On Saturday, up at St Mary's Lock Cafe I stopped on some nice new gravel, dropped the side stand and the bike started to sink into the ground! Wosrt of all is I couldn't move the bl00dy thing off the gravel either, it was thanks to Stumpy and a bit of a pull that I got free without having to lay the bike down.

So, Sunday. After some TLC, I set about creating a solution to the problem.

Took a piece of old 4mm Aluminum ( a bit marked and ragged around the edges, but so what?) and got the misus to draw me an oval, about 4 inches by 3 on a piece of card.

I used this template to cut out two ovals of aluminum the same size using a mixture of the grinder (both cutting and grinding) to get the shape close, then the bench grinding wheel to get the final shape before taking it to the sander to smooth off the edges.

One of the discs I cut out a gap for the sidestand leg using a 5mm drill to creat a string of holes, and cut the waste away with a junior hacksaw. I smoothed out the hole edges with a dremmel and a small sanding barrel.

Checked it all for fitting and marked three holes for the bolts, and one for drainage, drilled the holes out (12mm for drainage & 6.5mm/countersunk for the M6 bolts).

A final sand and polish and hey prestow :



and the underside :



Took about 2 hours from start to finished product, and didn't cost me the �22 & shipping and the 4 month wait from TT.........

One thing to look out for, I had the bike on the centre stand whilst I made this, but when I set the bike down and put the side stand up, the extension catches on the centre stand leg a little - just took it back to the bench grinder and took a sliver of the foot, sorted now, and no more fall overs.

I reckon I've increased the size of the foot by just over double.

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Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

Nice job fella, I was looking at the foot on mine on the weekend, and at the sheets of ally I've got and thinking the same thing. Did you just use the bolts to clamp the two pieces together or did you drill the sidestand at all?

I just clamped it together, fastened up the two bolts near the leg first until they were nice and tight, then the one out near the foot, it had the effect of bending the top plate around the stand base plate at the edge, so it's not going to move. I don't like making major changes to the bike (resale and all) so whenever I make mods I try to make the removable.

Should have added to the main post, the c'sunk bolts are stainless steel and the nuts are all nylock.

__________________
>-------<

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

Cheers GulGo,

This spurred me into finishing the foot extender I started a while ago. I had done the drawings, just needed to cut it out.

Used a piece of checkerplate for the bottom, a 4mm plastic sheet for the middle and piece of anodised ally for the top:






I don't have a centre stand....yet, so not sure if it will need a bit of modding later.


Nick.