Technical > General Technical

Stand Reinforcement

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John Saxby:
On my city bike, I use a simple kickstand with a twin-tube attachment bolted to the offside chain and seat stays. I use a couple of wraps of electricians' tape underneath the steel clamps to protect the paint from chafing.  This works well enough for the modest enough loads of a week's veggies & milk in 2 x 30ltr panniers.

With my Raven, I use a Click-stand, with bike-brake bands on the brake levers.  There's an argument to be made for a fixed stand on a touring bike, but I don't make it.  The Click-stand is there when I need it, as are trees, rocks, posts, fences, bridges, buildings, usw.  The click-stand has also found its most suitable hideaway in my very spiffy Revelate Tangle frame bag, and so falls readily to hand just below the top tube. You don't really need a Revelate bag to store your Click-stand, of course, any more than you really need a Raven-mit-Rohloff to go touring. Both are nice bits of kit to have, tho' :)

mickeg:
When my bike is loaded down with camping gear, I usually lean it against something if available instead of the kickstand.  That is primarily because (1) a bike will roll if the ground is not flat, (2) the kickstand can dig into the ground, then the bike falls over, or (3) even if it appears stable on the kickstand, it still is less stable than if it was leaning against a solid wall or fence or post.  When touring, I often leave a piece of foam pipe insulation around my top tube so that if I lean the bike against a pole it is less likely to scratch the paint.

On Dan's observation of people putting down the side stand before they get off the bike, maybe they rode a motorcycle and got in the habit.  On a motorcycle I always put it on the stand before I got off the bike.  The motorcycle by itself weighed twice as much as I did, so it just made sense to do it that way.  But a bicycle, I always get off before I put down the side stand.  Sometimes on a motorcycle if I used the center stand, I first put down the side stand, got off the bike with the bike on the side stand, then I raised the side stand and lifted the bike up onto the center stand.  In this case, think of the two legged bicycle stand that is attached to the chain stays aft of the bottom bracket as being synonymous with a motorcycle center stand.

Women's hair elastic bands are not the best bicycle parking brakes, but they work reasonably well if you wrap one around the handlebar twice.  Then when you want to use it, put it over the brake levers.
https://www.dollartree.com/health-beauty/hair-care/Styling-Tools-Accessories/Basic-Solutions-Jumbo-Clasp-Free-Elastics/591c599c1200p316748/index.pro

The hill where I parked my bike in San Fransisco for the photo was rather steep, I had to use an elastic on both front and rear brake levers to keep it from rolling.

Danneaux:

--- Quote ---Women's hair elastic bands are not the best bicycle parking brakes, but they work reasonably well if you wrap one around the handlebar twice.
--- End quote ---
I've had good long-term success using these as parking brakes: http://www.bikebrake.com/

All the best,

Dan.

Danneaux:

--- Quote ---To tell customers in 2016 to lie their bike down on the ground is unacceptable.
--- End quote ---
Ah, but Andre! Gravity is the most reliable of glues, and it removes one more possibility for an incautious user to file a tort claim for damages, pain and suffering, and medical bills. So much of what we see in the industry now is motivated by a great desire (if not by designers and companies, then by their insurers) to avoid lawsuits.

Also, like the old advertising maxim "Sex Sells", so does attractive design and the desire to emulate distant heroes by buying a piece of them in the form of similar equipment. And so, the vast appeal of racing-oriented design. The same is true for cars. Few people really *need* a Ferrari for their daily commute, but I (who don't own one) will readily admit the scream of a highly tuned engine is enough to raise the hairs on the back of my neck.

What most people probably *need* for errand-riding and commuting would look pretty much like the typical Dutch utility bike. what most people *want* -- it seems -- is something that looks far more flashy. Cyclists aren't the only ones to figure splashing out money on specialized equipment will equal expertise. It happens with cameras, high-end speaker systems placed in rooms with poor acoustics, hand-tooled shotguns, and the like.

And so, manufacturers go with what sells and is profitable. Adding special accommodations for kickstands adds cost and most people either do without on their bikes, clamp on a kickstand of either type and hope for the best, or go with an alternative, demountable prop-stand.

Sure, a bottom bracket shell could be cast with longer sockets to allow the thinnest of chainstays to be used. A number of MTBs now employ nontubular, machined "bridge returns" behind the BB that are uncrushable, and so on. My tandem uses arc-bent, sleeved tubes to form one-piece chain/seatstays that are incredibly robust. It is no great trick when building to use a section of ovalized tandem keel tube between an unpierced BB shell and the chainstays, then braze in a vertical tube for a kickstand to make uncrushable connection. Unfortunately, it is all work and adds expense for a benefit many consumers might see as incremental or even dubious.

Unfortunately, present designs works well enough often enough for enough people, there isn't much incentive to change. Couple that with fears of legal action and we have stasis in bicycle kickstand accommodation. Probably the most revolutionary change I've seen in kickstand accommodation is really just a small evolutionary step: Brazing a bracket to the left chainstay near the dropout or casting it as part of an extended left dropout.

I saw one of these recently -- a sort of abbreviated Click-Stand that attaches to a magnet on a tab held by the rear hub's q/r:
http://upstandingbicycle.com/ (be patient, the site takes awhile to load): http://upstandingbicycle.com/ *

Installation video here: http://upstandingbicycle.com/installation/

In its present form, it is not robust enough to support a loaded tourer. Hebie produce similar direct-axle-mounted designs with greater capability, but they are still weight-limited to 20-25kg, still insufficient to support a loaded tourer:
http://www.hebie.de/en/parking/rear-stands/ax/618/
http://www.hebie.de/en/parking/rear-stands/ax/616/

All the best,

Dan.

EDIT: *They also make a product for carrying bicycles on motorcycles: http://upstandingbicycle.com/2-x-2-cycles/ Maybe you should keep Hans the Airhead awhile longer, John....

Templogin:
Am I alone in thinking that there used to be a stand that somehow hinged from the crossbar that had a couple of legs on it that was very robust?  Probably back in the 50s-60s though.  Or was it a figment of my imagination?

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