Sidestand drops

[ratfink]

In another thread there has been some discussion about dropping bikes due to sidestand issues. I though I would start another thread because I have a couple questions. I didn't want to get OT

 

My -P has what is supposed to be a locking sidestand. It is pretty worn I think and the mechanism is cammed out so it doesn't really lock.

 

I assumed it was designed so you could park on a downhill in neutral and the stand would not fold in. Is this the reason for it or something else?

 

I've heard that the sidestands break with some frequency and get a lot of stress from officers sitting on the bike with sidestand down

while using radar guns etc.

 

My bike leans over quite a bit on the sidestand and I've looked at it,can't find any signs of metal fatigue. Can anyone suggest where they commonly fail or signs of impending doom?

 

 

[David13]

Your bike is 11 years old.

Just get a new side stand, and put it on.

dc

[upflying]

It is against all motor officer etiquette and training to sit on a bike that is leaning against a sidestand while conducting any kind of traffic enforcement. If I did that, I would soon get yelled at and punished with one month in Crown Victoria purgatory.

If an officer is sitting on a stationary motorcycle, all metal landing gear is to be folded up for a quick departure.

Back on topic, my RT-P leans quit a bit too. They all seem to do that..

[Fubar]

In another thread there has been some discussion about dropping bikes due to sidestand issues.

 

My bike leans over quite a bit on the sidestand and I've looked at it,can't find any signs of metal fatigue. Can anyone suggest where they commonly fail or signs of impending doom?

 

Haven't noticed it locking in position. I, sadly, have a really hard time using the center stand, same with the old bike. The Yamaha never fell of the stand though it sank into fresh asphalt to the point of falling once.

My '09 is less than 18 months old and it has fallen twice off the sidestand, once pointed uphill, once on the faintest downhill grade parked nose-in curbside. I was still standing next to it both times and caught it before full-on lay down though I was nearly taken down the first time and I did get some cosmetic sidebag damage the last time.

 

[MotorinLA]

It is against all motor officer etiquette and training to sit on a bike that is leaning against a sidestand while conducting any kind of traffic enforcement. If I did that, I would soon get yelled at and punished with one month in Crown Victoria purgatory.

If an officer is sitting on a stationary motorcycle, all metal landing gear is to be folded up for a quick departure.

Back on topic, my RT-P leans quit a bit too. They all seem to do that..

 

+1 on not sitting on the motor with the sidestand down. If you were talking about KZ1000 bikes on the other hand, I know a few guys that liked to ride their motors onto the sidestand from speed. Never seen it done on a Beemer (guys are too worried about taking a spill and damaging the Tupperware... ).

 

Rode a spare 1150RT-P for awhile that was listing at about a 45 degree angle while sitting on the sidestand... really unnerving, but still seemed to work fine.

 

BTW, the RT-P models do come with a locking sidestand. It's a little housing that sits around the pivoting part of the stand, which locks the stand when the weight of the bike is applied to the stand.

[Mister Tee]

I had the unfortunate experience to have been hit in the parking lot last year. I wasn't on the bike, and I didn't even realize the bike had been hit until I got home later that night, but someone had managed to (probably back in to) my bike, hitting the right side front fork. The bike never dropped amazingly, but it did manage to bend the sidestand and cause the bike to lean over at an extreme angle. I had to use the center stand to park it until I could get home.

 

I don't know why, but BMW puts really weak side stands on their bikes. I have never owned a motorcycle that had issues with bent sidestands, this is a first.

[KER]

My -P has what is supposed to be a locking sidestand. It is pretty worn I think and the mechanism is cammed out so it doesn't really lock.

 

 

My bike leans over quite a bit on the sidestand and I've looked at it,can't find any signs of metal fatigue. Can anyone suggest where they commonly fail or signs of impending doom?

 

 

locking ability- there is a small set screw on the kickstand that makes it "locking", the screw wears down over time and needs to be replaced to restore the locking feature.

 

 

lean angle- there could be 2 issues here; bmw made 2 different lengths of kickstands, depending on which one your bike is equipped with would determine how much it leans over. Second, the sidestand plate may actually be broken but not visible. the sidestand plate is just flat steel with a bracket welded to it, the weld on the bracket is the weak point and is common to fracture slowly causing the bike to excessively lean. Over the course of several months i was noticing my bike was starting to lean further and further, never tracking down the issue. Finally one day the kickstand wouldn't retract without rubbing on the fairing, after disassembly i found that the steel plate had fractured completely around the weld, causing the problem. After the replacement i realized how far the bike used to lean, but it all happened so slowly it was difficult to notice it was happening.

[ratfink]

Thanks, KER.

 

I better pull it off and look at that weld.