Replace RGS side stand spring?

1200ts

1200ts

Hero member
Location
USA - Riverside CA
I have just spent an hour trying to replace the side stand spring on a RGS. I have a new one from Wolfgang and after trying various methods including cursing at the bike and drinking lots of beer, it appears there is no way to get the end of the spring in to the hole on the tab of the frame without removing the motor?

What am I doing wrong?
 
Yes, it's a stupid spring. It also does the hateful thing of retracting the stand as soon as it's off the floor. You want a side stand to stay put.

My recommendation is to throw that impossibly stupid clock spring away as far as you can chuck it. Weld tabs on the frame and stand so you can fit a "normal" coil spring. Make sure the spring centreline ends up slightly forward of the pivot when the stand is down. Then your stand won't retract every time you move the bike in the garage.
 
Dellortoman said:
Yes, it's a stupid spring. It also does the hateful thing of retracting the stand as soon as it's off the floor. You want a side stand to stay put.

My recommendation is to throw that impossibly stupid clock spring away as far as you can chuck it. Weld tabs on the frame and stand so you can fit a "normal" coil spring. Make sure the spring centreline ends up slightly forward of the pivot when the stand is down. Then your stand won't retract every time you move the bike in the garage.
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This is a mandatory requirement throughout much of Europe, Cam.

Apparently, lots of numpties have managed to kill themselves with a non-retracted sidestand here and insurance companies have managed to instate regulations to avoid coughing up.

The stand needs to be fitted while the engine is out, the spring is pretty foolproof once in use.

piet
 
I thought the requirement was for an ignition interlock that shut off the engine when the side stand was down? Or is a choice of compliance methods given to manufacturers?
 
Alzero said:
I thought the requirement was for an ignition interlock that shut off the engine when the side stand was down? Or is a choice of compliance methods given to manufacturers?
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The zane interlock cuts the fuel injection - it’s in such a position that the switch often gets gummed up with crap hence the bypass on most - as losing the FI in a bend is not favourable - my light still comes on 👍
 
sfcpiet said:
This is a mandatory requirement throughout much of Europe, Cam.

Apparently, lots of numpties have managed to kill themselves with a non-retracted sidestand ...
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Doesn't make it any less of a stupid design. I'm forced to wonder how many riders have been injured by a bike crashing to the ground when they thought the stand was deployed. I certainly have. I got jammed between the bike and a wall. That's why I hate the bloody things.

Thankfully that brainless requirement for a self-retracting side stand hasn't been adopted in Australia. If legislators feel they must intervene, the ignition interlock would be more sensible.

One of the simplest and most reliably idiot-proof side stands is the type that Honda used for many years. They had a flexible rubber foot that extended beyond the load bearing foot of the stand. If you took off with the stand down and leaned into a corner, the rubber bit would hit the ground first flip the stand up without the bike pole-vaulting down the road.
 
The bike industry on a whole was in the midst of giving up on contact points when the 120s debuted (Jota 120 had the same system!)... ignition interlock would have been far too new-fangled, nobody would have trusted it. Japs might have been able to pull it off, but the italians, with their dodgy electrics? No way. Zane Laverdas certainly had their issues over a decade later.

Of course, the automatically retracting stand was most likely devised by somebody driving a desk and had no idea how bikes worked. The ignition interlock is now almost universal and definitely the better idea.

piet
 
I once couldn't start my modern Husky, somehow its handlebar clutch lever cutout switch had moved, it needed to be depressed by pulling the clutch lever in to start the bike. My TL Pantah had a dash light that came on if the side stand was down and the ignition was on. Bouncing side stands are often cause of engine cutting in and out. Jay Leno would dispair that if those Honda safety stickers they had on the tank top got rubbed out what would stop people from drinking their bike's battery acid?
 
Don’t have a problem with mine on the Corsa…… seen plenty come to grief tho resulting in a barrell role down the pavement 🤣🤣🤣 maybe I’m just stupid and can only think of one thing at a time………just maybe 🧐
 
1200ts said:
<snip> ... it appears there is no way to get the end of the spring in to the hole on the tab of the frame without removing the motor.
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Can be done and have done it myself (altho' never easy). Advice from Keith attached ...
 

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sfcpiet said:
<snip> Apparently, lots of numpties have managed to kill themselves with a non-retracted sidestand here
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Hey, you looking at me?!

Came bloody close a few years back. Not on a Laverda, but a Ducrappi SSD with a side stand that projects way, but WAY, too far forward.

Didn't see the idiot light in the afternoon sun. Hit the tarmac hard on the first left bend, ended up on 'tother side of road (fortunately nothing coming the other way). Escaped with a busted collar bone and material damage to the bike :(.
 
We have probably rented a dozen scooters in our travels and all but one has had a functioning interlock. Fortunately I found out before I made a left turn….. since then I’ve noticed two other random riders with the side stand deployed while on the move.
 
Top level racer from South Oz was killed when he rode off on a public road on an XS750 with the sidestand down. Can't rememeber his name unfortunately.

When I was prepping Oz postie bikes (Honda CT110 I think) for roadworthiness prior to mechanical rebuild one of the items to check was the rubber safety tang on BOTH sidestands (yep a left and a right sidestand). A surprisingly high number needed new ones so I reckon the posties used to leave the stands down knowing they'd retract OK.

The clutch in to start thing is like modern (nearly all automatic) cars where the brake pedal has to be pressed to start them.
 
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