Center stand help

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Johnnymac said:
One, it is not exactly easy to get the bike on the stand. I certainly wouldn't try in public...Am I not doing it right. How do you guys put your centerstand down?
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Agreed, it isn't the easiest of stands to use. If you put your foot on the prong and use your bodyweight to do the work then the bike should lift reasonably easily.

Johnnymac said:
Also, I have my norton on a big square of vinyl flooring in my garage so that the oil doesn't soak into my floor. Well, if I start my bike on the stand.... it vibrates across the room!
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Well... don't start it up on the stand! But seriously, they usually do that if you rev the engine with the bike standing on a hard floor.

Try using a thick rubber mat under the stand as that helps to absorb the vibes which cause it to move around.
 
Fixing it is such a dirty and difficult job . . . . One of our vendors might dream up a kit . . . . . Maybe a pair of REAL bearings/bushings?
 
To make it easier to put on the stand just do like I did ..... remove the tank, seat, electrics, brakes, carbs, handlebars, silencers, exhaust pipes and anything else that gets in the way and bingo! its as light as a feather and dead easy to put on the stand :D

Or alternatively you could place your right foot on the centre stand tang (the sticky out bit), making sure that both centre stand feet are on firm ground for stability. With your right hand hold on to something solid at the rear of the bike like a frame tube (not the seat!!). Then with your left hand keeping the front wheel in line with rear put all your weight onto the tang and at the same time pull up with your right hand, the bike should easily pop onto its stand. Its all to do with technique :D
Do it this way to avoid a bad back :(
 
I don't use my centre stand out in public. Since when I do use it for storage in the garage, I put 2 pieces of 1 x under the stand and that makes it even harder. What I do is roll the front wheel up on a 2 x , take the seat off (easy for a 69/70) get the stand feet down solid, put my right foot on the tang so it doesn't go under it or slip, and give it the old one-two with both hands on the rear loop. Of course with my short side stand I keep a bunch of little 1X and 2X pieces around to use under that as well.

I really haven't tried it without the boards, but again, it's like carrying double 12' pieces of sheet rock or starting the beast, the more you do it, the easier it gets. It's mostly a matter of balance and throwing your weight into it.

Dave
69S
 
Mine must the easiest to do. I just grab the bar with my left hand and the tail with my right and just roll it back at the same time I push down on the tang and let momentum do the rest.
Easy peezy. Of course I'm only 55 yo :D
 
My side stand was thrown away 20 years ago; it drug on the ground. Hacked it's lug off too. That helped to tuck in the head pipe.

Chopped off the center stand's the foot lever off too; same problem, dragging and bouncing on the ground while under way.

My height/inseam/arm length must be just right as I just "toe" the stand down to the ground and heft the bike up by the left handle bar grip and the rear loop.

The bike was sitting too low when on the stand because the bushings/holes were worn out. Couldn't spin the rear tire when it was on the stand. So . . . . I tack welded some big nuts onto the bottom of the two feet to lift the bike another 5/8 inch. Later, when I got around to rebuilding/welding the bushings/holes, I thereby got back the lift, and now it was too high and too hard to get it overcenter, so I had to grind off the tack welds to rid myself of those two nuts.
 
My side stand was thrown away 20 years ago; it drug on the ground. Hacked it's lug off too. That helped to tuck in the head pipe.
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yep, me too

I got tired of dragging the weight around and having it bounce up and down and wear the frame holes bigger.

Bought a Commando rear stand from Pit Bull a couple year ago for about $140.

Takes about 30 seconds to slide the Pit Bull under the supplied lower shock lugs and lever it up for any servicing.
 
Johnnymac said:
Thanks for all the tips guys. I got in touch with Jim Noll and he is going to see if he has something that will work for me. He said that he does still have the part 064873 that LAB recommended but Jim said that he thought my stand holes may be too large. I am sending him the diameter specs today and will see if he has something that will work. I will let you know if we find a solution.... It would have been a lot easier just buying the full kit instead of piecing this together. Lesson learned.
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Centre stands seem to take a real beating on Commandos - I threw out one from an 11K bike which had broken, been welded, was wearing out and was in a shocking state.

New ones aren't all that expensive (great advice right now... right? :| ), and readily available. It's easy to forget how much stuff is still being made for these bikes, and at reasonable prices.

That said, the stepped spacers may be the answer here. From recollection, the pre-'73 stand had vertcal flanges which finished short of the cross-member, whereas the later ones extended further, resulting in a much stiffer structure - looks to have been introduced for the 850, so I'm guessing you have the 'better' 850 stand?

http://www.nortonmotors.de/ANIL/Norton% ... &Plate=013
 
After putting my neck out trying to put my 70 roadster on its centre stand I took DogT's advice and lifted the front wheel. Instead of using a block of wood as he does I commandeered my kids' skateboard ramp and run the bike up on that- then back it onto the stand; it makes using the stand easy; but side stand only on the street.
 
DogT knows the early stands have no feet to speak of and anything less than a solid vertical perch can mean a fallover creating grief and damage and gas flows and blue swearing.
 
Johnnymac said:
I tell you what.... this centerstand is not all it is cracked up to be....

One, it is not exactly easy to get the bike on the stand. I certainly wouldn't try in public...Am I not doing it right. How do you guys put your centerstand down?

Also, I have my norton on a big square of vinyl flooring in my garage so that the oil doesn't soak into my floor. Well, if I start my bike on the stand.... it vibrates across the room!
Click to expand...

If I recall correctly, I use to pull my bike to the rear to apply some weight to the center-stand then pull the hadlebars hard over on the left side. Then I just pulled on the left side grip and rocked the bike back on to the stand. Thats my recollection from thirty years ago when I was about 130lbs. I never had a side-stand and I never recalled having a problem.
 
Technique. All your weight must be on that centerstand left-lug. Then you need very little upper-body workage. Whew.
 
When you're 20 years old, you just don't worry about these things. You just do it.

Dave
69S
 
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