Hitchcocks Forum

Fitted new springs from our hosts on the centre stand about a year ago but they are just too soft, if I hit a bump or ramp they stand swings down and hits the floor, if anyone has any suggestions how I can stop this happening I would be very grateful.

Wrong springs even if the experts says so, some poblems can be solved by fitting a smaller spring inside to help, basically its not the right type, angles/strength all come into it, and how tight nuts and bolts are, etc,etc, goes on and on

I've replaced springs on mine, and it does the same. The standard springs are too weak, imho. The main gripe I have with my stand is that it hits the ground when 'earoling ( and that's with a 21" front wheel and longer Hagon shocks fitted.) One of my winter projects is to remove the stand and weld an additional pivot tube parallel to the original, but offset slightly to the rearward. This will lower the original pivot point and thereby allow the legs to retract further upwards before the stand hits the stops, and give more ground clearance. It will have the effect of tightening the springs (although I'm also going to look for some stronger ones) and also will raise the bike slightly when on the stand so the back wheel is clear of the ground. When I've got done it, I'll take some pics and post them on here.

Try the stainless variety. This topic came up just over a year ago (29 October 2012, subject “Center stand doesn't return very well”). My view then was that the problem is in the design and manufacture of the springs themselves and their geometric relationship with the frame. They appear to have changed in detail (but kept the same part no.) such that the straight wire portion is now shorter than the originals. The straight portion on the originals could be fitted towards the front of the bike to give clearance with the tubular ends of the rear frame stays (the ones which are aligned with the rearmost holes in the rear engine plates) when the stand is retracted. On the more recent ones the straight portion is too short so that there is a tendency for the coiled portion to clout the tubular ends. This ruins the geometry which relies on the tension of the spring being on a line which is above the stand pivot axis when the stand is retracted. When the October 2012 posting came up I was living with relatively new standard springs and I had found the material quality to be lacking so that the washers-between-the-coils technique led to some permanent loss of tension. Since then I took advantage of the fact that Hitchcocks is only 12 mile from where I live so I could physically check what was in stock. I concluded that the stainless version was both slightly stiffer (not easy to test) and that it was less likely to take a permanent set. Fitting the stainless springs has proved this out – not perfect but miles better. Incidentally I still used the washers-between-the-coils technique but with 8mm stainless washers from Screwfix – these are much thinner than most of the plated versions.