Centrestand - am I missing something?

[nighthog]

Hi folks,
I have an '82 SJ Heritage Special I'm slowly trying to change to a tracker-type of look. I'm in the middle of refurbishing the swinging arm, forks, and replacing the wheel rims, spokes & tyres. I bought it in September so I'm still finding my way around, and have ruthlessly mined this wonderful site for information since then. Thanks, guys!
Anyway, the centrestand is pretty shite and I've had to put some packing underneath to stop the tang (is that what you call it?) from hitting the floor before the left-hand foot. Unstable? You bet. It doesn't look bent to me but maybe it is ... before I work out how to make it work properly, is this typical? Or is it a case of 'they're all like that, sir'? Or have I missed something?
Here's some pics.

 

[azman857]

On bracket of the mufflers there is hole for a rubber "button" that the center stand hits when its retracted. It looks like the bracket the foot uses to go down it bending. Not unusual for it to be reinforced.

 

[Paul Sutton]

When the stand is up does it line up properly with the clearance groove in the left exhaust? On the two XSs I have had the stands have been firm/solid and the kick part clears the ground. If you search Ebay for XS650 center stand you will see that yours is bent down too low. On the Specials the stand is about 1 inch too high so it takes more force that necessary to get the bike up. Consequently the stands do bend, mine broke. When you get it sorted out then when using the center stand at home just put an inch thick piece of wood under the back tyre to make for a much easier experience.

 

[nighthog]

I couldn't see any obvious bending and none of the welds have failed like they did on my Ducati's centrestand, so that's why I'm curious as to whether others have seen thins kind of thing. Sounds like it's not unknnown, so, cut, fillet, weld?

 

[nighthog]

Thanks Paul. I can't tell about the clearance with the stand up right now as both wheels are off, but it does seem that mine is simply bent. Damn ..... Not the end of the world though.
Cardiff's not far away and I have family there, so hopefully we can hook up one day.

 

[Paul Sutton]

When you straighten the stand check that the weld is not cracking where the tang attachs to the actual left stand leg. On mine the weld had cracked the full 360 degrees.

I'll see you sometime for sure - there are a few on the forum scattered about the UK.

 

[5twins]

Yes, "tang" is the proper term, and yes, yours is bent, lol. Normally, the "foot" hits before the "tang". The tang shouldn't touch the ground at all, or possibly just barely touch when the foot does. You're lucky you have one of the later stands with the factory tang brace. This is what eventually happens to most of the earlier unbraced versions .....

Your factory brace should prevent that but obviously hasn't stopped the end of the tang from bending down. I've repaired several broken ones and added tang braces to those without ......

 

[nighthog]

Never had this trouble on any of my old British bikes. Had plenty of other problems though .........

 

[Paul Sutton]

The Tang! The Tang! I must try to remember. I almost wrote "that thing your foot goes on". Such is life.

 

[fredintoon]

I couldn't see any obvious bending and none of the welds have failed like they did on my Ducati's centrestand, so that's why I'm curious as to whether others have seen thins kind of thing. Sounds like it's not unknnown, so, cut, fillet, weld?

Hi nighthog,
first, try remove, inspect for cracks, clamp in vise, torch to orange-red and bend back to it's proper angle.

 

[5twins]

No bike is without it's little problems. The nice thing about this bike is most of those have been identified and addressed by owners over the years, and many of those solutions are here. Most are cheap D.I.Y. fixes that almost anyone can apply. Go through the machine and start doing all these little "tweaks", and eventually you end up with a really nice old bike.

The centerstand I'm currently using. As you can see, there is plenty of tang to ground clearance .....

Another "must do" mod for the centerstand, in my opinion, is adding grease fittings to the pivots. The stand will work so much easier and better if the pivots are kept well greased. It really is amazing the difference this makes .....

 

[nighthog]

Thanks, and that's a good call about the grease nipples. And that's a rather lovely bike you have there, sir.

 

[motorbikerx]

My tang is dang useless, bit of bodged metal on wrong angle totally.
Two person job getting it into centrestand.. not used to having one anyway...though the sidestand feels dodgy too

 

[xjwmx]

The actually really cool thing to do with a center stand that I''ve never read of anyone doing wpu;d be cut out some length and weld it back up. That would make it a lot easier so you wouldn't need to grease it. You could pull it up with one hand while smoking a cigarette and winking at the girls.

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

The actually really cool thing to do with a center stand that I''ve never read of anyone doing wpu;d be cut out some length and weld it back up. That would make it a lot easier so you wouldn't need to grease it. You could pull it up with one hand while smoking a cigarette and winking at the girls.

Start at post #93.

http://www.xs650.com/threads/the-centerstand-challenge-lift-assist-handle.46892/page-5#post-496176

 

[xjwmx]

Johnny Strabler just snaps his fingers and it goes up on the center stand. The only place he puts grease is in his hair.

 

[peanut]

When you straighten the stand check that the weld is not cracking where the foot kicker attachs to the actual left stand leg. On mine the weld had cracked the full 360 degrees.

I'll see you sometime for sure - there are a few on the forum scattered about the UK.

yep and its about time we set up a summer meet this year

Maybe use a classic vehicle meet as a venue like the Carole Nash classic bike show at Bath & West show ground for South West owners .
http://www.classicbikeshows.com/event/carole-nash-bristol-classic-motorcycle-show/
I'll start making a list of possible UK venues ...perhaps we should see if we could get a thread going wink wink

Great post by the way Paul. I too have issues with both my centre and side stand that I need to sort out . A piece of wood is always a good idea to carry in case of soft or gravel parking for sidestand use

Nighthog welcome to the forum and XS650 ownership

 

[fredintoon]

- - - I too have issues with both my centre and side stand that I need to sort out .
A piece of wood is always a good idea to carry in case of soft or gravel parking for sidestand use

Hi peanut,
a pocket-sized patch of almost anything handy to spread the sidestand's footprint on soft ground is always a good idea.
I've been offered an empty drink can for that purpose by US parking lot attendants to save my bike's sidestand from sinking
into their parking area's sun-softened blacktop. But the gift of a can is not a thing you can rely on happening.
What I carry is a cigarette-packet sized 1/8" sheet aluminum rectangle with a hole in one corner and ~ 5 feet of cord
wrapped round it. One end tied to the aluminum plate and the other end with a ~6" loop in it.
Stop. Feet down. Kick out sidestand. Hold loop. Drop plate & kick under sidestand. Drop loop over bike's mirror.
If you forget to pick the plate up as you drive away it'll soon remind you.

 

[5twins]

I've made up custom little sidestand parking plates for many years and carry them on all my bikes. I started out using scraps of steel plate, moved on to aluminum, but finally arrived at what I consider to be the ultimate or best choice - aluminum diamond plate. It's stronger than plain flat plate and the diamonds grab the foot of the stand so it doesn't readily slide off the plate. Like Fred, I attach line to the plate, but don't feel the couple yards worth he uses is called for. I use just enough to reach the footpeg .....

I don't use knots either, I braid eye splices into each end of the line. The plate end gets a very small one, attaching the line through a hole in the corner of the plate. The other end gets one large enough to slip on the footpeg rubber.

 

[Paul Sutton]

Peanut, sounds good for a meet-up!