You know what I’m talking about, right? That little add on part that you clamp onto the end of you side stand so when you’re in sand or gravel your side stand doesn’t sink in allowing your bike to fall over.
Here’s one from KTM.
The base of my stock side stand has a flat circle that fits in that recess you can see in the silver base. The top (black part) just bolts it all together and then the 3 recessed allen screws are set screws that you can put pressure on and keep it all tight. Years ago I had a CamelToe version for my 950. I think the original was like $75? These things take a bit of a beating and so when it’s been time to replace I’ve continuously looked at them as more and more of an expendable item. Why spend so much on somthing that’s going to rattle off and die in a year or so?
But $50 bucks for that little piece? That’s why I had the Tusk version. I can afford these all day long!
Virtually the same except now I have a few extra beer moneys too!
Yes it’s BILLET but all that means is that it’s cut from a single block. In this case that would be aluminum. Billet or not, that aluminum is going to wear and after a while the base is going to get thinner and thinner until this happens.
That’s my Tusk base plate. It has worn from the bottom and has now broken through to the recessed area. So now while it still works in the sand, it also rattles like hell when it’s up. There’s no push I can do on those set screws to take up any gap. I was going to order a new one (Big Spender!) but then after my headlight work, I thought maybe I could improve on the design.
I also needed more height on my side stand and could use at least a full inch or more. So…
I drew up some plans. This is the extent of my drawing skills. I’m thinking bolts from the top and then having a lock nuts on the bottom, with a bit of a countersink. I could melt the nuts into the HDPE but I thought a countersink with enough room for a 8MM socket (for a M5 Bolt and Nut) would be better.
I had a left over piece of 1″ black HDPE from the headlight bracket. I took off the old foot, disassembled it and cut out Prototype #1.
This just might work.
Next I drilled the 4 through holes.
On the bottom I needed each to have a flat countersink and also give them enough room for the 8 mm socket. That turned out to be just a little under 1/2 inch. That 1/2 hole got pretty close to the sidewalls and actually exceeded it in one place. I can fix that in version 2 with just a little more width.
I calculated the nut needed about 8mm of recess, so I set the depth for just that. This put the nut down just under the surface of the block. The problem was, that wasn’t enough to get the threads to engage with the nyloc.
So I needed to counter sink just a little more. I added 4 mm to the depth and that seems to be perfect! This also puts the lock nut close to 5 MM under the surface.
I know the block is going to wear. Look what happened to the aluminum version. That said, the material is cheap and this set up will be easy to replace when it does.
Here’s the top of the piece. I am using stainless M5 x 30 mm cap head bolts.
Next, I need to work on the top of the block. The base needs a hole for the side stand base to fit into. I measured that out and it comes to 41 mm. Not something I had a hole saw for. I ordered one off of Amazon. This would be one of those tools you use only once. The nice thing working with HDPE is any tool can cut it. I can use this to cut the perimeter and then use a router to hollow out the middle section.
I made sure I could use this without the center drill bit although a hole down the middle wouldn’t kill it.
A week later my hole saw arrived and I’m happy I waited. It’s probably of the lowest quality but it’s sharp enough to do the one thing I wanted.
It looks like it’ll do the perfect size hole and really all I’m looking for it to do is the circumference, I’ll plane out the middle with another tool.
First, let’s do a test run on a piece of scrap… I liked it, cuts like butter.
So I marked the center of Prototype #1 and set my depth. The Tusk looks to have had a 4 mm depth, but since I’m working with HDPE and looking to tighten things up, I did it at 3 mm.
Side note: It looks like there’s not going to be another prototype – yay me!
In that test block you can see where I buggered up a bunch of the material. That was me trying different router bits at different speeds. I found the one that worked the best was a small dado cutter, at a pretty slow speed, in my drill press. Something it was never meant to do. But I learned that too big a tool and too fast built up too much heat and then things started melting.
With the HDPE base in a vice. I set the depth on the drill press and then just moved the vise slowly around, removing the material I needed. I could have gotten if flatter but I really didn’t want to remove too much material and then have to move on to Prototype #2 if possible. The surface is fine, it’ll be hidden anyway.
Next it was a test fit to see if the circumference was the right size and it couldn’t be better! There’s almost zero play and the depth looked to be perfect!
Next, I just bolted it all up and we’re ready to go out and play!
As you raise the bike towards it’s balancing point, the angle that it hits the ground is going to change. Right now this is near perfect, and even if it wasn’t, you could see where the inside would wear down to make it perfect.
Here’s what it looks like with the side stand up. The weight is minimal and I’m sure it won’t effect the side stand staying up while riding.
Right now, it looks like a big block but with a little dirt and wear and tear, it’ll scuff right in and look normal. I was going to finish sanding the edges and refine it a bit – but why?
This props the bike up a bit more. I know I could use another inch perhaps but this is good enough for now. It has the same footprint for the sand and gravel as it did before so no change there.
It’ll be interesting to see where it sits with all the luggage loaded. As the suspension sags, the bike sits more towards level and so there’s also a real possibility that it could be too long. (Nah!)
I also would like to go through F & R springs and figure out what I should be running. That’s a rabbit hole all into itself. Right now I have stock springs which is pretty much guaranteed to to be too light of a spring rate. To get the right sag (loaded) with a too soft spring rate you have to add a whole lot of preload. When you do that you are not using up the spring that you could have had available (because you’ve already used it with your preload). I know I am running too much preload now. But that’s all for another time…
He's an avid hockey fan, rides a mountain bike, sometimes rides a road bike, has a few motorcycles (he had a really fast one, had a big cool orange one, rode a really slow one, and is currently building a perfect "BDR Weapon"). If that isn't enough, he makes cheese and sourdough bread, loves strong beer and good red wine, and poorly plays the Mandolin.
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