View Single Post
Old 02-03-13, 04:08 AM
  #25  
chaadster
Thread Killer
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Ann Arbor, MI
Posts: 12,373

Bikes: 15 Kinesis Racelight 4S, 76 Motebecane Gran Jubilée, 17 Dedacciai Gladiatore2, 12 Breezer Venturi, 09 Dahon Mariner, 12 Mercier Nano, 95 DeKerf Team SL, 19 Tern Rally, 21 Breezer Doppler Cafe+, 19 T-Lab X3, 91 Serotta CII

Mentioned: 30 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 3078 Post(s)
Liked 1,631 Times in 1,005 Posts
For me, the idea that kickstands aren't cool came from childhood, when my friends and I would race around on our cheap BMX bikes doing jumps. It didn't take too many jumps to figure out the kickstand could ruin your day when it deployed itself after a hard landing. We took them off out of necessity.

That was the late '70s, and by the early '80s, as i graduated to "10 speeds," I again found the cheap kickstands on my cheap second hand bikes not up to the task of fast riding over roads, because they'd rattle and work themselves around until they'd hit the crank arm when pedaling. Again, off it went.

By the late '80s, as I became interested in road racing and having an appropriately light MTB, the minimalist mentality gave no quarter to kickstands, and anyway, guys like Hinault and Lemond didn't use one, which said it all to me!

Those experiences cemented the notion that kickstands are not for serious riding, and the fact that bikes stopped being fitted with them off the showroom floor did nothing to disabuse me of the idea.

Today, I certainly can see that kickstands have improved over 30 years, and can be enjoyed over road without rattling, coming loose, or being 3lb anchors. Of my 7 bikes, two have them: my '73 Schwinn Collegiate cruiser, which is my "coffee shop bike" and often parked unlocked, and on my folding Dahon, which came fitted with it new, and because of the bike's size and design, often comes in handy when parking in lobbies or preparing to fold the bike and throw it in the car.
chaadster is offline