When I first got into road bikes, I made a small mistake - I asked my boss to install a Merida original kickstand. It turned out that this kickstand was not only ugly, but also took up a lot of space. What's worse, if I wasn't careful when riding, I would hit my heels, which was very painful. In the end, I had to take it off with great pain.
Later, I saw that there were kickstands for sale on the Internet for barrel axles. They looked much more delicate and would not hit my feet. But after riding for a few days, I found that I had hardly seen any road bikes equipped with such kickstands. Moreover, parking without kickstands was not as inconvenient as I imagined. However, I was still worried that I would damage the barrel axle rod. So, I decided to return the kickstand that had not yet arrived.
Thinking carefully, there may be the following reasons why road bikes, especially drop-bar road bikes, do not have kickstands:
Aesthetics: The design of road bikes itself pays great attention to aesthetics, and installing a kickstand may destroy the overall lines.
Weight reduction: Road bikes pursue lightweight, and kickstands will add a lot of weight.
Safety: Road bikes are made for speed, and kickstands can cause serious injuries when riding in a group.
Of course, if you are using a commuter bike, it may not be convenient to not install kickstands. But for friends who ride leisurely, race, ride in a group, or buy a carbon fiber bike, it is really not recommended to install kickstands. As for those kickstands installed with quick release rods and barrel axles, there are greater safety risks.
In order to deal with the situation where I can't find a parking place, I bought a parking artifact composed of two pieces of plastic online, but it has not been shipped yet. I found a little trick: try to park with pedals or tires against the wall, so that it is not easy to damage the paint.
In short, there are many reasons why road bikes don't install kickstands. You can decide whether to install them according to your needs and riding environment.
