I've been looking around for a decent centerstand for my Big Dummy, and haven't found one that really does what I need. So I went looking for a basic kickstand, and I found something interesting. I've never owned a bike with a kickstand before, so maybe some of you are aware of these but I certainly wasn't.
There is a centerstand made by Esge that folds up like a normal kickstand. When its in the down position (deployed?), there are two legs supporting the load, but due to a cam mechanism it stows much like a normal kickstand with the two legs stacked on top of each other. Here the centerstand is up:
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And here it is in the down position:
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Since this part was designed with a more conventional bicycle in mind, a few easy modifications were needed to make it work. There's a metal spacer that came with the stand that interfered with the BD's frame, so it needed to be trimmed with a hacksaw. And the securing bolt goes into a blind hole and the bolt is too long, so the bolt bottoms out before proper clamp load is achieved. Again, the hacksaw is your friend. And you may need to clean up the bolt's threads with a die or thread chaser depending on how messy you were when you cut it. Here's a pic to show what was needed:
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And here's a pic of the stand installed, from an overhead view. Hopefully this will illustrate why the spacer needed to be cut on the left side:
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And don't forget to put Loctite on the bolt threads, and trim the length of the centerstand legs to suit your needs. I trimmed off a bunch and still my rear wheel is in the air when up on the stand. That means it takes a bit more work to raise and lower the bike when loaded, but it also means I can lube the chain and adjust the derailleurs without the need for a workstand.
Its not perfect, because the centerstand is offset to left side of the bike (because that's where surly put the mounting location) and its also not perfectly centered along the length of the bike. So this means you still have to load the left side of the bike first, and also when you start loading it up the front wheel pops up a bit, but this is fairly minor in my opinion. I think its a good work-around until a "real" centerstand comes to market. And you can always just lay the bike on its side like Devo, if you prefer.
Hope this helps somebody looking for a solution.
PS. I think this was ~$50 at my local shop.
There is a centerstand made by Esge that folds up like a normal kickstand. When its in the down position (deployed?), there are two legs supporting the load, but due to a cam mechanism it stows much like a normal kickstand with the two legs stacked on top of each other. Here the centerstand is up:
And here it is in the down position:
Since this part was designed with a more conventional bicycle in mind, a few easy modifications were needed to make it work. There's a metal spacer that came with the stand that interfered with the BD's frame, so it needed to be trimmed with a hacksaw. And the securing bolt goes into a blind hole and the bolt is too long, so the bolt bottoms out before proper clamp load is achieved. Again, the hacksaw is your friend. And you may need to clean up the bolt's threads with a die or thread chaser depending on how messy you were when you cut it. Here's a pic to show what was needed:
And here's a pic of the stand installed, from an overhead view. Hopefully this will illustrate why the spacer needed to be cut on the left side:
And don't forget to put Loctite on the bolt threads, and trim the length of the centerstand legs to suit your needs. I trimmed off a bunch and still my rear wheel is in the air when up on the stand. That means it takes a bit more work to raise and lower the bike when loaded, but it also means I can lube the chain and adjust the derailleurs without the need for a workstand.
Its not perfect, because the centerstand is offset to left side of the bike (because that's where surly put the mounting location) and its also not perfectly centered along the length of the bike. So this means you still have to load the left side of the bike first, and also when you start loading it up the front wheel pops up a bit, but this is fairly minor in my opinion. I think its a good work-around until a "real" centerstand comes to market. And you can always just lay the bike on its side like Devo, if you prefer.
Hope this helps somebody looking for a solution.
PS. I think this was ~$50 at my local shop.
