Centre Stand

Previously john_neely wrote:

Hi

I am about to fit a new centre stand and found there is no hole in the cross bar for the other end of the spring.

Looking at the old stand the hole is 4.5 inches in measured from the drive side and 2.5 inches from the timing side. Which means when the stand is down the spring is pulled downwards and towards the timing side, is this correct before i drill it?

Thanks in advance.

Yes. Someone asked the same question back in May, I wonder who's making these unhol(e)y centre stands. I'm attaching a photo I took for the previous query.

Hi John - I just happened to be working on mine - perhaps this may be of further help .

richard

Colin, I'm so pleased you posted that picture; I can relax, the underneath of my Commando is as messyas yours

I'm off tofind that leak

Cheers, Mike

Previously mike_sullivan wrote:

Colin, I'm so pleased you posted that picture; I can relax, the underneath of my Commando is as messyas yours

I'm off tofind that leak

Cheers, Mike

Haha, thanks Mike! I think most if not all of that comes from the chain oiler and the two holes in the front of the gearbox (new O-rings last year, tsk!), but never mind, I remember when bikes were for riding â?

Previously Colin Peterson wrote:

Previously mike_sullivan wrote:

Colin, I'm so pleased you posted that picture; I can relax, the underneath of my Commando is as messyas yours

I'm off tofind that leak

Cheers, Mike

Haha, thanks Mike! I think most if not all of that comes from the chain oiler and the two holes in the front of the gearbox (new O-rings last year, tsk!), but never mind, I remember when bikes were for riding â?

Sorry techno Illiterate here just wanted to say I thought I was the only one with a dirty undercarrage.

Previously Peter Denham wrote:

Sorry techno Illiterate here just wanted to say I thought I was the only one with a dirty undercarrage.

To be honest, I'm glad to hear I'm not alone â speaking as someone who doesn't have so much as a shed to work in. It's enough of an effort to get things done out in the street, and try to keep the bike looking nice, without lying on my back in the road trying to keep the undercarriage looking sparkly! And, as I said, I remember when bikes were for riding â maybe it's just me, but we used to just get on these things and go, so there's an element of nostalgia there too, if you see what I mean â?

I doubt that I'm alone in having stories like this, but anyway I'll give you an example. For many years in the late 1970s and most of the 1980s I worked in London as a despatch rider, and for the last five years or so of that period I rode a Suzuki GS550. At the sort of mileage I was racking up, of course things went wrong pretty often. Carrying a spare clutch cable was a must, for example. I even used to carry a spare stator for the alternator, as it used to fry every six months or so â then I'd fit the spare wherever I happened to be, and the fried one would be rewound by a chap in Clapham â even he couldn't work out why it kept frying, but I think we know now. The Motad 4-into-1 exhaust split near the silencer, and was fixed using a bean can with the ends cut off and the remaining 'tube' cut lengthways and wrapped around the split, held in place by a couple of jubilee clips â it had to be a corrugated can, to give it some longitudinal flexibility so it'd fit â a real 'bean can' exhaust. That would rust through after a few months and need replacing. The top feature was that the ignition switch wore out so that the key could fly out while riding. Rather than spend money replacing it (and wearing it out again), I fitted a toggle switch in the feed from the battery, out of sight but easily and discreetly accessible under the saddle, and only used the key to turn the bike on in the morning and off again in the evening. I'd only clean the number plate if a police officer told me to â leaving it crusted in road muck was a common wrinkle to make it harder for someone to take your number for whatever reason. The rest of the bike was hardly ever cleaned â it was strictly for riding. And that included riding for pleasure â my then wife and I would visit friends and family in Devon and Cornwall on it, for example. So yes, I like keep my Commando looking nice, but I'm not too fussed about it!

Oh Colin, you sparked some memories...

I was a (pretty crap) dispatch rider for a company based in SW London:'Easy Rider', Summer 1974 iirc- I responded to a flyer (looking for riders), had a clean license so they gave me a job &brand new Suzuki Ram Air GT250.

Firstday at work I threw the bike down the road twice, once on the Scilly Islesat Esher - my SuzukiT10 gearbox was all down for up & vice versa, whilst the GT250 was 1 down 5 up, I went (unintentionally) from 2ndback to first, gave it a real handful,wheelied dramatically & fell of f in a rather spectacular manner. After completing the job I was on, Ireturned rather embarrassed to base - the company were very reasonable, no major damage - pushing my luck I moaned about the Bridgestone tyres& their performance in the rain- I was bluntly told to wear them out then I could contribute to the purchasing of the replacements.

At 1300:there was a thunderstorm, at 13:30 still raining, I headed off on my next job,a dog ran across the wet Portsmouth Rd. I braked, the front disk did sweet fa, but the rear locked up (my T10 had a hydraulic rear drum brake, which leaked oil into the drum contributing little to retardation - ah happy daze) - so I'd wellied the rear. After a longish straight line slide I hit a manhole cover & fell off, Comerfordsrepair bill almost made the bike awrite off.

I'd nicked of work to start the dispatch riderjob, went in the next day with the bruises to demonstrate why I had been 'ill'& told them I was moving to another job. I had to use my own T10 until the GT250 was fixed & they docked me £30 (almost a weeks salary!).

I worked for them for2 or 3 months through the summer, I remember doing quite a few jobs for Mike Batt. Eventually I left because the pay checks started bouncing, my late dad, bless him, came down & did the East London heavy (calm, but resolute with undertones of menace) until the md paid a few cheques over to me to clear what I was owed. Inever went back& I starteda Foundation Art Course at Epsom School of Art & Design a few weeks later.

It was a lot of fun, for a start it was summer, AtoZ stuffed in jacket, more than once I went to the right address but wrong post code, or had to stuff rolled art work into my jacket or under a bungee - you'd tell them it was a bike but none of the ad agencies seemed to havethe wit to put art work incardboard tube! Thetrick was to never have change for the cost of the job, that way you augmented your salary

I was in my early twenties so it was great fun riding bikes on a daily basis & being paid (not a lot) to do so (I still rememberthe longer rides up to Milton Keynes to the Gas Board),ah the past isanother world

Mike, Mk III Commando

As a postscript, the guy who helped me to my feet at the Scilly Isles was on a moped, on his way to collect a Yamaha 750 (triple with shaft drive), a year or so later, he picked me up when I was hitching into London; during the course of the conversation we realised we had already met - it's a small world!