We Don't Talk About Kickstands

The Key To Keeping Your Toddler Upright

As a parent, the things I worry about include:

• Screen time.

• Sugar.

• My bike falling over with my daughter strapped in.

After all, bikes can’t stay upright on two wheels without assistance.

When the stakes are low, leaning a bike against a wall works well enough.

When the stakes are high, when a bike falling over could injure the child on board, something more is required.

Yet most bikes I see on the street don’t have a mechanism to prevent this, even though the solution already exists: a kickstand.

Why don’t all bikes carrying kids have kickstands? Why aren’t kickstands sold with every child bike seat? Why isn’t anyone talking about kickstands?

I’m not sure.

In my case, I knew that a good kickstand was a non-negotiable before I ever bought a child bike seat. What I didn’t know was how hard it would prove to find a good one.

I thought good kickstands were ponies: ordinary, safe, sturdy, and made for children. Turns out they’re unicorns.

To be clear, I wasn’t looking for an engineering marvel. All I wanted was a kickstand that was:

1. Strong: enough to handle the weight of the bike, the child seat, my toddler and her carry-on items (wipes, snacks, extra clothes, shovels, buckets, and rocks)

2. Wide: enough to keep the bike stable even when my toddler wiggles (especially if she also thinks it’s great fun to make the bike wiggle under her)

3. Compatible: the kickstand’s mounting bracket (the part that connects to the bike) must be small enough to fit a standard bicycle and, when folded, the kickstand must not interfere with pedaling, the wheel or chainring

It took a year of searching, buying three different kickstands, repeatedly being told that what I was looking for didn’t exist and pure luck before I found my unicorn.

How I found my Unicorn Kickstand: An 8-Step Adventure

(Hint: Skip ahead to step 8 to achieve the same result!)

1. New Bike Comes With A One-Legged Kickstand, Bike Lacks Stability: I bought a new bike to fit my new child bike seat. I noticed the bike came with a one-footed kickstand. While marginally better than nothing, it couldn’t keep the bike upright with a passenger.

2. I Buy A New Two-Legged Kickstand, Bike Still Lacks Stability: I told the bike store I needed a better kickstand: at minimum, one with two legs. They were happy to sell me their best (and only) double kickstand: the 49N DLX Double Leg Kickstand 24-29.

   

   Notice how narrow the kickstand is when open

   Pros: It had 2 legs

   Cons: It was narrow, unstable, and boasted an “improved” design where the legs folded to one side when not in use. In theory, this meant the kickstand was less likely to interfere with the chainring. In practice, I was somehow always standing on the opposite side of the bike from the kickstand and had to awkwardly hold the bike while walking around it, in order to use the kickstand. I hated it. I had to use it temporarily because I was already riding with my daughter but I immediately searched for better options.

3. Cargo Bike Kickstands Don’t Fit: Of course, the cargo bikes I saw in store, meant for passengers, came with beautiful wide sturdy kickstands built-in.

   

   Why couldn’t I just get one of those? Staff at two different stores told me they were proprietary. I asked them to sell me one anyway. Then, they also pointed out those kickstands are custom made for specific cargo bikes and wouldn’t fit a regular bike. Sadly, that was true.

4. The Internet Is No Help At All: If you do an online search for kickstands, you’ll find details are… sparse. How sparse? Try searching for the first kickstand I bought, the 49N DLX Double Leg Kickstand 24-29. The limitations I encountered while using it aren’t mentioned anywhere. The weight limit sounds high but turned out to be irrelevant. The width of the kickstand when open, which is one of the keys to stability, is not available. Whether the connection point is compatible is anyone’s guess. Despite the lack of information, I did try ordering another kickstand off Amazon I thought might work. It didn’t fit my bike.

5. I Buy A Second Two-Legged Kickstand, Bike Still Unstable: I like my local bike store. It’s close by and staff are friendly and helpful. They seem knowledgeable. So I kept going back to them, asking for suggestions, sure that there had to be a better kickstand for my bike. A good, strong, wide kickstand couldn’t just not exist. After months of this, they finally agreed to order me their “hardcore” kickstand. They couldn’t guarantee it would be any better, but I was clearly willing to take that risk. When it arrived, the 49N Double Kickstand for E-Bike 24-29 was only marginally more stable than the 49N DLX Double Leg Kickstand 24-29. Unfortunately, it also still had all of it’s defects, including folding to one side of the bike.

   

   Slightly wider than its predecessor

6. I Make Do With A Sub-standard Kickstand: I was frustrated but I was also out of options. So, I managed as best I could. I tried to never let go of the bike when baby was on board. I leaned the bike against the wall or locked it to a bike stand to add stability. I straddled the bike between my legs when moving baby on and off the bike for added security. Even with all that, the bike did slip once, while I was straddling it and desperately trying to hold it up but the angles were off and it was too heavy for me. Thankfully, I managed to slow the fall with my body. I was rattled and bruised but baby was uninjured. I kept looking for alternatives but couldn’t find any.

7. I Get Lucky: After nearly a year of riding with a subpar kickstand, I was checking out the 1st Annual Femme Friendly Bike Fair for the Bike-Curious with my family. (FYI: The next one is happening soon, March 8th, 2026. If you’re in Toronto, check it out!)

   I’m at the fair, chatting at one of the booths, when my husband suddenly walks up to us and says “You have to see this, I found your kickstand”. I immediately excused myself and ran across the room to the bike he was pointing at. After all, I hadn’t spent this long searching just to ignore the sighting of a unicorn.

   

   Now THIS is a wide kickstand

   The kickstand was indeed a unicorn. It was strong. It was very very wide and stable. It was installed on a regular bike which meant it would surely fit mine. Both legs folded back like a fork (one side on each side of the wheel), which meant I could engage the kickstand no matter which side of the bike I was on. Once a quick search helped us find the bike’s owner, he generously shared details on how I could get my own unicorn.

   

8. The Right Kickstand Changes Everything: My unicorn kickstand is the Ursus Jumbo Evo Kickstand. Its legs are 50 cm wide when expanded. Its load capacity is 80 kg (176 lbs). It’s not perfect. The bolt is committed to slowly loosening over time, allegedly because of the weight it carries, so it regularly needs to be tightened. Sometimes it touches my rear tire as I ride and I have to kick it a bit to fix it. But, regardless of the maintenance it requires, it is awesome and the closest a kickstand has come, yet, to doing the job. I can actually walk away and take pictures of my daughter on the bike without worrying about her safety.

And that is the tale of what it took to keep my bike from falling over when standing still.

Before you read this, did you think it would be that hard to find a good kickstand? Maybe that’s why, when I see other parents riding with their kids, their bikes rarely have kickstands. Because we don’t talk about kickstands. We don’t talk about why bikes with passengers need them. We don’t talk about what to look for. We definitely don’t talk about where to find a good kickstand or even that it’s hard to find in the first place. And maybe, because of that, very few places actually carry kickstands that meet the needs of parents riding with kids. Maybe we should talk about kickstands more.