Never, never use a side stand to kick your Norton to life no matter how much compression it has, when I first brought my 850 Commando new I was 5'8 and 9 stone nothing with chicken legs so I used the side stand all the time for kicking but after just 6 months the side stand was flogged out at the lug and even using the centre stand for starting one side mounting bolt broke and the bike nearly fell over with me on it.
I have never used any stand since, I learned how to kick it to life with all stands up and out of the way, my Norton has a lot more compression now than it did back in the 70s, but a neat trick I use to start my Norton on the road I have my left leg on the gutter of the road which is a bit higher than the road, the extra height of the left leg makes it a lot easier to kick with your kicking leg, up in the shed I have a concrete besser block about the same height of a gutter on the road that I use, just having that extra height for the left leg helps a lot with kicking, I learned this trick when young and skinny with my chicken legs.
Having a T160 longer kicker also make life easier on kicking over the 850 and having a motor that starts on first kick every time helps as well, I can kick it on flat ground but its a lot easier with the left leg up higher by a few inches makes a big difference.
When I did the conversion to the Featherbed frame back in the 80s I ran it with out any side stand or centre stand for 25 years or more, everyone knew my bike as it was always leaning on house wall, post or fence when parked lol, I now have a short clamp on side stand just for parking and nothing else.
It always pay to learn to kick start your Norton without using any stands at all, as I learned the knack a very long time ago, well 46+ years ago and by the way I still have chicken legs lol.
Ashley
