Getting the Bike Ready - Kickstand

Adding a kickstand to my selected touring bike was the first of several rather unfashionable choices I made. But who cares about fashion?!

When your bike has panniers and who knows what else attached to it, the time will come when you want to stop (maybe to take a photograph) and there will be nowhere suitable to lean it. And you really will not want to lay it down on the ground because one of your lovely panniers will end up with quite some weight crushing it into the ground, and doubtless squishing its contents too. Not good.

So an old-fashioned and unfashionable kickstand is a must-have in my opinion. Life becomes so much easier when you can stop anywhere, flick out the kickstand and lean your bike on it.

Finding one to fit your bike may however, be more difficult than you imagine! That was certainly my experience. There are several types of kickstand. Some wrap around and are tightened onto the tubing of the chain stay. Some attach to both the chain stay and the seat stay. Some are centre-mounted using a flat bracket that straddles both chain stays, right under your seat like this one. Some have an adjustable length and some do not. Some consist of a single leg and some have two.

Being able to adjust the length of the stand is a good idea so you can get your bike leaning at just the right angle and obviously, not all bikes are the same so it makes sense to be able to make adjustments if you need to. I opted for a single leg kick stand rather than a double and I found out the hard way that a centre mounted kickstand would not fit my bike's frame.

I tried several before finding a kickstand that was a good fit for my bike. The problem was that kickstands are designed to fit around more or less circular frame tubing and a lot of bikes these days use tubing that is not circular at all. My chain stays are relatively fat in the vertical direction and most kickstands would not snugly fit. Eventually I did find something but it was not easy and I not only sent one back but still have another which wouldn't fit, languishing in my box of bike spares!

The kickstand I bought was also not adjustable. And it needed adjusting as it was rather long so that when initially fitted, the bike was standing almost vertically, which is a very precarious position for it to be in. It needs to lean.

To make the necessary adjustment, I levered off the rubber tip, which was glued to the leg, using a screwdriver. I then cut an inch off the leg using a hacksaw and glued the rubber tip back on. If you find yourself needing to do this, don't get carried away and make sure you don't cut too much off!

Anyway, a happy ending. I have a kickstand and it works a treat.

Kickstand, fitted and length-adjusted