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OK.. other than the obvious weight savings, is there a reason why are you guys ditching your center stands? Personally, I use mine more than the side stand but there is a reason, I am still building both my bikes!
This got me thinking about how I would perform maintenance on a bike without one. Sure there are the jacks at Habor Freight and such but on my GL and on the CB the headers run under the engine & below the frame... I do not want to put the weight on the exhaust or try to keep it ballanced on wood blocks place statigically on the oil pan or frame rails.
Sure the old iron Horseshoe weighs more, but I think dumping the side stand and its frame ears for it would clean up the look. Plus to me, a bike just looks friggin COOL on the old center stand.
I've removed the center stand on my 750 and have yet to have a problem. Of course my exhaust runs beside my frame so the jack stands are no problem for me. I removed it both for weight and look and I'm happy with it thus far (6 months +).
You can get a race stand for cheap, I see them on Craigslist occasionally and HF might even have one. Or if you're handy with a welder they look like pretty simple projects. Heck, get two so you can get both wheels off the ground at once, then you can play MotoGP mechanic and see how long it takes to drop the motor.
I'm probably going to drop my center stand at some point. It's probably 10 pounds of steel, and it sort of sticks out under the bike and looks unclean. Also, since I changed the mufflers the center doesn't retract quite right anymore, as it used to rest against the left muffler.
Yes, at times. The addition of the DG chambers necessatated the removal of my centerstand. I'm about to have lugs welded to my swingarm for spools. Then I'll be able to use my race stands
I run only my centerstand on both the Norton and the XS650. ON the yamaha I drug the handle for the sidestand a lot and kept braking it off. So the last time I took it off to weld it back on, the return spring broke, and I just left it off. Sometimes a pain if you park on a hill to get the bike off the centerstand.
I've beenthinking about this a lot lately. On all of my bikes thus far the first thing to go is the center stand. I've got one bike that'll end up pretty 'vintage' styled adn it needs a center stand so I'm thinking about fabricating one from aluminum.
I removed the center stand on my Kz650, it was big ugly and heavy ;D and I do miss it when it comes to lubing the chain ???
Just recently i figured out how to lift the rear wheel by put it on the side stand and useing a small trolly jack under the old center stand brkt ...This lifts it up nicely so i can spin the rear wheel 8) 8)
yeah, me too. I use a bent nail for a pin to hold the sleeve in place. you don't need the spring and whatnot. it will just drag on the ground if you move it around, though.
I was just thinking about this today, happily through shear luck, my centre stand fits nicely around the exhaust i built. I've been using it like the 2 gents above, but since it fits so nicely I think i may just put it permanently back on the bike.
Harbor freight has the spools and the stands I picked up a set of spools from them today just cause i was there and they were cheap. I use the center stand on me gs because it has one and I dont yet have a race stand. but once I get a race stand I will probably ditch the center stand or the bike one or the other. They are handy and the bikes def look cool sitting on them but they look cool on a race stand too.
I removed my center stand to fit my aftermarket exhaust system and I'm about to remove my hacked up side stand as well. In the garage I use a pair of Pit Bull stands for servicing. I figure when I take the bike out for a ride I'll just lean it against a building or whatever if I need to park it somewhere.
Whatever you do, don't remove the center stand from the GL at all...regardless of any fractional weight savings on such a heavy bike, it's suggested by most in the know to always park a GL on it's center stand. Parking on the side stand will let fluids accumulate on one side of the horizontally opposed engine. Vertical engines, no problem, but with the GL, it needs to be parked at a level, to reduce potential damages. I always park my GL on the center stand.
Ive been himmin and hawin about pulling mine on my repli-racer-cafe. I do like being able to give it more support if it needs by standing it up and it would make servicing easier if needed on the road. I may also build a light weight aluminum one too replace the anchor.
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