The lowly kickstand is the Rodney Dangerfield of bike parts. It don’t get no respect. And honestly, on road bikes designed for performance, not carrying gear, the benefit is outweighed by the cost of carrying the extra weight, the risk of frame damage on bikes with lightweight tubing, and the social stigma in roadie bike culture.
But there are times where a kickstand on a road bike is pretty darn handy, like when my friend Lorri Lown teaches her Savvy Bike bike clinics. In outdoor sessions she found herself hopping on and off the bike as she explained things, and it was awkward to lay her bike down just to pick it up again. So she got an Upstand.
I thought it was so cool so I got one and installed it on Dick’s Phil Wood road bike before its photo shoot.
In the up position, it looks similar to the chainstay mounted kickstand I have on my touring bike. But you don’t kick the upstand to start rolling. Instead, you remove the carbon-fiber upstand from its tiny attachment tab installed on the rear wheel’s skewer, gently tugging to release the tiny magnet that holds it in place.
The upstand is shock-corded like a backpacking tent pole, so you can fold it and put it in your jersey pocket for the ride. The attachment tab is a mere 15 grams and the upstand is only 25 grams, so even the biggest weight weenie can’t complain. How stable is is? Align the tab correctly and I’d say it’s pretty darn stable.
The Upstand is perfect for photo shoots on bikes without kickstands. But as for real-world use, I’ll have to switch it to my road bike to test it out and let you know how it goes.
Do you have a kickstand on your bikes? If so, which ones and why? If not, would you consider an Upstand?
gasstationwithoutpumps
March 13, 2014 at 6:31 pm
I don’t have a kickstand on my long-wheelbase recumbent. There is nowhere convenient to mount one—I don’t think that a rear-wheel kickstand would work all that well with an LWB, but it might be worth trying. Having to stow the kickstand every time I took it off would probably be more trouble than a kickstand is worth, though.
ladyfleur
March 13, 2014 at 10:58 pm
Sounds like you’re doing just fine without a kickstand. But check out the click-stand that Jormie recommended: http://www.click-stand.com/
jormie
March 13, 2014 at 6:53 pm
Have been using the upstand did years and love it! Get lots of comments and jealous stares when I’m able to keep my road bike off the dust road or wet grass! Works great on our “minimal” weight road bikes, for our heavier hybrid and Cruiser bikes we use the “click stand”, a more robust version of the upstand, which utilizes the top frame of the bike for support vs the metal tab on the back skewer for the upstand.
ladyfleur
March 13, 2014 at 10:57 pm
That clickstand looks cool. http://www.click-stand.com/ I may have to check that one out. Thanks for the tip!
Nathan
March 14, 2014 at 7:07 am
I’ll echo you on the danger of kickstands on thin seatstays or on bikes without any sort of kickstand plate. So often I get bikes in the shop that have had the paint destroyed by a too loose kickstand. Currently, my road bike is sans stand, every other bike (includes a longtail) has a stand of some stripe. I love double stands on any bike used for errands or cargo hauling.