Defeating side stand switch non-destructively

I have defeated my side stand switch in order to allow myself to swing the side-stand down when in gear. Why would I do such a thing? There are several traffic signals whose sensors are set too weak to sense the bike, and dropping the side stand right on the sensor wire is enough to trip the signals. Also, if on uneven ground, if I stall, I can put down the side stand, and re-start without having to balance too many things at once. It is easy to do but I am too lazy to post instructions and pictures unless someone else actually wants to know This can be done by anyone with sufficent skill to use a razor blade without cutting himself/herself [too deeply, anyway]

A friend in work has just attended a funeral of a biker who is suspected of riding away leaving his side stand down.

Be careful.

panzerphil said:

A friend in work has just attended a funeral of a biker who is suspected of riding away leaving his side stand down.

Be careful.

Click to expand...

Duly noted...
It is only relatively recently that BMW has built side stands that even stay down... our airhead boxers HAVE to be left in gear or they pop up in a three mph breeze... but I learned that lesson on a couple of my non-BMW bikes a long time ago, and I reflexively sweep my foot past the sidestand every time I take off, pretty much. I've also never trusted that any motorcycle is actually in neutral when starting it. - always clutched...(or de-clutched, I suppose.)


Mind you, you have not been embarrased until you have driven off with the fork lock engaged - I did that on my R100 once, described a long, graceful arc across a plaza, and and uncerenoniously high-sided at 12 mph in front of a hundred or so Wall Street executives walking to lunch.

you might want to consider one of these

http://www.greenlightstuff.com/trigger.html

Dickieboy said:

you might want to consider one of these

http://www.greenlightstuff.com/trigger.html

Click to expand...

my recollection of an article in Motorcycle Consumer News was that these magnets tend not to be that effective... Part of the issue is that the mass of the bike is much further from the ground than R1100S which has less trouble tripping the sensors... If I mount the magnet lower than the skid-pan, it won't last long when I am off-road... if I mount it higher than the skid pan, it is likely to be ineffective. I already own the side stand and it is securely attached to the bike, so I favor the simple solution
Dropping the side stand onto the loop almost always trips recacitrant sensors...

vfxmark said:

Mind you, you have not been embarrased until you have driven off with the fork lock engaged - I did that on my R100 once, described a long, graceful arc across a plaza, and and uncerenoniously high-sided at 12 mph in front of a hundred or so Wall Street executives walking to lunch.

Click to expand...

My own little gem was getting off the bike having forgot to put sidestand down first and then having to gently lay my beloved on it's side without getting my leg broken at the same time, luckily I was shielded from the view of 40-50 bikers by a small cafe building.

I aleays did wonder why American handbooks have different instructions from Europe.

"Do not use your microwave to dry your pet"

WTF do you want to steady yourself with the sidestand after you stall? Is it not just quicker to put a foot down than wrestle with the stand?

The Land Of The Free and The Home Of The Compensation Lawyer! It all makes sense now!

I'll bet BMW USA are reading this and sending the handbooks of to re print as we type!!

vfxmark said:

There are several traffic signals whose sensors are set too weak to sense the bike, and dropping the side stand right on the sensor wire is enough to trip the signals.

Click to expand...

Ah! Thanks for that, I have one set of lights (A49 Sandiway) that do not recognise a bike. I now know what to do.
Seem so simple, why didn't I think of it.
Mark

Mark



I have come across the same thing there (heading towards weaverham) but have found that if you stop your bike directly on the left hand side of the sensor, they seem to work.

Lugs said:

I aleays did wonder why American handbooks have different instructions from Europe.

"Do not use your microwave to dry your pet"

WTF do you want to steady yourself with the sidestand after you stall? Is it not just quicker to put a foot down than wrestle with the stand?

The Land Of The Free and The Home Of The Compensation Lawyer! It all makes sense now!

I'll bet BMW USA are reading this and sending the handbooks of to re print as we type!!

Click to expand...

Well, your logic escapes me...I don't quite see what my sidestand has to do with an alleged warning in a microwave oven manual

Primary interest in defeating the switch was to be able to deploy it at a few left turn lanes where the signal sensors are as insensitive as a Thatcherite at a refugee camp.

Secondary reason was to eliminate one more starter cut-out switch that I might damage in the rain in the mud while falling onto a rock...better to defeat it now

Thirdly, I have found that on an off-camber dirt road going up a hill or whatever, fully loaded with camping kit etc, I would like to be able to re-start my stalled bike without simulaneously trying to hold it up. This was possible with my airhead GS. I may never need to do so, but since I always check my sidestand before riding off anyway, I felt that for me, the switch is superfluous.

It sounds like I am a lone voice crying out in the wilderness

I love listening to people slag off us colonials for our litigious natures and silly consumer protection laws...
...mind you, I have happily traded the extra page of warnings in the manuals (the few times my Yankee Testosterone Poisoning has allowed me to open one) for the privilege [over the last thirty years of my life]of purchasing an alcoholic beverage at night... Any civilized country will allow its citizens to buy a beer at a bar at midnight or one in the morning... most big cities allow 2am or 4am...
...why your government wouldn't trust its citizens with the privilege after 11pm escaped me until I lived in England and saw what happened at last call

I'm not trying to start a flame war here...not with our Texan trying to figure out how to start a war with Iran before he leaves office...
...but we're not ALL idiots over here...nor are we all lawyers, thank God or Entropy or whatever else you might believe in.

We don't even all own closets full of guns - some of us only have a few

And we don't have speed cameras yet, due to some successful arguments that proof of a vehicle speeding is not the same as proof of its legal owner speeding.

We don't even have security cameras all over all of our public spaces yet... though I suspect that the current climate of fear that the gov't is promoting so successfully will eventually lead to further erosion of our rights to privacy and rights to freedom from harrassment by the government that we allegedly empower and the police force that presumably exists to serve us...

ahhhhhh, sorry - too much caffeine

Hey dude

Don`t get too wound up with the anti yank thing. Us thinking people know the real American people and what a place to ride a bike. Been stateside more times than i can remember with and without the bike and I`ve never been to a more welcoming country. I reckon the most unbelievable biking roads are over in Central Calif and the R33 I think) from Ojai up toward Taft is fantastic. Zip up to Coalinga and take the 198 (again I think) toward King City and up to Monteray via Carmel Valley...sweet.
Just to prove that all Americans aren`t eveil, a couple of pics of Harley rally I found in Hot Springs Arkansas in 2005. Didn`t get shot or robbed but I did get very drunk. Just look at all those furkin Harleys and one decent bike:

Mark
Don't take it to heart, we're all a load of pisstakers on this forum and will give stick to anybody regardless of race creed or colour, and you being a SEPTIC is red rag to a bull time.
Bloody Colonials etc
BUT it's your own bloody fault
you HAD a airhead
You sold it
ERGO you're an idiot.
But you like 2cv's, so thats you on my christmas card list !!

Well thanks for yer kind words, ya pommy bahstids.(me sainted mum grew up Down Under)

ya might have noticed I rarely run from a debate

What can I say - after a dozen or so years, I finally sold my airhead (before the clutch job, instead of after it) but I still have my wife's R80ST to play with when I feel the need to touch carburetors.

This might be sacrilage, but given how poor my offroad skills were in the early nineties, (not that they are much better now) I actually find the 1200GS easier for me on gravel and dirt roads than the R100GS... though that may have to do more with my head than the bikes.


Chris mentioned my favorite road - Rte 33 out of Ojai headed towards Taft. We used to camp at a motorcyle campround called Songdog Ranch on that road - we now have a weekend place not far from there, so I take that road frequently ... it and the road going north out of Moab in Utah are two of the best roads in the world for sweepers... lots of sweepers and no traffic.

and rarely ice.


but don't tell anybody as it is a secret

Come visit - we have hot water and everything...beds enough for the first few of you and the rest will just have to drink enough to sleep on the thermarests