front paddock stands

<snow crash>

I never had you down for a pizza-boy

</sc>

 

Verdigris says...

I'm using a cheapo Micron stand with bobbins and hooks on the ZX9 and
it's easy to use on my own. As you know, I'm not the biggest built
person around. It was just as easy with the Thunderace too. There's a
knack that helps you use as little muscle power as possible and keeps
the bike remarkably stable during both operations.

 

yeah, I've seen that type - have you actually used one?

 

Yes - I've got the rear stand (bought at Ally Palace for
£15) and it's no different to any other rear stand - maybe
the metal isn't as thick, but it still works fine. These
"new" style ones have an extra bar on the legs to help
strengthen them. My mate Phil had the one without and
he said it did start to weaken the join after 2 years of
constant use, but he solved it by having the two parts
welded together. For £18 and three years use, that's not
bad.

I've used this type front too, and they do work. You have
to be very careful to get the forks onto the prongs, but
it's stable once it's on. The ones with pegs which locate
under the forks are better, but then you'd need specific
widths for each bike (I think) so that's probably not ideal.
Most tyre fitters use the prong types from what I recall.

How many times are you really going to use a front stand
though? The only thing you'd use it for is removing the
front wheel to change the tyre, as you can't use these ones
to take the forks out (and I can't see you doing that too
often!) and I doubt you'll do that more than once a year?
If you're doing lots of trackdays then just get it done
there as I've not been to one yet without a tyre van on
hand to fit tyres.

 

Ideally, I'd /never/ use it[1]. However, my general track plan for this
year is to put very sticky tyres on, but have a spare set of WOWs, so
that if it rains, I can swap the wheels over and continue[2].

Hence the need for a front track stand!

[1] i.e. it won't rain during a trackday.
[2] I lost at least 2 sessions at Cadwell on my TRX due to it being
rather wet, and the bike being fitted with Michelin Pilot Race tyres,
which are terrible in the wet.

 

I've got one of them, and have used it on at least 5 different bikes -
if there's any significant difference in the distance between the forks,
I just adjust the stand to match by pulling the ends apart or pushing
them together.

 

You seem to have missed the requirement to be able to easily swap
wheels for wet and dry conditions.

 

Ah, ok, I didn't realise this. In that case don't worry
about which stand to go for - just get the cheapest one
and one of those prong ones will be fine.

I missed a whole afternoon at Rockingham because of the
weather - it started pissing down just as our group came
in, and the next group was stopped for a faller. They
stopped for lunch early because of this, then carried on
in the afternoon. There were 13 fallers in total that
day and at the rate they were coming off I just decided
it wasn't worth the risk for the sake of half the £90
I'd paid for the day.

 

If it rains then just ride slowly and shit yourself everytime you have to
lean it a bit.

 

So my dry-weather riding technique will work just as well in the wet?

Result!

 

that's not exactly a lot of fun, is it?

 

If God had meant motorcycles to be fun he'd have put roofs on them.

 

http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-12,GGLD:en&q="BMW+c1"

 

So God rides a BMW? Cool. All it needs now is a couple more wheels.

 

http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-12,GGLD:en&q="BMW+c1"

http://www.joe-ks.com/archives_sep2004/RoofBike.gif