I just received and installed the SW Motech center stand on my Strada. The fit is excellent. However, the stand is really designed for the Terra with the larger wheels. Because of that, the lift on the Strada is excessive (2 3/4")as is the force required to hoist it back and up onto the center stand. I may remove at least 1" from the foot on each side.
Do you think without removing some of the height, is it still a "BUY" for Strada owners? I'd hate to drop $200 bucks on it, just to have to cut it, weld it, and paint it. But I would like a center stand.
With the Terra, I think it would put you in the same situation I'm in, since with the lowering links, you're probably at the same height as the Strada. If someone has lowering links on a Strada, I think they'd be better off with a track stand. I think the angle at which the center stand feet contact the ground would be such that you'd have little or no mechanical advantage in raising the rear of the bike. Essentially, you'd be dead lifting 200#. With the stock Strada, the front end is noticeably down and it takes little effort to roll the bike off of the center stand. I'm 6'2" and 220#, but I'm also 68 and not as strong as I used to be. It's a bit of an effort to hoist it up onto the center stand. I've had SW Motech center stands on several other bikes over the years and all of them were very easy to operate, and, I would expect that to be the case with the Terra.
Well, I didn't get far with my installation. Here's the story in pictures. Here's what you get: Odd that they used what appears to be a leftover bit of diamond plate for the deployment lever. Maybe it was intended for grip? Also odd that the stand wasn't painted a satin black to match the frame of the bike. It's more of a matte/eggshell finish. You can tell it's all hand welded too...still better than I could ever do! It was a nice day, so I worked outside instead of in the shop. Make sure you have your trusty golden retriever with you. Things could require a quick nosing. Oh great, already buggered a bolt. I never do that! These things must have red loctite on them! Jokes on me, they do have red loctite. Guess who maybe should have included that in the instructions? How to you remove bolts that have red loctite? Well that's simple, just add some heat. Had I known that before a ham fisted, I would have hit it with heat first and everything would be kosher. Uh oh. Major problem. The very fist bracket you install won't fit if you're running the motosportz skid plate. Now, that's as far as I am for now. I have to make a decision. I really don't like modifying things and making them look all janky, so I don't want to cut into the beautiful motosportz skid plate nor the new and expensive sw-motech center stand brackets. My only options are to sell the motosportz skid plate and buy the very handsome sw-motech one, or modify the parts I have. Since I don't want to modify them and I originally bought the motosportz skid plate to enable jacking up the bike for maintenance (center stand solves that) I'll be selling the motosportz skid plate. Here's the marketplace link to the skid plate: http://www.cafehusky.com/threads/tr650-motosportz-black-skid-plate.33845/
Welp, mine's ordered. I don't have a skid plate, so shouldn't be any problem. It looks like that motosportz plate just needs a bit of a notch taken out of it. I suppose I could be interested in picking that up from you and modifying it to work with it. Tell me you have a nice dent on it and a ton of scrapes, so I can get it at a steal. Looks like a quality piece.
Ya had the same problem removing my foot peg bracket. Although it was tight it did not strip the torx head. I didn't apply heat just out one turn, then in half a turn,then out one turn etc. Came out OK.
I went out and bought a better set of torx sockets to get my foot peg bracket off to avoid stripping the head out. Can never have too many new tools in the garage
Well, I can't really install the stand. Either the bolt holes on their product are off or not all terra's have the same brake side plate. Notice the bolt being stopped by the foot rest bracket. That bolt is the one the center stand pivots on.
Doncha hate it when you get something to bolt onto your bike and it doesn't go on properly immediately. It's such a deflating feeling. I'm pretty sure someone else in CH has fitted the Centre stand. Maybe they can post some photos of the same area on their setup, to check that yours is aligned correctly.
Unfortunately, there's only one way to install the plate with zero tolerance or adjustment. Hopefully they'll twisted throttle will just send me a new plate.
Got mine today. I didn't snap any pictures, but the install went fairly smooth and took about 30 minutes. The biggest beast was removing those stock bolts. Even with a propane torch it was still a pain. That and the whole removing the piece that attaches the kick stand to the bike. That made for an interesting strapping my bike to an SV650 engine I had sitting in the garage so it didn't fall over on me. And then the springs. I used an exhaust spring puller, the inner spring was easy, but that big honking outer spring was a tough one. But yeah, other than all of that, it went on pretty easily and it's a nice piece. It's a bit of a lift, but after a few cycles, I got the hang of it.
The secret with most centre stands is that the lifting should be done with your foot. Without having one of these stands on my bike I can't comment specifically, but the secret with most centre stands especially on large road bikes is that the process should be one fluid motion. You should be guiding the bike back with your left and right hands and pressing hard with your foot on the stand. You shouldn't need to "lift" too much. There can be a knack to it. when the weight comes off the wheels, stand on the centre stand hard and the motion of the bike rolling backwards and the downward action of the stand should lift the bike right up onto the stand. On my DL1000, I can almost take my other foot off the ground and put my whole bodyweight on the right foot to lift the bike up onto the stand.
Yeah, I'll try it when I'm wearing real shoes tomorrow, sandals aren't made for that I don't think =] My garage floor is that real slick concrete too, so that was most of the problem. If I tried it with momentum, then there wasn't enough friction to get it to catch. I definitely like that I don't have to have a special stand in my garage just for this bike, and that now I can get it up and adjust the chain or change a tire anywhere, not just where I have a stand for it. So, that's giving me a whole lot of peace of mind for my trip next week.
Any update Blaine? Did they get you something to make it work? I was studying the install instructions and my bike and wondered about the rigid brake line that crosses from the right to left of the bike. When you add that extra plate does that line just bend a bit to fit the new location? Any other Terra owners using the SW Motech stand?
I'm thinking about this center stand, but I can't convince myself that I need it. Also, since I'm already on my tip-toes on this bike, I can imagine I'd likely not use the center stand much. But...being able to easily pull the rear wheel on the trail is enticing.
