most modern bike stand

pls chk dis nd comment on de design

http://createthefuturecontest.com/pages/view/entriesdetail.html?entryID=798

 

I failed a recent mechanical aptitude test quite abysmally, so you will
understand that your product description was a tad technical for me. BUT -
anything that would make it easier for this short-arse to park my bike on
uneven ground is a winner AFAIK.

Um.... having said that.... as an English teacher it took me a little while
to decipher your original post...<grin> Is that "hoodspeak"??? I'm sure (at
least I hope!) your design is more user friendly to the general motorcycling
community than your post!

Please tell me (because I'm a techno-numpty) - this IS a centre-stand,
right? And it works at the press of a button? So somebody like me, who
simply cannot get the hang of getting my bike on the centre stand, could use
your whiz-bang device with ease when, for example, I just want to lube or
clean the chain??? If so, you will be my hero forever (sorry Johno!)

betty

 

90% of your effort should be pushing your foot down on the stand

 

In aus.motorcycles on Mon, 22 Oct 2007 17:47:59 +1000

And 10% is swearing at the moron who designed it.

Who the hell removed the excellent roll on stand on the Norge[1] and
subsituted that bloody unusable excrecence off some bloody Aprilia
rubbish?

Zebee

[1] Yes, I have a quota[2] to meet you know

[2] not that kind. I don't own a ladder that tall

 

lol, yeah, so people keep telling me!!!! J5, I've done that again and again,
and it doesn't bloody work for me! There MUST be more to it than that! I
could do it with the GPX250.... It's got to be something to do with the
extra 50kgs of the GS500...... although ppl keep saying "it's
technique....." Where the hell do I get that???? And where do I get the 45%
"confidence that the effing bike won't fall over" and 10% "you need a little
bit of strength/counterweight or some bloody such thing to do this!"???

My lovely mechanic swore he wouldn't let me out of his workshop till I could
get the bloody bike up on the centrestand. In the end he had to let me out
<hanging head in shame> cause he wanted to go home... It was bloody
embarrassing.

I reckon there's a slab waiting for the person who can actually get me to
get it right, first time every time....

unco short-arse (and short-limbed) weakling betty

 

I imagine retro-fitting an electro-hydraulic centrestand might be a wee
bit bigger task than fitting a vacuum driven chain oiler, which at least
you can buy now rather than in 20 years.

 

In aus.motorcycles on Mon, 22 Oct 2007 18:06:59 +1000

Blokes often don't realise how much of what they can do is strength
and bodyweight.

One trick is to move the bike backwards as you drop the stand, so the
bike's own momentum helps lift it up.

I have done this once, by accident.

It might be possible to practice if you have a couple of big boofy
blokes standing by to catch the bike if it does fall.

I've found that there is a backwards motion to the bike needed, sort
of pulling the bike up and back. The having the bike moving before
the stand was quite down was way easier than trying to muscle it up
and back, just wish I had the courage to try it again...

Zebee

 

I used to get my son to stand on the other side..... he's big & boofy....
and he always used to end up finishing the job (damn!) Used to shit me no
end!

Mate, thanks for that! When I want to do the chain I park the bike with its
bum pointing slightly downhill in my car-port - but it still doesn't work. I
reckon you're right. Blokes don't realise just how much strength is needed,
coz it comes so naturally to them.

I'll keep trying, coz I hate having to admit defeat..... watch this space

;-)

betty

 

In aus.motorcycles on Mon, 22 Oct 2007 18:38:52 +1000

Some of it is knack. Practice until you can find the right
combination, but more of it is strength and weight than most realise.

If some bloke tells you it isn't, get him to do it barefoot, and with
one hand only on the bike. (the other can steady it, but with closed
fist only)

That will quickly show him just how much weight and muscle is being
used.

Zebee

 

I reckon strength & weight count for a helluva lot, but I also reckon
there's a "reach" factor. All of which seem to conspire against short women.
I reckon there's some sort of Triangulation factor which is bloke-centric
<grin>

Years ago I used to be a gym instructor at uni, and it used to amaze me just
how much stronger even the weediest blokes were in the upper body than
women. Way back then I used to take great delight in doing lots and lots of
behind-the-neck-chin-ups (which I don't think I could even manage ONE of
these days!) when the gym was crowded with muscle-boys and wannabe
muscle-boys. The ones who were there to get programmes viewed me (as the
programmer) with respect. The ones who were there to maintain their "awesome
musculature" didn't patronise me... Those were the days... Damn middle-age

 

harder at 60kg (and far less strong) I suspect.... Looks like I need to do a
gym thing again. Shite!

wimpy betty

 

There are also some bikes where the centre stand has been designed quite
well, and works more easily, while other bikes, the stands are just for
show. :-(

I don't quite see what the big deal is tho.

Lots of bikes don't have centre stands at all, but they still manage to
work fine.

I only once found a bike which the centre stand was a serious issue, and
since I couldn't get the bike on the stand, and there wasn't a side
stand, I simply didn't buy the bike.

BTW, betty, what were you going to "do" to the chain that needed the
centre stand?

regards,
CrazyCam

 

It can depend a lot on the bike, too. My brother-in-law and his mate
had identical GPz1100B bikes a few years back, one was easy to get on
the stand but the other was impossible to do solo. It turned out that
the impossible one had centrestand legs about 10mm longer than the
easy one!

My GPZ900R has those silly eccentric-orbiting drive chain tension
adjusters rather than a simple bolt-pulling-back-on-the-axle
arrangement, and right now the axle is sitting in the 6 o'clock
position so you don't actually have to lift the rear of the bike at
all to get it on the stand.

Of course, that means that I can't spin the back wheel to lube the
chain either!


BTH

 

I like to clean the chain occasionally ;-) (it's a bonding thing, ha ha!)
And I find that lubing it is a lot easier if I have it on the centre stand.

betty

 

Bikerbetty get a Scotoiler fitted, it cleans and lubes the chain and will
last up to 7 times longer.
Got one on my Ducati ST2 since new and have the same chain and sprockets on
it after 40,000 ks. A bit messy though.
Lush

 

<puzzled look>

So you clean the chain, then apply some sticky lubrication.... OK.

Did I tell you about the time I got a blue chain fitted to the blue and
yellow Hornet.

It looked really nice, then the folk at MMT sprayed some stuff on the
chain and spoiled the whole effect. :-|

regards,
CrazyCam

 

Are you pulling my leg? Yes, I lube the chain (not as often as I ought to
because of the difficulties with the centre stand) - and yes, I clean the
chain now and then to get the gritty crap off it (and then lube it
afterwards). I don't clean the chain every time I lube it, but I do lube it
every time I clean it. Am I doing something wrong or are you having a lend
of me? (sorry, sometimes subtlety is lost on me..... ;-)

I rather like the sound of that Scotoiler thing that Lushy mentioned
though...

lol, for some reason that reminds me of the kids who get multicoloured
"bling" put on their braces, and then spend two years keeping their mouths
shut so noone can see that they have braces anyway......

gee, I didn't know that chains came in designer colours <grin>. What will
they think of next? (perhaps matching lube so as to enhance the lovely chain
colour??? )

betty

 

I'm not pulling your leg.

I consider that modern O-ring chains don't need all this attention.

Perhaps I end up replacing chains and sprockets slightly more often than
would have been needed if I went through all the clean/lub business

Well, if having something to drip oil onto your chain makes you happy,
good luck to you.

They made good sense 40 years ago.

Even if there had been blue chain lub I'm too lazy to do stuff like that.

BTW, the next thing will be colour coordinated tyres. I want a set of
bright yellows, a pair of pinks and two blue ones.

regards,
CrazyCam

 

The art of centrestanding is much like the golf swing ;-) When you have
your mental game right, the results will follow~

Most common problems with people i see having trouble are;

trying to pull the bike 'back' ie. towards the rear. The action should
be more about pulling the bike up, the backwards motin happens by itself

trying to stand on the centre stand

The perfect centre stand motion uses your entire body like a 'jack', between
two points; the centre stand and the grab handle. The wrong motion is where
people stand on the centre stand, then try to pull the whole bike backwards
by the handle bars and the grab bar. This isnt really giving you much in
the way of advantage - you are only getting the weight of your body on the
stand and you are trying to lift the entire bike 'up' by pulling it
backwards.

The right action uses your hands to pull your body down onto the
centrestand. If you do this right you can exert much more than the weight
of your body onto the stand - much like you can pick up more than your own
body weight if you carry it on your shoulders. pull up on the grab rail as
hard as you can, and at the same time push down with your feet as hard as
you can. Dont waste your energy trying to pull the bike 'backwards', all
that force needs to be pushing down on the stand. You get a significant
mechanical advantage trying to go this way - all that force pushing down on
the bike is lifting it, at the same time whatever lifting action you put on
the grab rail is reducing the weight of the bike. A little bit of 'back
pull' is ok on the handlebars, but most of the effort is in the 'up and
down'

While guys can use their strength to compensate for poor centrestanding
technique, limited strength doesnt mean the job has to be any harder - just
that you have to do it right. Ive seen people (guys and girls) weighing
45-50kg put full dress tourers weight 300kg up on centrestands. That said,
if it really is a mission for you, take your centrestand off the bike and
shorten it a bit.

Shaun

 

oh, good! Everytime I start feeling guilty about a little bit of "chain
neglect" I will repeat that to myself - ta!

Well it's either that or feeling guilty about neglecting the welfare of my
chain - or at least, it was until I got my new mantra :-D

hmm..... the yellow ones would show the dirt, don't you think??? <grin>

betty