Up On the Center Stand - Video from Nickola Milkovski ("sofiabg")

I know this is old hat to some of you, but this video and the explanation really cleared up some confusion for me. Hopefully this will help some other newbies.

I talked to Nickola today, mainly about the pod filters he sells. A very nice guy. Towards the end of the conversation I asked him, "and just how the heck do you guys get these things up on the center stand??"

He gave me the secret that I had never taken away from all the descriptions I have read before on this. Ready?

The secret (to me anyway) is that unlike the Hondas I'm used to, our bikes no NOT use the bar that sticks out to the side of the stand on the left as the lever you step down onto while 1) steadying the bike by holding the left handle bar, and 2) lifting up on the grab bar that wraps around the back of the seat. All this skinny rod on the left is for is getting a start on pulling the center stand down from between the frame rails.

The actual thing you use your right forefoot for is stepping on the CROSSBAR between the two sides of the center stand, and the curved part of the stand. This "locks" the stand to the smooth/hard surface needed for this to work, as well as providing a rearward and upward force that's added to the vertical force you apply to the grab rail. When executed correctly, you can see how easy this is from the video.

It's just like the Honda CB-750F I first learned a center-stand technique on--the bike is nearly impossible to wrestle up onto the stand using brute force, but a walk in the park when you know the "secret."

I would add that the 1300 is a good 200 pounds heaver than my 750, so good technique is that much more essential. Nickola also said that rocking the bike forward and backward a few times, as seen in the video, helps get up some momentum to roll the bike up onto the center stand.

I still need to get a bunch of practice myself, but at least I now know what to shoot for.

www.facebook.com/nickola.milkovski/video...224632805237690/?t=0

I've owned over 20 motorcycles over the years and for the most part I always used the side stand out of convienence. Kick the side stand down, get off the bike, tip to the left and turn the handlebars left, done. Did this ONCE on my brand new 1979 CBX, came back 20 minutes later and found the bike laying on it's left side. What the Hell??? Looked at the pavement and found the side stand had pushed a hole in the pavement and I suppose enough to allow the bike to fall over. $800 later and I swore I would never use the side stand again.
Moving forward- Picked up this KZ1300 basket case and got it home. Rolled it off the trailer and found a place to park it in the garage. Started to lower the main stand with the little foot pedal and about half way down, the center stand falls to the ground. My first reaction was "well we'll be replacing the center stand spring" make a mental note. Then i saw the main foot pedal on the center stand and realized that if I put a stronger spring on the center stand, I would not be able to transfer my foot from the small foot pedal to the large pedal. Rethinking I came to the conclusion that the center stand was meant to drop to the ground so you could move your foot.
The cbx is no slouch at 544 lbs dry weight and I remembered having to put all my weight on the foot pedal to get it to rock over and up on the center stand, so bearing that in mind, I did exactly that with the KZ1300. Center stand resting on the ground, put your right foot on the main foot pedal and press down with reasonable force, rock the bike left/right and feel the point where both feet are firmly on the ground, grab the handle at the left shock absorber with your right hand and in one motion put all your weight on your right foot and lift with your right hand. Voila. Now I'm a bit of a chunky monkey at 256 lbs which helps but I can literally lift the rear of the bike with my baby finger to complete putting the bike up on the stand. For me, the trick is getting the bike upright and sitting on both feet of the center stand before rocking it up otherwise things get a little hairy as it's coming up.