Electric Center Stand

[EricV]

It would seem some folks don't yet understand that you don't lift the bike when you put it on the center stand.

Seems like every bike forum goes thru this education process. You press down on the center stand leg, that's your force multiplier. The handle is only guiding the process. No jerking and yanking required. Sure, fully loaded it takes more effort, because we load the back of the bike and that's what's being raised by the center stand.

CW probably just dumps the bike on it's side when he need to pull the rear wheel during a trip.

I like to park on the center stand in the garage. Saves a little on fork seals, IMHO. In the wild I mostly use the side stand. More stable w/o a wheel off the ground and with a good side stand foot.

I did find this during web searches. Seems old and the web site address I found is no longer valid. http://users.eastlink.ca/~equalizer/

Most of the powered center stands are marketed for HDs with lower ground clearance and require an air bag suspension to lower the bike onto the stand.

 

[Don in Lodi]

My trailer hitch doesn't come close to the center stand. And I can stand my full 300# on that lever and the bike will not come up. It's takes an active lift to get it over the top. It would be an easy cut and weld to shorten a center stand enough to ease the lift.

 

[Checkswrecks]

That works fine at home in your own shop but what are your plans for removing the rear wheel while on a trip ? I have only owned a Tenere for a few years but have needed to remove the rear wheel while on trips twice, first time was to replace a rear tire, second time was to replace rear wheel bearings, without a centerstand it would have cost me a lot more money. Every motorcycle I’ve ever owned came equipped with a centerstand and I would be very reluctant to buy one without.
I realize you were forced to remove your centerstand to install the trailer hitch, but for anyone not using a trailer removing the centerstand seems like not a very good idea.

Brother Eric got it. While I realize this is probably heresy, I'd either pull out my AMA tow card or simply remove the axle nut and then lay the bike on its' left side to remove and re-install the rear wheel. It wouldn't be the first time the bike has been on it's side.

Till then, plugging the rear tire has worked fine and I recently needed to do it with an almost brand new tire. That's life when commuting into the city and parking with the rear wheel to the curb.

 

[Checkswrecks]

My trailer hitch doesn't come close to the center stand. And I can stand my full 300# on that lever and the bike will not come up. It's takes an active lift to get it over the top. It would be an easy cut and weld to shorten a center stand enough to ease the lift.

In the first photo, you can see how the drag bar for the hitch would keep the stand from fully retracting.

Now:

 

[Don in Lodi]

Hmm, same hitch. I'm gonna have to look closer next time I have the hitch mounted up. I did wrap a bit of hose around the hitch 'cause it rattled against the stand, I just don't recall it pushing things that far down.