I've recently rediscovered kickstands after decades of thinking they were too geeky for my bikes. In fact, I've kind of become sort of a kickstand evangelist! I've got experience now on several bikes with three major types of stands, the two you describe and the pletscher double kickstand. They all work fine, although on a recent tour, I had to reluctantly admit that the rear triangle stand I had installed on my wife's bike worked way better than my Swiss stand. The rear triangle mount works great on uneven ground, on hills and with heavy touring loads. I used a single leg stand mounted on a kickstand plate. I had to be much more attentive to how I parked.
Here's a couple of quick tips for doing a good job on your chainstay mounted stand: 1) Wrap your chainstays to prevent scratching before installing the kickstand. Actually, only the areas where the kickstand mounting plates contact the frame need to be protected. I do this by cutting some "make a gasket" to fit the mounting plates - you'll need to punch a hole for the bolt (gasket material is sold in the plumbing section at True Value - it is more durable than other materials). 2) Kickstands often come loose over time. To prevent this, buy a stainless steel bolt that is long enough to go through both plates with room to attach a nylock nut. Or, with the supplied bolt, use Locktite Blue and a lock washer. 3) Install the stand. Before you tighten it down fully with nylocks or otherwise, check to see if your bike leans securely onto the stand. If it's too upright, you'll need to trim the kickstand. It is tempting to do this while the stand is on the bike and with an electric cutting tool, it works. If you are using a hacksaw, take the stand off to cut it. You'll do better work and you won't risk damaging your paint. Take the time to file down the rough cut edges on the stand. This will make the rubber foot last much longer. Use the rubber foot as it makes the stand friendlier to floors and it helps keep the stand from sinking into soft ground. 4) Tighten the stand onto the stays. You want to do this carefully and incrementally. Tighten and check for play in the plate. If it wiggles when you check by hand, tighten it a little more, test, and repeat. Be sure you are checking the plate and not the kickstand itself. The kickstand has play in it. Watch the mounting plate to see if it moves on the chainstays. Recheck your kickstand from time to time. 5) Kickstanded bikes often fall because the bike rolls forward or backward. For really secure kickstand parking, install a simple parking brake. I use a loop of narrow bungee cord around the bars tied tight enough to keep the brakes applied. The loop stays on my bars. When I park, I apply the brakes and I stretch the bungee onto the brake lever. The front wheel is usually the culprit, so I ordinarily use that brake as my parking brake. That's it!! On Aug 15, 7:12 am, eflayer <eddie.fla...@att.net> wrote: > Will a Pletscher or Greenfield kickstand clamp on the chainstays right > behind the seat tube? I know you can get those clunky ones that mount > at the rear of the bike, but was wondering if the space behind the > seat tube is condusive? --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
