2_i 

Hebie has had a good record providing sturdy steel double-legged kickstands that, in fact, became a standard in our household. Just recently they came up with a foldable kickstand that is supposed to provide an even sturdier support, named foldREX. I just mounted one tonight and will report more after few weeks of use.

From quick assessment, the stand is entirely out of alu, which for me is a worry as far as durability is concerned. (On Hebie's website they say steel, but that is grossly inconsistent with the weight per straight-out-of-cast appearance and with magnet test.) One area of vulnerability with alu is around the mounting bolt. Fortunately, the hole for the bolt is deep and the bolt diameter is sizable, M10, raising hopes that the thread may hold over time even when the bike is loaded while on the stand. The legs have a softness as expected for alu. They spread out to an admirable 12.5" range, to be compared to 9.5" for the steel Hebie bipod (605/606). The legs are shaped so that the cranks can be turned with no problem when the bike stands on the stand, i.e. the stand can serve as a workstand and let the bike rest either on the front or rear wheel. If it did not, it would have been for me a no-go proposition. When folded, the legs tuck out of the way under the chainstays. So far, except for the alu, all looks good. The parked bike is very stable.

2_i 

OK, this is one month update for foldREX. So far it looks like the best kickstand ever. After a first tightening of the holding bolt, maybe after 2 days after starting with that kickstand, there had been no loosening for the bolt whatsoever. My bike is heavy utilitarian and I top load it in the rear with a backpack that weighs about 14kg/30lbs. Occasional moments of peril I had with steel Hebie bipod, when the loaded bike threatened to fall to the side when on some uneven or inclined surface, and every few months actually fell, are now practically gone.

Dan Burkhart 

Looks like it has a wider stance than the older model. I have sort of a Hebie knockoff on my wife's electric bike and my commuter. They are a fixed width type of a very simple design, and quite stable.
If I load 2 grocery panniers, it balances quite nicely, but it won't stand up with only one side loaded.

2_i 

After 2 months of kickstand bliss, foldREX ceased to fold and unfold properly. It seems that the left-right leg coordination in the folding got corrupted somehow. By kicking, you can get the legs into proper position for riding, but that is not what you want to be doing every time you take off. An email to Hebie so far remains unanswered.

alr

I replaced my hebie bipod (normal one) with an ursus jumbo kickstand. it is amazing-- light and opens up super wide. it seems quite sturdy though I haven't used it very long--

Ursus Bicycle Kickstands (Alloy Double Leg KickStand JUMBO) - Albabici Cycling Products

I purchased mine locally in Seattle at G&O family cycles. I think Clever cycles sells them, too.

2_i 

The listed maximal load for foldREX, of 80kg, is higher than for Ursus, of 55kg. To the tell the truth, I am highly skeptical of any alu kickstand that is supposed to withstand high loads, but I may be convinced with a practical long-term evidence. In any case, I opened the joint area of foldREX and found that the culprit of the malfunction was an alu cross coupling the left and right legs, see below

The coupling is accomplished in such a way that a pair of arms of the cross, say horizontal, presses against indentations in one leg, say left, and the other pair of arms presses against indentations in the other leg. I can't imagine a dumber decision than in making that coupling cross out of alu. After two months, one arm of the cross got sheared off and in fact fell out of the joint area as I opened it. Another arm is at the verge of getting sheared off, as you can see in the photo above.

To take control of the situation, I quickly cooked up a coupling cross out of a couple of stainless steel (SS) bolts, soldering them together and strengthening their joint with pieces of SS sheet, see the right side of a photo above. The kickstand works fine again, but I worry now that SS bolts press now against alu legs. What helps is that alu is bulky in the contact area. Note that Hebie does not quite trust alu either in that they use brass bushings in friction areas, see the photo.

I will have to wait a year at least to tell whether my solution has a lasting power. For the moment, I won't be stocking up any foldREX kickstands yet.

Wanderer

I hate it when prices aren't listed on websites - puts them out of the running for me!

2_i 

Things got even better. Thus, Hebie responded to my email, they read the postings here and are working on the issue.

Road Fan

So the design of the latest Hebie seems to be good, but the coupling needs re-engineering.

Are any other bipods better in terms of durability?

mel2012

Did you get the Fold Rex somewhere in the U.S.? And can you tell me how much it lifts your wheel off the ground? I'm in urgent need of a replacement kickstand for my Fr8. I have the Ursus Jumbo on another bike and, much as I love it, it's a very high stand and I don't think it will hold up the weight of the Fr8 well.

2_i 

I bought it from bike24, together with several other items that were not easily available at the time in the US. With those other items, the shipping became a fraction of the total. I do not think I would have gone with an order for the stand alone. I can take a measurement of the elevation later in the day, but it has not been distinctly different from the steel Hebie.

P.S. When on the stand, the bike's bottom bracket is 11 3/4" from the ground and the bike rests on the front wheel, the rear tire is 2 3/4" from the ground.

Medic Zero

I've been using a Pletscher for over three years now. Use the bike 3 to 7 times a week, always park it on the kickstand. Toured with heavy camping loads, sometimes have loads on my heavy old converted mountain bike around town. Only time the bike ever fell over is when I had it up on the kickstand and had the front wheel off to change a flat and a strong gust of wind caught the bike. If you get one of these kickstands, get one of the affixing kits*, to keep the kickstand from spinning around on you.

I recently found these on sale for ~25 dollars** (about half what they usually go for) and picked up another pair for a couple of bikes I'm building up. I've got no complaints with the Pletscher/ESGE two legged kickstand, and I'm hard on equipment. The only attention it's needed was a bit of WD-40 mid-winter. The spring gets a little stiff and it doesn't fold up so easily when it is subjected to months of rain and grit, but a squirt or two of WD-40 each winter has immediately returned it to like-new functioning. I'm able to spin the cranks with the bike up on the kickstand and have changed a front flat with the bike up on its stand more than once. Love this kickstand.

These were originally made for the Swiss military bicycles, so they are as stout and well made as you would expect, and yet they don't weigh anything like what you might fear. The first one of these I bought (a black enameled military surplus one) came with a sticker labeled "25 kg" on it, I've had a lot more weight on it between my heavy old bike and a full load of not lightweight camping gear on board, no signs of ill effects from exceeding its suggested upper limit.

* I imagine it is for sale elsewhere, but I got my kickstand chainstay sandwich from Rivendell. $6 Pletscher Kickstand Hardware

** Looks like they still have them on sale at Bikewagon: Pletscher Double 2-leg Bike Kickstand They say the MSRP is $30, but I always see them going for about 45 dollars.

EDIT: I just noticed that their ad says "does not include top plate", so if you don't have a kickstand plate mounted on your bike frame, you would NEED to buy the kickstand sandwich kit in the Rivendell link, as it comes with a top plate. Although this technically adds another $6 to the total cost, you'd need to get the kit anyway. Actually, this way, you don't end up with a redundant plate in your spare parts box!


Here's a pic of my tourer up on the Pletscher kickstand while I fix a flat from a goat head between Sacramento and Clear Lake on a short tour with a bit of bike-camping:



(Load is a little deceptive, I've laid my Camelback across the camping gear strapped to the back deck)

Medic Zero

If you don't want it to lift your wheels off the ground, you should be able to just cut down the legs of the stand you have. IIRC, it's recommended for some of the kickstands, but I like being able to have the rear wheel off the ground and spin the cranks while it is up on the kickstand or pull the front wheel out for a tube change. Bikes are much more stable when the kickstand doesn't put them up in the air though, and spreading the weight across the wheels (and thus the whole bike) would take a lot of the stress of the kickstand itself. Hacksaw or a dremel tool should do the trick.

Medic Zero

They often have sales on tires that make it worth it to order from there. My Big Bens were cheap enough through them, that they were still cheaper than US sellers after shipping. IIRC, I was starting to wonder if it was ever going to show up when it finally arrived. Don't recall how long it took, but I suspect around a month. Not a big deal, but something to be aware of.