Boxerworks.com

melville wrote:Am I the only one who gets off the bike before deploying any stands?

Yes. You get off Horses and then tie them up because horses can stand by themselves. On motorcycles, you put down kickstands, get stable, then get off. Otherwise you end up with way more weight wanting to fall over then humans can deal with.

I should stop now. But I won't.

Stock stands on my 75 and 79 were just too stupid to consider. Probably the price for owning only Japanese bikes before them. They both have Brownstands now.

My worst near-miss involved a left-turn-stand-up due to leaving the kickstand down. The bump put the stand up for me, so the second try at the turn worked with inches to spare.

The kill-switch fix is so much simpler and safer than BMW's spring loaded idea. The engineer that came up with that kickstand should be locked in a room with the guy who came up with the under-tank master cylinder and forced to watch day-time television for the rest of his life.

bbelk wrote:The engineer that came up with that kickstand should be locked in a room with the guy who came up with the under-tank master cylinder and forced to watch day-time television for the rest of his life.

Shudder! You have a great future at Gitmo, devising fresh and new cruel and unusual torture techniques to break the will of your nation's alleged enemies. I totally agree that the under-tank master cylinder guy should be punished in some way. He should at least be having the nightmares I used to have before I changed to a bar mounted MC.

I really like my stock '74 side-stand, especially since I fixed the slop in it. I can deploy it with my toe without looking and the auto retract gives me a warm safe feeling. That said, I have no experience with the aftermarket alternatives.
O, and I always deploy it before dismounting.

I have the same little problem, an auto retracting side stand and slightly shorter than ideal legs . The side stand probably isn't original being mounted on a crash bar ... which incidentally I'd like to get rid of...except it comes with my side stand attached ( is it original??? ).

Anyway Motobins don't offer an ST side stand according to their website but I've emailed them to ask if there is one on a back shelf somewhere. If I can't buy one from them is it possible to modify this one to stay down as I get off ?

I'm with bbelk on the sidestand issue.
"Whoever" had at least a 36-inch inseam.
Auto-retract would be OK IF the sidestand was deployable for the other 90% of the population

melville wrote:Am I the only one who gets off the bike before deploying any stands?

Hah! It may be a bicycle rider related thing, though I've not owned a bicycle with a kickstand since I was 12.

In a previous post on this thread, I wrote: 4. On my bikes that have stock stands, I dismount and then deploy the side stand......or the center stand. Either way, I can't do it when seated.


Chuey

I'm getting older and a bit less mobile, with a 29inch inseam getting off either of my bikes when fully loaded is starting to be a bit of a crap shoot, so having a Surefoot stand that I can deploy before getting off the bike is a good thing.

I have just done a trackday at Snetterton, and the stand that touched down was the tang of the main stand, maybe I was not trying hard enough?


I am trying to get seriously into the habit of sweeping my left foot, before setting off to be absolutely sure that I have closed it.

At 6'2" (used to be 6'3") I've never had a problem with the /6 and /7 sidestands (no experience with /5). But even with my long inseam I can't quite fully deploy the sidestands, still lacking about 1". So each side stand deployment from the saddle calls for a bit of faith. I can't see my toes and the tip of the sidestand since they are hidden by the cylinder. That means I need to watch the ground as I arrive at my "parking spot".

And if you're nearsighted and can't see the ground well, that's another bit of faith.

I have only dumped my bike one time (that I can recall) and that's because the sidestand was pointed to a dried up mud rut.

I can postulate a couple reasons why BMW thought the design of the /6 and /7 sidestands were OK, but I won't because they would smack of racism, elitism, and probably a couple more isms that I can't think of right now.

Does anybody remember if BMW ever put anything in writing about how to dismount from an airhead?

Ken

Ken in Oklahoma wrote:I can postulate a couple reasons why BMW thought the design of the /6 and /7 sidestands were OK, but I won't because they would smack of racism, elitism, and probably a couple more isms that I can't think of right now.

Ken

Skepticism?

Absurdism?

Capitalism?

Empiricism?

Dualism?

Fatalism?

Ignorantism?

Holism?

Fallibism?


Okay, I'm not going to work through the list any further, but I can see how all of these apply.

Chuey wrote:

melville wrote:Am I the only one who gets off the bike before deploying any stands?

Hah! It may be a bicycle rider related thing, though I've not owned a bicycle with a kickstand since I was 12.

In a previous post on this thread, I wrote: 4. On my bikes that have stock stands, I dismount and then deploy the side stand......or the center stand. Either way, I can't do it when seated.


Chuey

Yeah, I figured it would be you. I'm finally not looking for a wall/fence/rack to lean it against

OK, I'll assume from that no one knows how to modify and ST side stand . Bugger.

I'm 5'7' and getting off when my girl is well loaded is ....fun .