My '99 TE610 came with a pre-broken kickstand. The previous owner liked to start it on the stand, broke the stand, and welded it in a fairly crappy fashion which put it too far forward, and, of course, too weak. Having seen that and seeing the pricetag for another OE replacement, I decided that making my own was the best option. Stock: 1' of 1.000" diameter 4130 Chromoly bar 2' of 0.875" diameter 0.120" wall 4130 Chromoly tube 12"x12" of 0.125" thick 4130 Chromoly plate The basic process was to mill the upper from the 4130 bar, tack weld it to the tube, check length and angle, chop the bar to length, weld it up, create a foot and spring catch and weld those up, and install it. Anyway, pics in the first section here: http://www.umich.edu/~olmsnj/images/TE610/index.html So far, with the stock spring, it has worked awesome. It's extremely sturdy and not at too much more weight than stock, and is good to know it is definitely not a weak point any longer. I did opt to make it slightly shorter than stock so the bike has a good angle to it - not like a BMW GS angle but a decent angle. If/when I put 17's on it, it should still be usable as well. Anyone interested in doing something along these lines - Wicks Aircraft Supply sells 4130 in 1' lengths. You'll get enough bar and plate to make 5 kickstands if you want, with a 1' and 12"x12" size of each respectively. (one of the thumbnails - higher res 1280x960 on the link)
