Sidestand Bolt Snaps

[dlaing]

I rode home from work, pulled into the garage, put the sidestand down, lean the bike into parked position, and as I am hoping off, down goes the bike. Aw, crud! At first I thought that I must have failed to put the kickstand down properly, but lo and behold the pivot bolt had snapped.

The good news is that it happened in my Garage and not into the CB650F that I was parked next to all day, which may have dominoed into the car next to him.

 

Speculations as to the cause are welcome:

Defective bolt?

Lack of grease at the pivot point?

It is inevitable and you are all doomed?

Bad Karma from arguing with God? (need new karma bells)

Too loose? lautrec... That is my guess. Maybe it needed tightening. The bolt screws into the mount and a bolt behind locks it into position. With wear, it probably got looser and looser, increasing the lean of the bike and twisting on the bolt.

 

Might be worth lubing and tightening the next time your bike is jacked up.

[savagehenry]

Thanks for the heads-up. Just left mine, on the jacks, with the plan to "sleep on it", and think of some little detail to check tommorow! Hope the damage was , not :!: :!: :!:, S.H.

[Steve G.]

Mine's pretty well ground off from left turns anyways. I think I'm going to talk to Greg to see if he's got any of those centre stands still available, and take the entire side stand thing off.

Steve

[dlaing]

Mine's pretty well ground off from left turns anyways. I think I'm going to talk to Greg to see if he's got any of those centre stands still available, and take the entire side stand thing off.

Steve

 

Thanks for the good idea.

I miss having a center stand and they are essential for emergency on the road wheel removal.

 

Guessing that it will take months to get the bolt from Guzzi, I'll have to use an over the counter bolt and somehow fabricate a bushing, or better yet, pay a machinist to rip one off on a lathe. I think my Guzzi dealer can make one.

 

As for the damage, it wasn't too bad.

Minor bending of passenger peg/muffler hanger and cosmetic damage to front fender.

I hope the handlebar did not bend.

The Buell foot looks OK but I should check closely for damage.

The Buell rubber mounted turn signals' rubber mounts did their job Worth the aesthetic price of droopage.

[raz]

Good thing there wasn't worse damage. And good thing it was at home, imagine being on a long trip and suddenly having no stand at all "I'm sorry officer, I can not get off my bike". "Hey kid, would you take this money and go inside and pay for my gas"

 

I have just aquired the very last center stand for a Sporti from TLM. At first they said they were sold out and will not make more of them. Then they found half of one and a couple of days later they found the other half Also, I just converted my old self-retracting time bomb side stand to a switched V11 style one so my bolt is brand new.

[Dan M]

Speculations as to the cause are welcome:

 

Defective bolt? - No

 

Lack of grease at the pivot point? - Also No - you would have noticed the extra effort to deploy

 

It is inevitable and you are all doomed? - Really No. If it were epidemic we would have heard before.

 

Bad Karma from arguing with God? (need new karma bells) - Now you're getting somewhere

 

Too loose? lautrec... That is my guess. Maybe it needed tightening. The bolt screws into the mount and a bolt behind locks it into position. With wear, it probably got looser and looser, increasing the lean of the bike and twisting on the bolt. -Bingo! This would be my guess.

[Greg Field]

It's the first one I've heard of snapping. I'll be checking mine. Thanks for the head's up.

[gstallons]

I just walked out in the shop and checked mine.

[dlaing]

I did crash on that side about 30,000 miles ago.

But I do think that it loosened, which allowed more flex and thus more stress.

In this photo it looks a little brownish, like oxidation.

I looked for rust yesterday and did not see any.

In any case, I doubt it was one clean snap, but the wiggling back and forth that done it in.

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/1391/snapne3.jpg

[savagehenry]

I did crash on that side about 30,000 miles ago.

But I do think that it loosened, which allowed more flex and thus more stress.

In this photo it looks a little brownish, like oxidation.

I looked for rust yesterday and did not see any.

In any case, I doubt it was one clean snap, but the wiggling back and forth that done it in.

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/1391/snapne3.jpg

From the "fresh" dull gray and "dry" portion of the fracture on the body of the screw, and the rust around the fresh break, it looks to be that it was partially fractured earlier, then reached a stress point where the remaining portion failed. What does the contacting face of the nut show, rust on the entire surface? Or is it shiny and the inside face peened where the slow loosening would show it worn from subsequent vibration and interference as it backed off?

[dlaing]

The blessed side effect of this small tragedy is that it may have saved my life.

Maybe not, but you never know where fate and stupidity will take you.

When I crashed a few years back it damaged the sidestand safety switch.

It still worked, but rather than risk being stranded by dubious electrics, I removed the switch, and practiced due diligence by manually retracting stand before taking off.

I dreamt of two options:

One: hook the switch up so that the horn blares when bike goes out of neutral with stand down.

Two: Convert to "suicide" style self retracting stand.

But I procrastinated and never got around to doing the right thing.

 

Then this happens and I have to Bodge it back together and accidentally stumble on the solution!

I go to Marshall's, the awesome hardware store that has almost everything a man who is touch with their inner child could ever want.

The following numbers are from memory. Please verify before ordering.

I get a 10.3 rated 10mm bolt with 1.25 thread, a bronze bushing 3/8"x5/8"x1", two 14 gauge washer type steel bushings that fit perfectly around the 5/8" bushing as it peaks out of each side of the stand, and a few assorted washers and a new nut.

Note the 3/8" washers fit better around the 10mm bolt than do the 10mm washers...go figure...

I don't even think about the spring assembly needing to clear the pivot bolt, so when I assemble it I curse because the bolt interferes, but then I realize that I just created the self retracting stand that I always wanted!!!!

Idiot-Savant?

More likely just the dumb luck of a bumbling bodger.

My only concern is that there may now be too much stretch on the springs. Time will tell

Here is the result:

[dlaing]

From the "fresh" dull gray and "dry" portion of the fracture on the body of the screw, and the rust around the fresh break, it looks to be that it was partially fractured earlier, then reached a stress point where the remaining portion failed. What does the contacting face of the nut show, rust on the entire surface? Or is it shiny and the inside face peened where the slow loosening would show it worn from subsequent vibration and interference as it backed off?

Just a little rust at the contacting face of the nut.

I think the rust mostly occurred after I cleaned it, but it certainly shows rust more at the edge, which indicates an earlier fracture.

My guess is that it started to fracture during the vibration from the 500 miles of riding last weekend, on the relay to to the rally.

If it was a fracture from the accident years ago, I'd think I would have seen the rust yesterday.

The dirty dry grease must of prevented some oxidation, but was it protected for years, or just a few days?

I am inclined to believe the fracture started over last weekends long ride.

Here is another photo, sorry about the bad focus.

EDIT here are some with better focus

[callison]

Perhaps you should refrain from arguing with God. He has been known to use lightning bolts...

[savagehenry]

More likely just the dumb luck of a bumbling bodger.

My only concern is that there may now be too much stretch on the springs. Time will tell

Here is the result:

Love the outcome, a longer spring would finish you up nice,

I call for a "Bodge Point" to be awarded, well done!

[dlaing]

Love the outcome, a longer spring would finish you up nice,

I call for a "Bodge Point" to be awarded, well done!

Thank you

A longer spring with a shorter "bone" would be ideal.

Or if the bone bent down in a sort of backwards "L"

 

Why do they use two springs?

Safety?

Easier to stretch one at a time?