centerstand or not?

R

rlarkin70

New Member
I'm working on a cafe project, a 76 Honda CB550F. nothing too crazy, going to put some knee dents in the tank, drag bars, paint it, cut the fenders, that kind of thing.

Just curious...do most of you take the center stand off your bike? Or leave it on? I figured it might be a good way to lose a bit of weight and clean up the bike a bit. might make maintenance on front or rear wheel, chain etc. a bit more challenging, but I was thinking about getting one of those bike stands anyways.

-Ron
 
I'm took the centre stand off for the XS400 project, but that was just because I'm running straight pipes under the engine. It's gonna make maintenance very not fun because I wont even be able to put it up on the lift easily. It definitely does make it look more like a race bike. I say take it off. You can leave the mounts there and can always put it back on later if you think you need it.
 
I took the stand off and shaved the mounts down. If I need to work on the rear, I put it on a milk crate. Works thus far.

--Chris
 
rlarkin70 said:
I'm working on a cafe project, a 76 Honda CB550F. nothing too crazy, going to put some knee dents in the tank, drag bars, paint it, cut the fenders, that kind of thing.

Just curious...do most of you take the center stand off your bike? Or leave it on? I figured it might be a good way to lose a bit of weight and clean up the bike a bit. might make maintenance on front or rear wheel, chain etc. a bit more challenging, but I was thinking about getting one of those bike stands anyways.

-Ron
Click to expand...
From personal experience i would get rid of it, it limits ground clearance when riding hard. When it digs in ......ouch.
could Leave the mounts and put it on when needed or better still get a paddock stand they are cheap
 
yeah, the more I think about it, the more I agree. no centerstand. I may even cut off the mounts. given the other stuff I plan to do to this bike, it isn't ever going back to being "stock". less stuff hanging off = cleaner = lighter = faster = corners better. like you said, a paddock stand (or whatever they're called) is pretty cheap, and something I plan on getting so I can pop up the front or rear end when I need to do some work. the whole backend is off so now's the time to do it.

as long as form follows function, I don't think I can go wrong with my plans for this bike.

-Ron
 
Even though the centre stand mounts are pretty small on your bike, I'd get rid of them. Are you stripping the bike right down? I completely trimmed my frame of all extra brackets. Everything, including the steering tube fork lock. I had mine powdered after, so I wanted to do as much as possible. The 550 frame is pretty clean as it is though, so maybe not much to remove.
 
once I put the back end together I will strip down the front. basically, I find it easier to do one end at a time. I dont have a lot of room in my "shop" to sort/store all the parts, and with the lift it's easy to do it this way. I am not going to drop the motor out of the frame, but other than that (and one end at a time) the bike will be completely stripped. Like you said, the frame is pretty clean as it is.
 
Then I'd just carefully grind off the centre stand mounts and touch up the paint while you have the back end off. You should also put some bronze bushings in the swingarm while you've got it off.

You won't notice the stand mounts on or off, but at the end of the day they're not needed and you'll know they're gone.
 
yeah, that's the plan. I think I'll work on cutting/grinding them off tonight.

as for the bronze bushings, I have seen those for $40/pair. do they really improve the handling significantly? it seemed pretty tight with no slop in the swing arm before I took it off. I've heard good things about them though, and now is the time to do it while I have the back end apart. But those $40 items add up fast, and I have a somewhat limited budget for the project.
 
I know what you mean - you'll be fine without them - I can't imagine any real difference.
 
The plastics were fine in my 650 and both 400s, but I got the bronze just cuz I really don't feel like ripping it apart sometime down the road. $40 was worth the savings of my time and frustration doing it later when I want to be riding it. And thats cheap compared to the needle bearing kits you can get.
 
If you have got that lift as shown in the picture, why do you need a centre stand or even a paddock stand?

BTW - I also am doing a '76 CB550 SS. I will drop the centre stand off once I get the engine back in.

Also : Wish I had thought of putting in knee dents on my tank. Too late now - its at the painters.
 
hey Shooter, I'd like to see some pictures of your 550.

as for the lift, it's great when I'm really digging into a bike. but for every day type stuff, or just wanting to store the bike upright for a long period, it's a real pain to use it. for one thing its heavy, plus it takes up a bunch of room in my already small garage area. so when Im done with the bike, I will stash away the lift until the next big project. And probably use a paddock stand in the mean time.

-Ron
 
I am well overdue to post some pix of my 550 and will get my act together in a couple of days. There was a stage where it was more bits than bike so I didnt bother posting up the pix.

Currently it is a rolling frame (and looking great) and I am waiting on return of the engine and tank which I have hopes for next week.

Here is where it started at : http://dotheton.com/index.php?topic=567.0
 
great looking bike! the swingarm and frame look TERRIFIC all fresh and powdercoated. that's one thing I wish I could have done to my bike, but the budget didn't allow it, so I just touched up the frame and put a coat of black chassis paint on the swingarm.

I look forward to checking in on your progress. I think the fun really starts when you start putting it back together, looks like you are ready to get to it. have fun!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

DTT Light or Dark

  • DTT Light
    • www.jadusmotorcycleparts.com
    www.lostapostle.ca/
    www.sparckmoto.com

    Spread the Love

    Back
    Top Bottom