Sidestand
Monday, 2 Oct 2023 [20,315 miles]
When going over my bike after the SMBC Kennedy Meadows I noticed my side stand is loose on its bracket. Perhaps it’s been that way for a while? Perhaps it is a side effect of dumping the bike on the way to Bodie? Today I thought I’d take a look.
I removed the spring and backout out the sidestand pivot pin to remove the stand. I used WD 40 as a solvent to clean up the crud around the stand, pivot pin, and mounting bracket.
With things cleanish I tested the fit of the pin in the hole of the mounting bracket. The hole does not look wallowed out and the pin looks OK, but the fit is a bit loose. I can slightly wiggle the pin in the hole. I believe that is the issue.
For now I added some shim stock around the pin which made the stand a bit tighter, but it could be better. I think the proper fix will be to make a bushing, but to do that I need to make the pin a bit smaller. Before I do that I’ll order a replacement pin in case I screw up. And who knows, a replacement pin might be all I need.
I put the sidestand back on the bike. It’s ready to ride. More ready than I am. My ankle is still healing. Shifting is uncomfortable right now. But not so uncomfortable that I won’t ride.
Friday, 6 Oct 2023 [20,315 miles]
I wasted time in the garage this afternoon. The replacement pin came so I feel free to modify the original. The two pins look alike (see below) save a bit of thread locker on the new pin.
Going on the assumption that the play in the side stand was due to play on the pivot I turned down some brass to fit the mounting hole. A hole was bored into the brass and it was cut off to the width of the mouting bracket. Simple bushing. I then turned down the portion of the original pin to be a close fit to the bore in the bushing. Had to do that to make sure there was enough meat in the walls of the bushing. Re-assemble sidestand.
It didn’t make any difference. The play is not due to the pivot. Perhaps the ears of the side stand got slightly stretched when I dropped the bike. The pivot bin bottoms on a shoulder and can not be used to tighten the ears. I’ll need to make a spacer/washer that fits under the head of the pin if I want to give that a try. Perhaps tomorrow.
Sturday, 7 Oct 2023 [20,315 miles]
One more try this moring before the garage gets too hot.
I machined a washer/spacer to go under the head of the pivot pin to see if that would alow the pin to squeeze the sidestand mounting ears for a better fit. The concept worked, but the spacer was too thick. I felt that not enough threads of the pivot pin were engaged. I needed to make the spacer thinner.
I super-glued the spacer to an arbor made from scrap aluminum so I could face off about 1.5 mm. When done heat removed the spacer and I gave it another test fit. Very good. There is little to no slop when the sidestand is down. There is a tiny bit of slop when the sidestand is retracted, but the spring keeps it from moving.
I added some loctite to the pivot pin to keep it from coming loose. The bike is ready to ride.