Sidestand bend

[97tiger885]

The mc was beginning to lean a bit too much on the sidestand.  I took the time to replace it with a spare.   Much better.  Now I want to bend the original so that it is ready when the replacement bends too much.  I compared the two.  There didnt seem to be much of a difference.  I even traced the bend of the new stand on paper.  The plan is to get a shop to do the bending.  Where should I bend the old one, how much and should I have any other mods done?

[Solon]

Mine was a little bent too, I hammered it thoroughly after some "accurate" eye-measurement, now you can't tell the difference, taking it to a shop seems too much of a bother.

[97tiger885]

Mine was a little bent too, I hammered it thoroughly after some "accurate" eye-measurement, now you can't tell the difference, taking it to a shop seems too much of a bother.

So, no heat?   A big hammer only?  I dont have an anvil.  I dont know if my Sears vise would survive.  Thanks for the info.

[Solon]

Mine was only slightly bent, didn't need heat. If yours is more seriously bent, heat might help.

[Geoff W]

My replacement side-stand started to bend as much as the original one had. I took it to an agricultural/HGV fitter friend. He heated it with an Oxy-Acetyline torch and bent it straight with an old scaffolding pipe and a mel-hammer. It is now much better. Sometimes I need to be careful if the ground is uneven as getting the stand down can necessitate leaning the bike the opposite way. But it is much happier stood at a sensible angle now.

[coachgeo]

An old Jeeper's trick for Tie rods that bend when off roading.  you take angle iron... one or two pieces and "clamp" then to the rod.  Even a bunch of hose clamps work fine.  It will strengthen it but if it does bend again you can unclamp and re-straighten easier than one that has been reinforced.   Also you have a spare piece of angle iron available for trail repairs 

On a bike guess you would want to pull the spring little tighter to hold the extra weight.