GV27

And meanwhile I coulda been in and out of wherever I was going. I rode without a kickstand for 30 years. Trust me - it's an improvement for me. I'm too old to go around trying to be cool.

GV27

Not if you install it correctly.

AndrewP

I never saw a kickstand on a bike until I came to Canada in 1967. When I was a child we propped our bikes agains the curb, using the pedal aft of the 6 o'clock position. Now, I lock my bike to a tree, fence, rack etc. An elastic band around the downtube and front tire valve stops the front wheel turning and upsetting the bike.

ascend

It's not much more than "lean the bike up and kick the pedals around until they hit the pole", once you've done it twice before and know what you're doing. If you can be in and out of wherever you're going, including locking and unlocking your bike (which is definitely the vast majority of time spent parking up and moving on), faster than I can do that, then my hat is most certainly off to you, sir.

urodacus

Kickstands weigh too much as it is, and if you have to carry a case for the stand as well, that would weigh even more.

Bat22

I've been using kickstands for so long that I automatically mount and
dismount on the left side of the bike.

bhop

My Huffy I used to ride has one and I guess I must've gotten used to it, so when I bought my Aurora, I thought it was weird that it didn't have a kickstand. I haven't missed it at all though, since I live in a city, there's always something around to lean it on. I can see if you live in the boonies somewhere, or ride where there's nothing else around, how one could be useful though.

Bat22

Standing in a bike crowd waiting for a ride to start, The bike can stand by itself
while I hobnob or go fer a leak. Or I can just let it hang,my fav way to
fix a flat.

mackerel

This thread is as pointless as a discussion about eyeglasses vs. contacts.

harleyfrog

I have a Greenfield Rear Stabilizer on my bike and I love it. Very useful for when I have to lock/unlock my apartment door, load my panniers, etc.

I agree, carbon fiber is a no-go, as are racing bikes, but for commuters, they are quite practical.

Mendel

I commute on a racing bike. My first commuter that I just replaced did not have a kickstand and looked beautiful - until my son knocked it over when it was propped up. He has done this around 4-5 more times since then. So much for not marring the finish by not mounting a kickstand!

My new (to me) commuter, a Specialized Allez, came with a kickstand - and I'm leaving it on.

PaulRivers

Kickstands are unpopular for the same reasons fenders are unpopular - they have a certain look, people associate how they look with the 70's (or something) and thus they "don't look cool". They also associate them with bikes from when they were a kid, so they think of them as something "grownups don't have". It has little to do with whether they're useful or not.

People keep saying "I can just lean it up against something" which makes me think "Why don't you just put down the kick stand and not have to screw around with leaning it up against something?"

Personally, I find kickstands incredibly useful over and over again. Off the top of my head -
1. I don't like scratching up my paint
2. I don't like doing that "I leaned it up against something...is it going to stay? Is it? Or is it going to slide off? Wait...wait..." thing.
3. They're especially useful if you loading up the bags on your bike - a good kickstand is more secure against a little jostling than leaning it up against a wall. And panniers are on both sides of the bike, so you don't have to keep flipping the bike around like and idiot to get at the other pannier.
4. Inside, I don't accidentally scuff up the wall by leaning the bike against it. And again, stuff seems to fall over with the slightest touch when simply leaned up against a wall.
5. It's way easier to put the kickstand down in a parking lot behind your car while getting stuff in and out of the car than it is to lean it against something. You need in and out of the trunk, so that doesn't work. You need in and out of the car, so that doesn't work. You end up resting it against the side of the car, blocking the door, but the person next to you is also trying to do the same thing. And then when they go to back out while your bike is still there (everyone's coming and going at the same time on a group ride) you always wonder if they're going to hit your bike.
6. When you stop for ice cream or food on a group ride, there's never enough bike parking spaces, everyone's already taken up all the wall and tree spaces with their road bikes with no kick stand, and it's nice to be able to simply put the stand down rather than searching around for a place for your bike.

Those are just the ones I can think of offhand. I think a kickstand is incredibly useful, there's just a "coolness" stigma about it.

SSP

That trick works pretty well if your bike is unladen and the ground if fairly level.

But with 40 lbs of groceries in the panniers and/or slightly uneven ground, the bike can still easily fall over (unless you're lucky enough to be on a hill and can position the pedal uphill of the pole).

SSP

Reason #1345 not to live in Iowa.


FWIW, I currently have no kickstands, but after chatting with a bicycle cop last weekend, I'm thinking of getting the rear mounted Greenfield for my commuter ride.