Test / Accessories: Rear wheel stands are indispensable for many bike owners to safely stow away their valuable two-wheelers. With the XLC VS F-08, we looked at a new, very interesting model that not only gets along with almost all bikes, but can also be stowed away to save space.
Anyone who owns one (or more) sporty bikes knows the problem: Once you have found a safe place to park your beloved two-wheelers, you have to think about how best to attach them. In most cases, leaning is ruled out right from the start: only a few people probably want to take the risk of the bike tipping over and being damaged. Wall or ceiling mounting is complex and not always possible. In many cases, what remains is the classic rear wheel stand. It comes in all sorts of shapes, designs and sizes. With the new XLC VS F-08 Bikestand, we took a close look at a fairly new variant that stands out from the competition in many ways.
At first glance it seems quite inconspicuous and surprisingly light, the new bike stand from Winora's own brand XLC. On closer inspection, however, it's no wonder, because the stand is mostly made of plastic - the workmanship seems fine at first glance, even if there are a few unclean edges here and there. However, the claims shouldn't be too high either - after all, the VS F-08 (who thinks up those names?) is pretty cheap with a street price of around €20.
One of the coolest features is certainly the fact that the XLC stand can be folded up to save space when not in use and, thanks to its low weight, can also be transported very easily. A possible area of application would be, for example, the next bike holiday, where you would of course also like to give the battered bike a few cleaning and care units on a warm summer evening. The XLC stand is ideal for this - but it is only of limited use as a quick replacement for the assembly stand, since the rear wheel is on the ground and the gearshift cannot be adjusted, for example.
But wait a minute – how exactly does it all work? That's pretty intuitive and self-explanatory - but we would have been happy about a short manual in the box; instead you have to make do with a few small symbols on the packaging. There is a metal bracket in the base plate, which can be folded up and then accommodate the rear wheel of the bicycle. The bracket is locked with the help of a plastic part that is simply pressed into the groove provided. If the rear wheel is in the stand, it can also be fixed with a "plastic slider". That all sounds terribly complicated - but since it's not at all and pictures say more than a thousand words, we recorded the structure in a short video:
Video: Please enter the correct URL.
Another big advantage of the XLC stand is its very good compatibility with different wheel and tire sizes. From 3-inch wide 650B+ tires to 29″ to small children's bikes, everything stops here without any problems. In any case, it surprised us a little how securely the wheels were finally fixed in the stand - at first we had some stability concerns due to the large amount of plastic - in vain as it turned out.
