Originally Posted by
cyccommute
Fixed it for ya.
At least one manufacturer suggests that you not use them on their touring bikes. The best quote of the whole article is this one
On a road bike...well, they are just wrong.
The world is full of vertical surfaces against which a bike can be leaned. And if there is no vertical surface, the world is one big horizontal surface. Not one of my 7 bikes has one nor has 30 of the 32 bikes I've owned over the past 30+ years. I certainly wouldn't try to adjust anything while the bike was on a kickstand. I've had to make plenty of adjustments to bikes in the field and leaning the bike up against something is always handy and probably more stable.
Surly says don't use a kickstand on the LHT because the LHT is badly designed - it doesn't have a kickstand plate. That has nothing to do with the utility of kickstands and everything to do with their poor design. Better bikes (Rivendell, Koga-Miyata) will come with a kickstand plate.
A lot of people get along fine without a kickstand, but I find them invaluable. I'm often away from vertical surfaces to put my bike on, and I tend not to like to lay it down, especially if the ground is muddy. I haven't had issues with my bike falling over...but if you carry a lot of weight, you probably need a double kickstand.