Vintage BMW Motorcycle Owners

I took the bike out for a nice long ride yesterday, and everything was just fine. I stopped at one point to remove a long sleeved T shirt I had on as the temperature was getting up there, and I stopped IN the road on a little side street, and put the bike on the side stand. I was literally standing next to it removing my shirt when the damn thing must have rolled forward slightly, and down she came. It didn’t do much damage, scuffed up my left crash bar a little and a little abrasion on the corner of my side box.
I won’t be doing THAT again!
Has anybody figured out a solution to these things? I had a Ducati with a stand like this, but you could buy a bolt from Ducati that would fix it.

It's happened to me a few times. I try and think clearly the situation when I use it anymore. You may have a look at the spring that retracts the stand. If you reposition the spring and when it goes over-center, you can turn it into a stand that stays down until you physically retract it. However, beware that first left turn!!

I installed Reynolds ride off center stands and have never had a bike fall over since. Problem is, they have been out of business so long, finding a good one is like finding hen's teeth. St.

Even Harley’s side stand LOCKS into place when you put the weight of the bike on it. You can actually park a Harley pointing downhill and it won’t roll off of the stand. The stand on this R90 is virtually useless unless the bike is pointing UPHILL when you use it. And I would think that they have used this stand for many years, on many different models. Could be a good way to sell lots of valve covers and saddle bags I reckon.
Oh well… you got me once. It won’t happen again! (Hopefully)

Of course, leaving the bike in 1st gear when you come to a stop and deploy the side stand will work as well.

That’s true, Kurt, and I usually do that if I’m on a “noticeable” hill, but I didn’t even think I was pointed downhill. Apparently, I was. Fortunately, no one saw me and my bike wasn’t damaged bad.
I bought a brand new Suzuki Katana 1100 in 1989 and the VERY NEXT DAY I dropped it in a parking lot while putting it on the center stand. Six hundred bucks in damage. In 1989 dollars! That would probably cost me three grand today.
I’ll be much more careful from now on. Lesson learned!

To stop the bike from rolling off the sidestand all you need to do is install a 5/16" bolt in one of the holes in the sidestand foot. I used a 1/2" long bolt. You could use an 8mm X 10-15mm bolt but I never found one that short.

When the bolt is in place the bike has to roll forward more than 6" before it will not roll back. Easy and effective fix. Mike

Mike, my little brain is not quite comprehending how that will work, but I’m DAMN sure gonna try it!
Thanks!

If you look at the extended stand, it gets shorter as the bike rolls forward. And it just keeps rolling. The bolt makes the stand get longer as the bike tries to go forward. That makes the bike roll back. Even a rock will roll downhill, not uphill.

Mike

One issue I could see with the bolt is that it pushes the bike to a more upright position. There's the potential for the bike to push over to the other side. Especially if you don't use inch-sized tires. For a while I was running metric tires which are smaller in radius than the stock tires. That means the side stand pushes the bike up to near vertical. At a gas stop on a road trip a number of years ago, some wind blew the bike over to the right side. Kinda embarrassing. I am back to running inch-sized tires.