Brompton Accessories #18 : Minoura Kickstand For The Brompton - Resistance Is Futile!

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BROMPTON ACCESSORIES #18 : Minoura Kickstand For The Brompton - Resistance Is Futile

I have tried to maintain myself as a Brompton purist; i.e. trying to maintain the bike as close to its original form even after adding accessories. Sure, I have changed the suspension block to a Kamoya Jenny Suspension and the hinge-clamps to those elegant titanium ones from Brompification; but these have not altered the form of the bike much. I had even added Akslen headlights and this have comfortably and naturally fitted in well and was hardly noticeable.
Then I started seeing my friends fixing this SLMV-1 kickstand from Minoura. Damn... seems useful, but that ugly thing sticking out from a Brompton? I resisted and maintained my purity.

Friends after friends installed it... still I resisted.
That is until a couple of bike tours, I had to strap things to the rack - an extra large bottle of mineral water, my Impra boards for bagging the bike, etc. - and things got complicated when I could not find a suitable spot to lean my Brompton....
Ok.... no more resisting... just let a bit of purity ebb away; let's just fix the kickstand.
After all as the Borg from Star Trek says:
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!

I had the stand fixed at My Bicycle Shop at Bandar Utama. At MYR120-00 (about USD30-00) it's not an expensive item and will not burn a hole in the pocket.
And the dimensions are just right; the stand does not protrude beyond the rear tire of the folded bike and thus should not hamper the bagging of the bike.

With the front wheel unfolded out, the toe of the stand does not hit the front mud-guard, it just grazed the mud-flap.

There's a hiccup in the design though, when folded up the stand does hit the rear tire something not good when cycling. The stand when folded up is restricted from any further upward movement by the top of it's leg hitting the base plate. This restriction is inadequate, and that's when the toe hits the tire.

A bit of creative adaptation solves this "hitting" problem. A couple of rubber handle grip studs furthers the gap between the leg top and the base plate and consequently increases the distance of the toe from the rear tire, i.e. by giving a gap of half an inch. The rubber is soft, and riding on rough surfaces compressed the rubber grip and the gap could reduce to a quarter of an inch.
To improve this, a modified ring bracket installed around the grip reduces the softness of the rubber.

And the gap between the toe increases to a comfortable and reassuring one inch (as illustrated in above photo).

Just a last note. The stand is fixed to the bike via the axle nut that holds the rear wheel. It is important that the screw provided is screwed to the end of the bike's rear triangle frame. This screw is just above the axle nut as seen in above photo. Missing this out will make the stand unsecure and it may run out of position when in used.

And..... HERE's my bike. Doesn't look too bad, yuh? Yes, I have been assimilated.
But will it perform well? I will soon be going on a bike-packing tour of Thailand, will give you all a field report when I am back... stay tuned!


UPDATE 25th April, 2016
Okay, I am back from our cycling tour of South Thailand, and found some shortcomings of the Minoura Kickstand:

First is a stability problem. With a fully loaded bag (either C-bag or P-bag), the stand when folded down angles slightly forward due to the luggage weight. This cause the bike tilt to be unstable and one would have to park with the front wheel facing the opposite direction and find a suitable road camber spot to reduce the this tilt. Even then the bike is unstable and often topple over, I should know as it happened to poor Goofy (my bike) several times.

Due to the luggage weight, the rubber handle grips AND the plastic bracket broke, and the end tip of the stand came back close to the tire.
My conclusion is that the Minoura kickstand is not suitable to be used for long tours with heavy luggage, perhaps short tour (couple of days tour) with lighter luggage. Anyway, it's still useful when you have arrived and cycle around a city/town after unpacking.

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