My CBR 250R would be perfect for me if ...

Well, that's a good point...

And no two models are made alike. The only bike I've ever had that fell on the side stand was my KLR, because it was prone to roll forward, and it had a strong spring on the side stand. One time it fell on me because i left it in neutral to fill up, ever so slight downhill grade at the pump, and a big wind gust came up from behind. I'd turned around to deal with the pump, and next thing I knew, there was a bike on top of me.

I used to park all my center stand-equipped bikes on center, especially in the garage (now that's much more efficient use of shop space.) but I've had far more problems personally with center stands.

Then again, maybe someone was messing with me? I wonder if there's anything about a center-stand lifted bike that is more inviting to someone who wants to touch someone else's property?

Edit, also, the bit I mentioned about newer riders (or could be argued smaller riders) having trouble getting a bike up or down from a side stand stems back to a few sketchy incidents with the center stand my on Katana 750 back in the early 90's. I weighed all of 130-135 lbs soaking wet at the time, and the bike was quite a bit more than I was used to wrestling.

*Shrug* My experience... YMMV... I'd rather save the weight, expense, etc... going forward.

Definitely. And as always, to each their own. My point in the post was to show there are other ways to get around maintaining the bike even if you're poor (like I kinda was at the time) and can't afford specialty shop tools or something. :shrug:

I'll lay off the "Center stands are less stable" thing from now on, I guess... but does still seem to me that they would be, from looking at the arrangement of contact points, and some poor opinion on my part from various issues rather early in my on-road career. I had nothing BUT center stand on the scooter I started out with- and it ended up laying down many times while unattended. Then again, high school, scooter, some bus rider probably was jealous they didn't have their own wheels and pushed it over.


Edit: oh, and to get this pushed a bit more onto Wynne's intended topic...

I'd be a bit happier with the bike if it wasn't so portly. The thing weighs about as much as its bigger brothers and cousins, and has so much less power. Unfortunately, it's mostly the frame, I think, that makes it so heavy. Not really talking about power to weight ratio, per se... because that can be cured with more power too. I'm happy with its power and economy, just wish it wasn't such a pig.

I think that's funny to say, because so many say this thing is too light... but, context is king- I'm used to riding really light weight enduro bikes which also have lots of power. Not saying the bike FEELS heavy, it's incredibly well balanced, and I wouldn't want to change that one bit...

But the short list for mods to make this bike a lil more what I want - that list is driven almost entirely by weight savings at the moment.

Rusty Shackleford said:

I looked at adjustable rear-stands that sit the bike up on the little rubber pads as to not require spools; they start at $75. I need to get one for chain maintenance. I would've accepted a center stand on this bike if it came with one.

Click to expand...

Wouldn't recommend going without spools. Ability to slide forward and back. T-Rex spool mounts with spools for $50. Totally worth it and stronger than the Yoshi.

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