side stand

Yeah I did but it fell over ! . :) I think the side stand is just right, why do you want to shorten it ?.

The early stands made the bike too upright IMHO so I got my tame welder to take half an inch out in 2014 - the factory then standardised on this shortened length

The shortened stand went with the bike when traded in for my Sept 2017 Sport - according to this link, the stand length is 209mm from centre of pivot to centre of footplate - see

https://www.accessnorton.com/NortonCommando/short-side-stand-again.20028/

my current Sport is fine now - the settings of the suspension may well make the bike sit lower

PS I have an R&G side stand shoe on it which doubles the contact area

Fair enough John, maybe mine has the shortened stand.

Anybody have a magic technique to winkle out the side stand when the engine is still running?

I find this nearly impossible. The upright bar needs to be just a little longer.

Simple solution that costs almost nowt. Get a length of 8mm copper tubing , plumbers have tons of it, then push/knock/bash a slightly longer length over the original tang extending it by 30 or 40mm or whatever length you want. Paint it black then stick a diddy rubber bung on the end ...............hey presto, no more swearing and cursing or looking a pillock in front of a crowd of unsympathetic bikers.