that stands would be fitted to the bikes as there were no hoops or other fitting to hold the bike upright. Equally at many campsites, seeing other cycle tourist arrive ahead of me use their bike stands at the reception area while I had to root around to find somewhere to lean my bike against go me thinking that a stand isn't such a bad idea......

Overall I think that it is the prevailing culture; stand or no stand that determines whether or not I'll fit a stand. Here in the UK probably not. Future mainland European touring definitely.

nwallace

The biggest advantage I find is not having to put the weight of the bike throguh the pack of weetabix in my nearside rear pannier when wanting to stop anywhere I can't just lay the bike down.

similarly my mate with the trailer had to unhitch his bike every time we stopped so he could lay it down.

moonio

The click stand might be a better alternative
http://www.click-stand.com/