Sure flimsy. The design is one for which wobbling incessantly rises. The complex folding mechanism corrodes. The holding bolt can get stuck in the holding alu through corrosion but can strip the thread as well. When I wrote to Pletscher as a customer asking for a spare bolt I think, I never heard back. Another questionable Pletscher design has been their rack with a detachable basket. The basket would fly out with its content on more rapid turns. Yes, I learned to avoid anything that carries load and is detachable on a bike, but why market designs that are flawed - a waste of money for me as a customer.
The stand I suggested has a simple design that works. My own stands are marketed by a Swedish company:
http://www.atranvelo.com/products/kickstands
Can't tell whether they rebrand stands from the same source as the one on Amazon, or that on Amazon is a copy of the Swedish one. Greenfield stands are an identical model to what everybody around the world and their mother manufactures. One could also call them a knock-off.
If you write to Pletscher heaquarters in Switzerland than we get a copy. And we do answer every email. If you wrote to Pletscher USA you also got an answer as that is us. There is of course always the possibility that your email gets int some spam filter which nobody has a real way to eliminate that. In case you needed a bolt short, long, hex, or whatever we would have certainly put one into a envelope.
Alloy corrodes if it is not cleaned once in a while in general, if your folding mechanism corroded beyound functioning, that would be the first one I have seen doing that. But than its always a first at one time. I have customers with those on boats in the salt water and they do fine over years, than again they spray them off once in a while I guess.
Pletscher is a family business and makes kickstands much much longer than for example Greenfield. And again the Pletschers have the better positive over center idea, based on patents and a lot of experience. Greenfields are good people who got their start in the bike biz due to the now old defunct Schwinn company did not wanted to pay the high prices for Pletschers when the exchange rate went ballistic in the 70's.
Best Thor