Shortening a GSA centre stand

[Mark Hooton]

Purchased a shorter side stand

I had my bike lowered too (wilburs) and I simply purchased a shorter side stand and fitted it and it seemingly worked fine!

(i`m too bloody stupid to do all the trig-e-nom-a-tree)

But you can always get it chopped down..............

what Miff says is right - it won`t be a weak spot if it is properly sleeeved.

 

[Bendy toy]

I had my bike lowered too (wilburs) and I simply purchased a shorter side stand and fitted it and it seemingly worked fine!

(i`m too bloody stupid to do all the trig-e-nom-a-tree)

But you can always get it chopped down..............

what Miff says is right - it won`t be a weak spot if it is properly sleeeved.

My GSA must have a vanilla GS side stand. The booger is so short I can hardly haul the bike upright.

Chop the feet off and it won't need a sleeve in the joint.

 

[karlp]

To give you some idea.

I had my GSA lowered by 50mm using Wilbers shocks.

I now use a LOWERED GS main stand and that works fine.

I initially bought a normal GS stand but that was still a major effort to get it up.

I have also used a lowered GS side stand and that is perfect.

All mountings and spring mounts are ok.

 

[Rare-Red]

Just been out to the garage fcuk it's cold out there.

Measures 1 1/4" 2012 GSA running on Dunlop Road Smarts

 

[KevinW]

Sorry for my tardy response. I have a kidney stone so I'm not at my desk as often as I would normally be.

Thanks Rare-Red, that's about 31mm. I went out to measure mine yesterday and it was 60mm off the ground but of course the tyres will make an unknown difference.

Bendy Toy (where do these names comes from?!) I thought it would be easier to explain what I was after in an email so I sent one to Xtreme early on Thursday morning. No response yet.

It's possible I've missed some responses I should have replied to as it's not exactly comfortable to sit here so I'll have a proper read of the thread later today. I'll also see if my very rusty maths (it's a long time since I was at school) can help me work it out mathematically as Fanum suggests.

While I was seeing how high the wheel was off the ground I did measure the distance between the centre of where the tyres did or would touch down which was 150cm and the centre of the centre stand which was 85cm behind the front wheel.

Kevin

 

[WindyChuffer]

Dont bother.

Just use side stand.

Why do you use centre stand?

If you are going to shorten anything then don't weld the tubes together. Instead weld feet on, just like the stock stands.

 

[Bobbin-Man]

Dont bother.

Just use side stand.

Why do you use centre stand?

If you are going to shorten anything then don't weld the tubes together. Instead weld feet on, just like the stock stands.

Mine always goes on the centre stand when re-fuelling. I assumed most people did that ....... particularly since the recent thread on it!

 

[WindyChuffer]

Mine always goes on the centre stand when re-fuelling. I assumed most people did that ....... particularly since the recent thread on it!

Yes good point....but only to help brim the tank. Not essential though eh?

But as you've had your suspension lowered, the side stand will effectively be longer and keep the bike more upright....potentially fixing the fuelling problem you have...or you now have another problem with the side stand now being too long.

Either way, its an easy one for a welder to chop the feet off, chop & re-weld the feet back on.

 

[KevinW]

You're getting confused as to who has shortened the suspension; it's me who did that, not Bobbin-Man. The original question wasn't about how to shorten it, it was about how much to shorten it by.

I use it on its centre stand for refuelling, cleaning and some parking where I think it will be more secure on the centre stand (and on the Iceland ferry but our bank account needs to recover before we do that again so it'll be a while).

The same problem applied to the side stand BTW. The one from the GSA was too long, the GS one was too short. I resisted for a while as I thought they were too expensive but I eventually bought a GS sidekicker which has worked well.

Kevin

 

[jim123]

With the original stand and lowered susp. the problem is that the bike goes nose heavy when you try to lift it onto the stand which means there's a lot of effort needed to get the stand past the pivot point to raise the rear wheel. This may convince you to shave off more of the stand than you will need. Then your bike might be more prone to running off the stand with a gentle pedestrian nudge forward.

Might be wise to experiment with rolling the bike onto say a 10mm piece of wood under each wheel, check the lift effort etc. if no good try something a little thicker. The optimum depth of wood under each wheel should tell you what to take off the stand.
Have you priced a centre stand for a factory bike with the low suspension option?

 

[Bendy toy]

If the stand is too long, hauling the bike up might also overstress the centre stand leading to cracks. I'm well familiar with that problem having had a Yamaha and a stand of correct length but made from beer cans.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-R1200...49?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts&hash=item3cce2e5935

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-R1200...17?pt=UK_Motorcycle_Parts&hash=item35c39e55a1

 

[roamer]

shortening gsa stand,

Hi kevin w,
i had the same issue with an 1150 and now my 1200 gsa after fitting wp lower suspension,
to get the measurement i trapped a piece of string under the front tyre and drew it back under the rear tyre in the centre of tread,
this was done whilst on centre stand,
then ran a straight edge across the stand legs and marked them where the string passed the stand, added 5mm plus the thickness of the feet
which i cut off and ground the welds off, i also cut the bracing at the welds on the legs with a dremel and ground welds off
re fitted feet tacked on for a test then finished off and painted,
tyre now 20mm off ground and dead easy to put on the main stand
time and patience reqd but no but joints in tubes which i felt worth the effort,, Roamer

 

[KevinW]

In the end I called Darren at MCT who had fitted the shorter WESA suspension for me, something I probably should have done in the first place. He wasn't there so I left a message and he called me back on Tuesday.

He told me with the 15mm shorter shocks the rear wheel would now be about 30mm higher than it was originally (that was pretty much what I saw when I compared Rare-Red's measurement with mine). To bring it back to where it was originally I needed to shorten the centre stand by 18mm.

I dropped the stand into the bike shop on Thursday, explained what I wanted - feet removing and lower tubes shortened by 18mm but go less rather than more - and left it with them. The guy who did it was near our house yesterday afternoon (Friday) so dropped off the modified stand which he'd painted and lacquered suggesting I fit it and use it for a while to make sure it was OK before I go to the expense of having it powder coated.

I've just put it on. The rear wheel is now about 35mm off the ground which is very similar to Rare-Red's standard set-up, the bike is much more stable when it's on the stand and the stand is easier to use so I'm rather pleased .

Thanks all for your input and another round of applause from me for MCT Suspension in Stowmarket and Alford Bros. in Folkestone.

Kevin