Actually, eventhough the photos were taken in the hotel, I noticed the bent strut at home. The best I can think of is that in one of my airplane travels last year, eventhough I used the B&W hard case, it got jostled enough that the strut bent. Or, it could when the bike fell over when it was partially folded: I find the "kickstand" mode to not be very stable actually. However, I actually managed to just re-bend the strut into an almost straight alignment using my bare hands. It helped straighten out the rack itself. I really think I will mod the EZ wheels and replace them with roller blade wheels. It should be more stable, roll more easily, and be less prone to tipping.