roseskunk

well i like them. but i'm not cool, and i don't enjoy people who try to be. i can park my bike in front of any store in my small town and leave it unlocked. imo bikes for commuting are useless without racks, bags, lights, fenders and kickstands. all three of my raleigh sports have all of those things. and i prefer not to lean u bike against things because i don't like putting more chips or scratches on the frame than they already have. falling over is rarely a problem for me (or my bike). my kickstands also don't rattle or fall off. i have a wrench if i need one, though my kickstands rarely need to be tightened.

deraltekluge

I sometimes wonder if bikers who base their choices on what racers do and don't do also base their automotive choices on racers. Do they weld their door shut and crawl in and out through the window so they can be like NASCAR drivers?

barba

Riding a light, fast bike is fun and relatively affordable.

DataJunkie

I base my choices on what I want to do. It changes constantly.
One day I want a CF racing bike. The next a tourer.
Not all of us are sheep and actually have our own reasons for wanting what we want.
I just don't like kickstands. No matter if tom boonen rides one or not. EOS

cyccommute 

I can't tell you the name of a single professional rider. I can't even tell you the name of any bicycle team. I don't even care what racers are wearing, riding, shooting up, etc. I really don't care what other people are wearing or riding either. I've done one race in over 30 years of bicycling and hated the whole experience.

But not a single bike I've owned since 1980 has had a kickstand on it. They just don't need them. The world is full of flat vertical surfaces against which you can lean a bike. If not you can lay the bike on the ground. It's been my experience with the bikes which did have kickstands that, eventually, your bike will end up there anyway so why not avoid the crashing sound altogether. You'll not turn the wheel the right way or you set it up in soft ground or a gust of wind will push it over.

It ain't about fashion for me. It's about practicality. If you like them, feel free to use it. For me, they are just about as useless as a dork disc.

biknbrian

I just put one on my commuter and I think it's great. All the walls in my garage are line with stuff and I was constantly looking for a decent place to lean it, only to find it in the way later. Now it just stands on it own. After all these years without one it seems like some amazing trick. Of course my road, XC, and BMX bikes will never ever have one as they are very purposeful performance machines and they don't get parked, but hung up after riding.

operator

+1 to everything said here

vtjim

It looks like your Fuel and my Liquid were separated at birth. I put a stand on mine for the same reasons.

GlassWolf

I like this tranz-X stand. it's disc brake compatible, and with a little loc-tite on the allen bolts, and a thin layer of foam between the coated metal and the CF frameset, it doesn't ever come loose, and doesn't hurt the carbon. I just hate laying a $6000+ bike down on asphault, gravel, cement, etc.. or leaning it against a telephone pole or such (rural area) so the stand is very handy. so are the fenders, which are tool-less, so I can pop them off in good weather and slap em on when it's wet, without any hassle.

did you post a pic of the Liquid? I'd like to see it.

cheers

Buglady

Me too. In fact, that's why I had to buy my second helmet... never crashed with the first one, but I figured dropping the bike on top of it wasn't going to do it any good. (I was sitting on a bench having lunch, and I'd looped my helmet over the bars.)

I do love my Raleigh's kickstand. It just wouldn't be right without it. I took the kickstand off my touring bike though.

Chris L

+1.

I will add that I like the dorkiness factor.

Catweazle

Thanks for posting that. I raised this issue in 50+ recently, and your post adds background to the thoughtful comments I received in response there.

I'm another who finds a kickstand to be useful on some bikes but not on others, by the way.

mike

The "Kickstands aren't cool" thing is so old, I thought the generation has finally either died or stopped bicycling.

I will let you in on a secret; I am not a bicycle racer and I don't jump my mountain bike off of anything higher than about six inches (and even that is usually by accident). Perhaps I am the only one at the forums who keeps his wheels on the ground, but that is reality for me. To be even more honest, if I was jumping a height so great that my kickstand shook loose into the down position, I would crash anyway because I would be so freaked out at falling that far.

I have enough extra weight on my body that it is silly to worry about the weight of a kickstand on my bicycle. In fact, I am quite sure that the weight of my daily lunch is greater than the weight of my kickstand. Perhaps the weight of all the coffee I drink in a day is greater than the weight of my bicycle kickstand.

Thus, all things considered, I prefer to use a kickstand. Kickstands help me keep my bicycles standing conveniently and tidy in my garage. Kickstands keep my precious bicycles off of the dirt so my saddle and handlebars don't get dirty and scuffed up. Kickstands help keep the bicycle upright when I am strapping stuff to the rear carrier.

Maybe all the old fellers think I am square because I have a kickstand, but my mom says it's OK and I don't have to listen to what they say.

Black Bud

Like your bike, Glass Wolf.

Now I know I can find a kickstand that will work on my Specialized Stumpjumper FSR! I was thinking about using it as a winter bike (rather than let it just sit around), but I need the kickstand so I can park it where Maintenance tells me to at work while the snow and ice melt off! Now I know one will fit...

As for the "pros and cons"? Don't use one if:

You are riding technical trails (they don't work on irregular, soft ground anyway).

You are a bike racer (or a "poser").

If you are doing any other kind of riding?

Weight, smeight! Get one and use it! (I like that folding kickstand that clips to the top tube, BTW. Looks like it would be really stable on windy days and with a loaded bike...the usual "one sided" ones fail to work sometimes... )

deraltekluge

Amen, mike!

YULitle

I was really wishing that I had one the first time I took my grocery bike to wal-mart. Didn't think it through. Now I have one.

dynodonn 

I have a kickstand on every one of my bikes, I've yet to have one blown over by the wind( there's are some very strong winds in coastal areas), but I've have returned several times to the one bike that I owned that didn't have a kick stand, down halfway or on the ground completely because I didn't lean it against something or able to lock it correctly. Sure is nice to be able to stand the bike anywhere in the front room without a bike stand or having to lean it against a wall.

bryroth

If you ever bike down a long flight of stairs it will fall off. I couldn't keep mine on for that reason.

Retro Grouch 

I periodically think about getting one for my beater bike. The twin leg one that I want to get, however, costs more than I want to pay so I keep putting it off.

GlassWolf

LocTite Blue?

Black Bud

Since most of us are not into "urban assault" riding styles, I doubt most of us would need to worry about that. Although the use of Loctite blue--as suggested earlier--might solve the problem

mark9950

I do,I cant afford a bike rack.

A $6,000.00 bike?And it hasn't been stolen yet?In my neighborhood they would kick you off it and steal it,if they knew how much it was worth.

GlassWolf

nice place.
that's partly why I left the DC area, myself.
I live in a nice quiet rural area now, on a dirt road. If I want to ride hardpacked/freeride, XC, or DH, all I have to do is go 50 feet to our road, or across the street to the gravel pits (actually more like sand, but they call it gravel) or the marrow pit, and ride.

granted I didn't pay 6K for the bike, but that was the MSRP for a trek fuel EX 9.5
add another grand+ if you factor in the crossmax SLR wheelset, and other add-ons like pedals, cage, saddle bag and tools, fenders when it's wet, etc..

thankfully I bought it used so got it for considerably less.

mark9950

Oh,I am in chicago(south side,northwest indiana border),DC is just as bad too, huh?I ride mostly in the trails of indiana,most people that ride,ride bikes that cost more than mine.

Would you believe that one time an individual tried to steal a bike that I bought at walmart.Yes last year I was riding one of those $50.00 roadmasters mountain bikes,he accused me of stealing his which is mine and tried to take it,but realized people were looking and decided to leave without it.

A $50.00 walmart bike.

GlassWolf

I've heard that a lot.. people trying to grab things, claim it;'s theirs, and drag it away from the rightful owner in the middle of the street or a subway station etc..

crazy.

You need to move away from there.. lol

anyway for what it's worth, here's a shot of my trek, with stand: