Kickstand question

[Rocksteady]

Has anyone ever had their kickstand bend on them? I don't know what happened to mine but I parked it and left it in neutral and maybe three or four hours later went to leave and noticed the bike leaning a ton and found the kickstand bent around the top of the shaft. Bikes a 07 9sx.

 

[UMDterp13]

Sure it's kick stand? Not the bolts? I have a good one if you need it

 

[Rocksteady]

Ya, it's the kickstand for sure. I appreciate it but i have a replacement coming that should be here in a day or so.

 

[user_deleted]

have never ever seen a stock XB sidestand bend at any point other than the ears expanding. when that happens the stand becomes terribly loose and bike leans at a pronounced angle. as a suggestion with your new stand dry fit it prior to installing the pin, clip, and spring. by that i mean hold the bike upright and slide the stand onto its mount. make sure the mount hardware is tight. then wiggle the stand and see if it feels sloppy. if so put the ears in a big vise or press and SLOWLY squeeze them together. remove and dry fit again. what you're looking for is a snug firm fit between the ears and the mount. that gives a proper stance to the bike when on the sidestand.

 

[Rocksteady]

Thanks for the advice lunaticfringe

 

[thrstrmech]

early year models had a side stand recall, mainly on the low/scg models which had the potential to bend or break

 

[sewerman]

The two bolts on my Bolt were loose once and one fell out!!!. Found it before the disaster! I have the chin fairing replacement bracket from Jardine. When I fixed it I used lock washers, blue Loc-Tite AND then safety wired the bolts!

 

[RotemXB9]

Had a problem when boght the bike, I looked at him while on a kickstand and he was way to much on the side, kickstand bolts were loose.
One of them bend over beacuse of them being loose so i replaced them, put some locktit and tourqe them. Never had any problem since then.[up]

 

[mmcn49]

The timing of this post is coincidental to a failure I went through last Tuesday 2/3/15.

Back-story – I live on an island in Puget Sound, WA and commute into Seattle daily via the Washington State Ferries. Since my old Beemer died last year one of my XB12STT’s has become the daily commuter.

When I rode onto the ferry last Tuesday afternoon and put the side stand down, both flange bolts were torn or sheared off and the bike ended up on top of me.

I put the side stand down six times per day. Additionally the bike is on the side stand about 35 minutes each way during the crossing. When walking on the car deck when the ferry is underway you can feel it vibrating through your boots.

One of the bolts bent before it was sheared or torn apart. It looked like it had backed out about1/4 to 5/16”.The other bolt appeared to be tight as it sheared off directly below the flange.

I think there were two culprits at play. Ferry deck vibration and no Loctite on the fasteners. And of course I should have been checking but had no idea one of the bolts was loosening. The side stand flange bolts are 5/16” x 1-1/4” coarse thread. The bolt heads have no markings on them to indicate that they are not just Grade-2 Low Carbon Butter Bolts.

With the help of my wife I got the bike up on stands after getting home. With tearing, the bolts had sheared off about 1/8” inside the engine block, had to remove the muffler to gain good access to the block/bolts, (muffler needed painting anyway).

Sprayed the remaining bolt faces with PB Blaster, dug out my faithful small chisel and hammer then started tapping away. After several minutes success with one of the bolts. No joy on the second bolt after another ten minutes. Dug out the Propane and Map bottles and used a little heat. Didn’t really expect this to help much as aluminum conducts heat better than steel by a factor of twenty, (give or take). Compared to the bolt, the mass of the aluminum block is massive and acted as a great heat sink. I did not dare to use the oxy-acetylene torch. Gave up on heat and tapping after about thirty minutes.

Next I filed and ground as smooth as possible the remaining bolt face and center tapped as close to dead center as possible, (I’m on my back looking up at this with a little more than a foot or so of clearance). Drilled a starter hole as straight as possible with a 1/8” right hand drill, (if you break one, right hand drills are easier to replace than left hand drills).

Dug out the left hand drill set and started drilling. I did break through the end of the remaining steel bolt with a couple different sizes of left hand drills but they did not grab and the remaining bolt stayed in place. Once I got close to the aluminum threads I tried knocking the remaining steel out of the aluminum but again no joy. The bolt was just too long.

IMO the 5/16” coarse thread is just too small for this job. The engine block has plenty of web, (meat) to accommodate a larger diameter bolt. What to do next? Took a ride to my favorite hardware store that has an excellent fastener assortment. Found Grade-8, 3/8” x 1-1/4” coarse thread flange bolts. I would have preferred fine thread but the flanges fit perfectly into the grooves of the side stand bracket assembly.

Went home, drilled out a 5/16” tap clearance hole and tapped both holes for 3/8” bolts. Assembled using medium strength Loctite and torqued the bolts. Torque specs for 3/8” coarse thread Grade-8 bolts with dry threads into aluminum is 30 pound feet. If the threads are “Wet” with something like never seize you reduce the specs by 5 to7 pound feet. I really got carried away with the Loctite, (deliberately so). I treated the treads like wet threads and torqued to just less than 25 pound feet.

Based on my experience I recommend enlarging the side stand bolt holes next time you have the muffler off. It’s easy to do as your drill will follow and track along the existing bolt hole. Many will not want to do that but at the very least you should:

-- Put your bike on stands
-- Remove the muffler skirt
-- Loosen both side stand bolts down to the muffler
-- Thoroughly clean the exposed threads with spray brake cleaner
-- Coat the exposed threads with medium strength Loctite
-- Retighten the bolts

Bike is back together and I’ll be on the boat tomorrow.