Honey, yesterday I left the motorcycle upright!
Hehe, I remembered Monika’s situation from a few months ago. 😀 In short – she had to replace the clutch lever after leaving motorcycle overnight on the grass. In the morning it turned out that the soft soil is not strong enough to support Suzuki Bandit weight left on its side stand and the bike fell to the side. A simple plate, a large stone, a bit of flat wood or even a jar lid placed under the foot would give the surface big enough to hold the bike upright. Subject well known by us, but on this day forgotten.
The KTM 690 Enduro’s side stand foot is definitely bigger than the Bandit’s. However, it is still too small to leave it loaded with luggage on a soft terrain without the risk of tipping over. In theory, I always can have a piece of wood with me or try to find something to put under the sidestand. But it is much easier, more convenient and faster to add an extension plate to it. You can get one from bike manufacturer but they are a bit expensive. It is easy to find aftermarket plates for a good price.
For my previous motorcycle – Super Tenere – I made the plate by myself. Although it was not the most beautiful, it did a good job. I had an idea how to make my own extension for KTMs, but I found very cheap and nice looking aluminium plates on the internet. Making them by myself, I could only treat as a practice of amateur metalworking. 😉 I let the idea go because there were other things to do with the motorcycle.
The extension is bolted to the stand in several points to keep it firmly in place. As vibrations can cause the bolts to come loose, I applied a small amount of thread glue before installing them. So far they are still in place.
The sidestand is long and when leaving the bike, keeps it almost vertically. The weight of all kinds of luggage presses the rear suspension, what moves the motorcycle upright even more. Eventually, despite the plate, the motorcycle still can fall over, but this time to the other side…
The stand in my motorcycle was shortened by the previous owner and the difference in the position of the bikes was clearly visible. In Monika’s motorcycle, the stand was original and several times she had a bit of stress thinking whether the motorcycle was going to fall over. I shortened it to the same length as in my motorcycle, because this solution has already worked well. As I cannot get along with the welding machine, 😉 my friend Wojtek, who already helped me with pannier rack modification, came to rescue. We shortened the stand by approximately 2 cm (after lowering the suspension on Monika’s motorcycle, the operation had to be repeated and shortened by an additional 1 cm) and welded foot back to it. Later, at home, I ground the weld, cleaned it, sprayed on a base layer and painted it – the standard steps to protect the metal. As Monika is shorter than I am, it is harder for her to reach the stand. To make her life easier I have added RAM ball and now she is able to safely unfold sidestand with her boot.
The shortened part works great. The mentioned extension plate so far passed the exam and in wet, soft terrain kept the motorcycle in an upright position.
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