It took me a few minutes to figure out that it was formerly attached to the kickstand of the bucket bike, and that it played the important role of "kickstand deployment keeper". [World Cup jargon, in the parlance of our times. -Ed.]
I purchased a 5/16" bolt and washer for each side and tapped the keeper holes in the kickstand to accept the bolts. I threaded the bolts in the holes nearly all the way, then added thread-locking compound on the last few threads before tightening the bolts in place. It seems to be holding up ok, though I'm still cautious about allowing too much weight to be placed on the kickstand while loading and unloading kids. In fact, I'm making my 50-lb passenger climb out on her own before I put the stand down.
**UPDATE: As Jared Madsen commented, their official fix was very similar except they use one long bolt to go all the way across. After they realized this was an issue, Madsen Cycles started pre-installing such a bolt on their bikes before they were shipped to customers. If you still have the keepers on your kickstand and not a long bolt, you may want to consider doing this to avoid the failure. Contact Madsen Cycles for hardware, etc.
note the hole on the right
I didn't trust the remaining keeper to hold the bike steady for child loading/unloading, so the whole bike was out of commission until I found a fix. At least the kickstand still held the bike upright and parked in the garage. However, several days later an unsuspecting houseguest used the Madsen for quick errand to pick up bags of ice and when he returned, the other keeper had also gone AWOL. The kickstand would simply continue forward until the feet faced the front wheel.
I notified Madsen Cycles of the issue, but haven't heard back from them yet.** Meanwhile, I came up with my own DIY fix.
I purchased a 5/16" bolt and washer for each side and tapped the keeper holes in the kickstand to accept the bolts. I threaded the bolts in the holes nearly all the way, then added thread-locking compound on the last few threads before tightening the bolts in place. It seems to be holding up ok, though I'm still cautious about allowing too much weight to be placed on the kickstand while loading and unloading kids. In fact, I'm making my 50-lb passenger climb out on her own before I put the stand down.
This is the first non-maintenance issue we've had on the bike after 14 months of regular use. I figure the bike has nearly 1000 miles on it. Since the bucket is meant for passengers, it's obvious that this failure is a safety issue. You may want to take a look at those keepers and make sure that they still appear welded in place.
**UPDATE: As Jared Madsen commented, their official fix was very similar except they use one long bolt to go all the way across. After they realized this was an issue, Madsen Cycles started pre-installing such a bolt on their bikes before they were shipped to customers. If you still have the keepers on your kickstand and not a long bolt, you may want to consider doing this to avoid the failure. Contact Madsen Cycles for hardware, etc.
