After I posted yesterday’s review of Click-Stands, Tom Nostrant sent me a sneak peek of some new mounting brackets that will be available soon.
He said that they should be available possibly as early as the coming week for $10 or less. He still has to work out some pricing details. If I hadn’t already come up with a solution, I might have jumped on one of his new designs.
Will “flicking” lead to failure?
After I mentioned “flicking” the stand to assemble it, I received this comment, “One note about flicking out the alloy poles: with tent poles all manufacturers advise you to place them together and not to flick them out. Continuous flicking together leads to stresses on the pole sections that will cause pole failure. It happened to my tent just 3 weeks back when I was tensioning the poles. Not so critical for a straight bike support, but it is still under tension, so flicking it out will shorten its life.”
Here’s Tom’s response
I know that tent manufacturers don’t want you to flick open their tent poles. However, it is irresistible, so don’t fight it. I have used the same stand for 2 1/2 years and it shows no ill effects. I had a booth in the Seattle Bike Expo, and flick open a Click-Stand like a carnival barker over & over for two days. No problems. The only thing that can cause a problem is stretching the stand apart so the segments separate and letting them go. It can cause a burr in edge of the tube, but can be fixed with a small file.
If not for the super cool clicking sound, I wouldn’t buy one.
Let’s say you shorten the product’s life by 50% through gratuitous flicking. Does that mean it’ll only last two years? Three years?
At just $25, it costs less than a tire. When the click stand wears out, buy a new one.
The clicking noise is totally worth the shortened product life.
—Matt