Here is a pic of the clip I installed to keep the "push" pin in place on the lower rad mount. Popped on and no mod of anything needed. No off roading yet til skid plate installed but spent the day on the bike streetwise and still in place etc. at the end of the day.
Hi, Back from a brief vacation. Did not notice the size but did post the BMW part number somewhere in here. Can repost it. THx
just took a dremel (grinding stone) to the sidestand detente. Cut quite a bit from the notch, and now the bike leans a bit more and is more secure. No more sidestand springing back up after I put it down.
For the record, it appears some 650s have what is best described as a 'non-functioning' auto retract kick stand from the factory i.e. some work like a normal kickstand and do not automatically fly up when the bike is brought level. Luckily I got one of those which makes me very happy so I don't need to worry about it.
Mine has a little bit of a spring load to it but I would not describe it as a full-on self-retracting side stand. I'm still being careful with it, though, as I do not relish the thought of picking it up off the ground
Mine functions the same way. I don't trust it to stay down. There is a very unobtrusive way to fix this and if you have the tools out it takes about a minute. With the stand down, pull the spring with a drum brake spring tool and be careful. The spring is stout. Then use a 12" crescent and bend the top spring pole forward about 1/4 inch or so. Then bend the D bracket welded on the stand forward a little bit on top and a little bit on the bottom going back and forth until you have gotten about 3/4 inch of movement total out of the tip of the D. It may have been a little more or less, but just use common sence. Put the spring back on with the same brake tool and test. Be sure to only bend a little at a time on the D bracket. It will have a curve in it if you bend it too much at one time. Both attachment points of the spring are made of very soft mild steel and bend easily with a 12" crescent. Hold both tools square and firm and do not do this if you do not have the skills or "feel" of mild steel. Again, the spring has a lot of pressure. Break down: Bike on stand, pull spring, tweek, tweek, tweek, put spring back on. Pick up bike and test. If not to your satisfaction, repeat.
Trust me, it doesn't always look like that. I cleaned a spot special just for you guys. A foot note on the mod; I took the top pic after it was done. So you can see nothing drastic or displeasing to the eye was done. It just slightly moves the pivot point. The kick stand is also a little easier to grab with your foot when putting it down and increases the spring pressure while it is up, so it may keep it from rattling on the washboards too.
I noticed the spring post was bent by someone before I received the bike, I think they're doing that as a quick fix after the first shipments proved problematic with the auto-retract. I ended up doing the "Bigdog" mod and moved the post forward about 3/4 inch. I kept the inboard post in place that secures the sidestand switch as I didn't want to disable that yet. IMHO moving the post is the best way to go (if you have access to a welder) as the sidestand now snaps into place both up and down - much safer. On another matter, when I wear off-road boots I had trouble with the stock shifter positioning no matter how I move it up or down on the shifter shaft - the stock shaft is not easily bent up or down. So, I started rummaging around my spare parts stuff and found that Kawasaki uses the same shaft and spline design. With very little grinding on a stock KDX200 shifter, I was able to fit it - the KDX shifter is built of mild steel and designed in such a way that it can easily be bent to go up or down or sideways (which I didn't have to do in this case), and it also is a folding shifter. I would imagine with that spline-shaft design there are a lot of options out there for this bike....
Thanks for dogging the mod. I am not a dealer, just a guy with a garage and a plethora of welders and machine tools that did not need to come out due to the simplicity and effectiveness of the mod. The post does in fact get moved forward and the stand works fantastically and snaps up and down safely. If, in fact, your post was bent as a quick fix from the dealer, all you had to do from that point was bend the D bracket and your stand would have worked great. Bending the post alone will not do it. You also led people to believe that I somehow disabled the safety switch. The safety switch was not touched and is intact. I would never post something unsafe. I will man up and say I have no doubts moving the post by cutting and welding will work, and work well. I thought about doing the same thing. I just saw a simpler and quicker solution that wouldn't hurt to try and it worked for me, so I thought I would share.
