Dragging side stand

I'm getting the frame and parts ready to paint on my 71 Roadster project and need to decide what to do about stands. I had a new 72 once upon a time and, as I recall, I removed the side stand because it drug when cornering. The 71 will have a higher than stock ride height so it probably won't be a concern but I wanted to ask.
Anyway, has anybody experienced this?

Do you have the original sidestand on the 71 or has it been upgraded to the later style? If original, you should probably leave it off. Those things are dangerous.

Back in the old days I used to scrape the sidestand a lot on my 73 850, but these days I don't. Most of us are older and a little more conservative now! So it may not be an issue anyway...

Debby

There's no side stand on the bike right now. I've got an Andover upgraded lug that hasn't been put on plus all the parts for the center stand. I'm thinking about just putting the center stand on and calling it good.

Quite the coincidence...I've just recieved the lug and side stand kit from Andover, myself. I HAVE been running without the side stand using only the center stand since purchasing my 74 Commando 9 years ago. For some reason unknown to me, the side stand and lug had been removed when the PO restored and powder coated the frame.

To have only the center stand is inconvenient at least, and worked out to be a disaster at worst.

-If on the slightest hill, it's difficult to shift the weight of the bike onto the stand, and then to get it off again. If you point it downhill, a sneeze will push it off. If you point it cross hill, then it falls over.

-If on soft ground, say the shoulder of a road, again forget putting it up on the center stand. It needs a firm surface for stability.

And the thing that made me decide to finally deal with damaging the powder coated frame was last fall when my wife dropped her bike onto her ankle. It was at a stop on a small hill and there I was fumbling with trying to get my bike out of gear and onto the center stand. What a mess!

To make matters worse, she wasn't able to put any weight on one leg so there wasn't a practical way to get her onto the Norton on it's center stand. She couldn't raise her leg high enough to clear the seat. Remember, it's on a small hill, so pushing off with two aboard would have been impossible, anyway. We used her bike which HAD a side stand. She draped the bad leg over and up the bike went. But I still needed to find a place to park my bike. Yup, you guessed it, nothing but soft shoulder.

That did it, no question that a side stand was required.

For littlefield: It'll be a lot easier to put it on now rather than trying to retro-fit it later.

Gene

Good point, Gene. I'll put on the lug and add the stand in the future if needed.

Where do you attach the spring for the sidestand?

Spring hooks into a hole in the bottom of the front crossmember on the frame.