I took the S2 out yesterday to go get a cheese burger and a beer at the local biker bar in town. Probably about 20-25 bikes there, all harleys (except a goldwing trike and a buell).
As I was leaving a guy in a suzuki touring sportbike comes up and parks next to me. As he was getting off the biked, the kickstand broke at the weld and the bike fell over hitting me on the way down.
He picked it up and rode off without saying a word. Probably for the best.
What is it with kickstands recently? My 1979 sporty has never had it removed. My 1989 KLR250 has never had it removed. My Buell X1 has never had it removed. I have broken the FRAME of my 1980 KLX250 and the kickstand still works to this day.
Now all the threads of XBs losing their stands and my personal 2008 XB12X popping the bolts of the mount.
Is it so friggin' hard to get a STICK to hold your bike off the ground????
Sorry, I know you started the thread to point out that a douche threw his bike on you and ran away.
that is how I used to spin XBs on the sale floor back in the day...
I'd do that all the time with mine as well. I would have said something too. At least offered him something to whipe his ass with, cause you know he shit himself.
right after I got my XB12R, I was warming it up one morning, and I heard the engine shut off. I went to the driveway and found it laying on its side, NOT touching the ground.
How?
The kickstand pivot bolt sheared off at the shoulder, and the flange of the kickstand bent, but did not break. It was laying there, balanced on the remains of the kickstand with the frame about 1 inch from the ground!!!!
I was beside myself, and it took 9 days for my new pivot bolts to be delivered. Yes, I ordered two of them, and I did pay for Fedex 2 day shipping. Turns out, California Harley in Lomita decided to wait and order it with the rest of their parts. Took me 2 weeks to get my $18 back for the shipping AFTER I had to prove that they never even tried to get it Fedex'd.
I also never considered rotating the bike on the side stand, I also am gona have to try this when I get home. After my wife goes to sleep so I can use her bike of course. If I am not mistaken did Hardley not need to redesign the frame on their accordian big bikes, because of the frame on Star bike makeing it a much better handling bike than the Hardley. So now Hardley is making knock off's of Hardley knock offs ironic to say the least.
I agree the Road Star is probably a better bike over all. A friend had a 2000 that was pearl white and beautiful, some kind of millenium edition I believe. He never had to take it in for anything but oil changes. He sold that for a '96 Road King and it's needed much more than oil.
Last year a group of us rode up to Mt. Charelston to get out of the heat for a few hours. We went south on 95 to Lee canyon road and turned on Deer Creek crossing and pulled over for a stop-n-talk. We hadn't even got off our bikes when Pat(he's under 5feet tall)dropped his Goldwing, now Paul(he's riding his XB12S) who is right in front of Pat, quickly gets off his bike to help him pick up the fallen pachyderm, only to hear his XB hit the ground! He thought he hadn't put down his kickstand in his haste to help our little buddy, but no, upon picking up his precious XB the kickstand, bolt and spring were lying on the ground. The bolt had sheared off at the shoulder leaving the threads in. Again the real fun began with Las Vegas H\D and there lack of customer service stating "the bolt itself was not available except as a complete assembly".