Side Stand by Hand?
This custom bike has the side stand right about where you would expect it to be.
I just have to remark about something I saw this weekend. Maybe this is totally common and I’ve just never seen it. Maybe not. Maybe you know.
We were up in Cheyenne on Saturday where my nephew and his new wife were having a party for friends and relatives. They got married in an extremely small, private affair so this was their wedding party.
We were out in back and across the alley a guy rolled up on a custom bike. Sorry, I didn’t have time to get a photo. Anyway, he needed to get off the bike to open his garage door so once he was stopped he reached back with his hand and flipped the side stand down. I was like, what!?
He got the door up, remounted, and then reached back by hand and flipped the side stand up and rolled into the garage. What?
OK, I mean, considering the location of the side stand it would be pretty hard to reach it with your foot. And sitting so low and leaned back it was totally reachable with his hand. But I’ve never seen a bike with the side stand way the heck back there. Is this common for custom bikes?
I went digging through my pictures of custom bikes and came up with the one above, as an example. As you can see, this one has the side stand right by the foot peg. Normal. Move that thing back behind the belt, practically hanging off that rear fender, and that’s where this bike I saw had its stand.
Not a big deal, but worth a remark, I thought. Like I said, maybe it’s common on those sorts of bikes, and maybe I’ve just never paid attention. But it sure got my attention on Saturday.
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Tags: motorcycle side stand
July 5th, 2013 at 9:09 pm
Sounds like a one-off to me. Closest I’ve seen to that was on the ’41 BSA 500 I had for a while. The stand was attached just under the seat and latched back by the rear axle. Had a big round plate with a spike in the center. I’m told it was to make setting the bike up easier in the sand of North Africa.
In Vegas we added a cutout of a bare foot to the stands so they wouldn’t sink into the soft hot asphalt.