Ron...
Unfortunately......"Been there...done that".
I need to sit astride, and use all my strength and weight to get it to kick through. Short legs...tip toe at the red light thing. Not as bad now as it used to be, as there must indeed be less compression now...never did a rebore/piston new thing...but... I need the full program anyway. Not bad.....been doing this for 30 years, after the side stand bolt got replaced...all is hunky dory. No more falling down in front of 20 other "bikers". But the "stand next to it thing and kick it" thing, is a bummer. I can do it, but if you don't get it just right and the bike moves a bit towards balance point in the process of kicking...., the bike might start, but the stand has in the meantime slammed up and you are now standing off balance, with 400 hundred pounds of leaning machine held only by your left hand, and.....Oh no! Ladies and gentlemen...this doesn't look good! And away she goes!
My center stand...
The point that they break...yup....been there too. The bolt holes wear out...yup. They do. But mine won't break any more. When I stood at the welders', with one leg of the stand in one hand and the rest of the stand in the other.....I noticed the stand is made of hollow stock. Not any more. A Hack saw parted the other leg from the stand, and magically, good old solid bar stock fit perfectly inside the hollow sections of stand...couple quick welds and my stand now weighs more than anybody elses in the forum...but it ain't gonna break no more... :wink:
Safety wired, Hex head Shoulder screws with bronze bushings and welding nuts on the inside of the tranny cradle took care of the wearing out of the bolts, and the baby is now built to last.
Main point is...I can get it started...just find having the return spring setup is not only damned inconvenient, but literally more dangerous than the way it used to be. One time forgetting the stand down....was enough to make me remember...but the EU has another mentality. They think we are all too stupid to remember to flip the stand up....Hummmm....might be right! :wink: