Broken Side-Stand

[Russ-AFC]

The side stand on my GS12A broke yesterday leaving me in the embarassing position of struggling to pick it up fully loaded in a car park off the A5 services near Shrewsbury in full view of many bemused travellers.
Has anyone else had this happen to their bike? Do BMW honour this sort of thing under their warranty? (Its only 6 months old) It seems to be quite a thin weld that has failed considering the type/weight of bike. When i looked inside the tube/lower portion of stand that had broken away, it seems to have stretched slightly and fatigue cracked just below the weld.
Luckily no damage to bike, apparently it slid over quite gracefully/slowly, coming to rest on the engine crash bar and the pannier just slightly marking both.

 

[araspitfire]

First one I've heard of... though I'm sure it's happened before...

I know I used to pivot my XL350 around on my sidestand, but obviously bike too big and sidestand too wimpy in the case of 1200...

New bike, warrantee... make sure they clean up the scuffs...

Al...

 

[Brian ROSEN]

Tipping over

".....engine crash bar and the pannier just slightly marking both."
It amazes me that the crash bars are an option - is there anyone who has had their GS for more than a few months who has NOT had it on its side even in the drive or garage? Mine went over on a gravel car park and the bars saved it although the gravel made a few indents in the magnesium rocker covers which are very easily damaged.

 

[Matt splat]

I dropped the testbike on my first test run

Low speed, tight turning circle, full tank of fuel and me on tip toes, it was never gonna go well

If a sidestand breaks it will be through a weld failure. Thats a manufacturing fault, hence covered by warranty, but im sure they will try the "you overloaded it" approach!

 

[Big Lee]

Happened before http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29764&highlight=sidestand+weld

 

[Matt splat]

Sidestands, centrestands, cradles and all other gubbins are welded by robot, not by hand. Its usually a numpty operator putting bits in a jig and pressing a button. Maybe 1 in 25 (on paper) are checked, in my experience, maybe 1 in a 100 are checked. If its way out, the robot will be adjusted or recalibrated.

Some will always be better or worse than others.

 

[Gerry47]

This happened to me. I noticed a rust mark all the way round the weld and a lot of free play in the side stand when it was up, just lucky to spot it before it failed. The dealer replaced it no problem but said he never heard of it happening before. My bike is a 07 GSA.

 

[Janie]

As long as your ok..........its only a bike it can be fixed...but i would try and get some free goodies out of it.................

 

[Russ-AFC]

Thanks

Cheers for the replies folks. Contacted N. Oxford BMW and they will replace it for me under warranty, they said they hadnt heard of it happening before which it seems it obviously has, they havent tried the 'you must have overloaded it' yet Matt.
Brian, the crash bars are standard on the Adventure but agree it would be sensible to have on the GS too as it seems to have protected all the other areas on the bike ably assisted by the pannier!
Big Lee, this is a different weld that has failed from the thread you sent. Just below the swivel joint there is a weld attaching the lower tube and foot to the swivel joint. Sorry cant post pictures. I will certainly check the other area on the frame now you have pointed it out to me though.
Ishom, now it has broken there is a very light surface rust inside the tube. Wether this was the original problem weakening the weld or not cant be sure. I dont think so, i believe it was a stressed area that allowed a small fatigue crack to start that then allowed the ingress of moisture shortly before failing.
Janie, im fine thanks, just excersised my back picking it up. Not sure i have the right shape to try for freebies unfortunately, they have no female staff there i can flirt with.