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Brown BMW Side Stand

b25bsaboy

New member
Good evening!

I have a Brown Side Stand on my 1982 R100RT and I think its OK!. However with that being said, I recently purchased a 1989 R100RT Monoshock with a factory side stand and it has to go, because I am not really comfortable with the construction. Does anyone know what years you can install a Brown Side Stand to a R100Rt and where can you buy a setup to suite the 1989 R100RT.
Appreciate any help.
 
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Good evening!

I have a Brown Side Stand on my 1982 R100RT and I think is is OK!. However with that being said, I recently purchased a 1989 R100RT with a factory side stand and it has to go, because I am not really comfortable with the construction. Does anyone know what years you can install a Brown Side Stand to a R100Rt and where can you buy a setup to suite the 1989 R100Rt.
Appreciate any help.

I have a Surefoot sidestand on my '93 R100RT from Motobins in the UK, and had one on my, now sold, '85 R65 as well. I choose these over the Brown as they have a very obviously robust construction and great function - very easy to use and very sturdy - but they do lack the elegance the Brown design. I have a Brown sidestand modified to fit my '93 R100R that looks great and really works well, particularly when I see how others struggle with the stock item. If it had not been on the bike when I bought it I would have gone the Surefoot route here as well, but there's no point changing for change's sake.
 
With very little mods you can install a Brown on any R100, except a GS with paralever. I had one on my 78R100RS, 86 R80RT, and 95 R100RT. On mono shock bikes you have to put down the Brown before the center stand, and center stand up before the Brown.
 
Another nice one is the farley. Ive got one on my mono, and removed the stock one completely.
they have a version for the mono shock so your not modifying anything, and you are not playing the sidestand center stand game like the modified brown.
Plus it does not mount to the exsaust, like many others do, it mounts strictly to the frame. It mounts near the foot shift so its easy to deploy.
Snobum does an article on farleys and he really likes them ( on his dual shock)
Plus farlley be great on service. He sends you the sidestand for free, you like it, you pay him, you dont like, you send it back. Not sure if he still does that, that was two year ago

the only thing I wish was different, and true of many others like the brown, I wish it had a bigger footprint
but then maybe that is what allows it to clear the exsaust and centerstand of the monos
 
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Another Vote for the Farley

I put a Farley on my 85 Monoshock a couple of years ago. Went right on with no mods needed. Attaches to the frame instead of the exhaust. If you are ordering for a monoshock, the length of the stand is one that was chosen just for monoshocks. I can't believe that I did not do this earlier - this is a great sidestand (as long as you remember to retract it before you ride off).

There is a little bit of interference between the center and side stands on my bike, but they seem to "spring"around each other, so it really makes no difference to me. One small bump and the springs pull everything into the proper retracted positions.

I was offered the same deal mentioned above - I could hang on to my money until I was sure that I wanted to keep the stand.
 
Thanks guys. I have a Brown's stand on my 82 R100RS and I love it. Sooo much better than stock.

I'm searching (google) for a contact for the Farley stand but so far no luck. There is info and photos on Snobum's site but no contact. Where did you guys find it?

Ooooops. And of course right after I post this I found the info!

Farley's Sidestand
Robert VanFarowe\
2792 24th Ave.
Hudsonville, Michigan 49426

TEL: 616-896-8469.
 
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Please excuse the seemingly ignorant question, but what exactly are the problems with the stock side stand? I'm relatively new to Airheads, and while I've heard a couple of things, I'd like to get it straight, once and for all. Especially since someone just called it the "suicide stand". Thanks.
 
As I understand it.....

BMW used a self retracting (spring loaded) stand so no one could fail to retract it, then try to ride off, ground looping and crashing at the first left turn. Let's blame the lawyers for that nuance..

Why is the stand mounted so for forward, I'm not sure. Perhaps to ensure clearance with the centre stand?

The reason I don't like it is that the leg actions to deploy it are rather tricky. You need to balance the bike to the right, commit the left foot to getting the pull down tab and extend it. Then transfer the weight of the bike to the left. Problems can quickly develop if you don't have it down all the way. If it is just that little bit rearward of full deployment, when you put the weight of the bike on it, she's gonna fold like a towel fresh from the dryer.:doh

The Brown (and I believe the Farley??) have no auto spring return. I find I can easily swing the Brown out with my left foot, place my left foot on the ground and transfer the weight to the left side. The spring in the Brown is a return assist, once you start the stand up, she snaps up fully. But it will stay fully extended on its own.
 
Please excuse the seemingly ignorant question, but what exactly are the problems with the stock side stand? I'm relatively new to Airheads, and while I've heard a couple of things, I'd like to get it straight, once and for all. Especially since someone just called it the "suicide stand". Thanks.

No such thing as an ignorant question around here. You have folks with tons of knowledge and experience and some just starting out plus everything in between.

I think suicide stand is a bit over the top. Some bikes have side stands that automatically retract when the bike is raised up and some do not. You must remember to raise them up before you roll away. If you don't the first left hand turn you make is going to be a problem because the stand will try to launch the bike upwards. Depending on speed and the force of the turn this can either push the stand up while giving you a good bump all the way to throwing you and the bike over and down which is of course very dangerous. It all depends on the situation.

In both cases retracting vs non retracting has people who love and hate them. Some like to not worry and have the stand come up by itself every time and others do not like this because once in a while the stand will come up when you do not want it to. An example of this is inching forward or moving it around in a garage or some such place.

Many models of BMW bikes (like my R80G/S) has a factory self retracting side stand that is place very far forward on the bottom frame. It is quite hard to deploy it because the carburetor and cylinder are in the way. It requires a forward push manouever with your toe basically while you lean the bike to the left. Once the stand makes contact with the ground a slight roll backwards while still pushing left and down finally gets it into place and safe to dismount. At first, it drives you nuts because the springs keep wanting to pop it back up again. Once you learn the manouever it's not so bad.

But I still much prefer the Brown's or Farley side stand which require that you remember to retract it yourself. They are MUCH easier to reach and deploy plus twice as strong as stock.
 
I kept stock sidestands on my '84 R100RS and '84 R80 G/S

For the RS, I always deployed the sidestand while sitting by reaching down and doing it with my hand, leaning the bike onto it once I had it folded out. Given the RS small bars, it's pretty hard to get off the bike and keep it held up, especially with a tankbag fitted. Therefore almost always deployed sidestand while still sitting on bike as noted (and taking care not to burn hand on exhaust). There's really no way to sucessfully deploy stock stand with foot while seated.

For the G/S, first of all I retrofitted the sidestand from an R100GS, which fits perfectly and is a lot stronger. This I deploy still seated with my foot in two steps, the first one as far as I can get it, lean the bike on it to hold it there, and then a second stab with my foot to get it all the way forward. If conditions permit, the big bars on the G/S make it fairly easy to get off before deploying the sidestand and then it's pretty easy to do it standing next to the bike.

Put a Surefoot on Wife's R100RT (also '84) and it's way better than the Brown. No moving an exhaust clamp with the Shurefoot. Not the "harley" look of the Brown, either. This bike came to us with stock stand removed, so never tried it but imagine the bigger handelbars of the RT would prove helpful.

Problem with BOTH the Brown and the Surefoot is that they foul the centerstand, meaning you either don't get them totally retracted or if you do you have to move the centerstand out of the way a bit to get the sidestand down. The latter is easier said than done. Of course these stands don't self-retract, so there is added safety concern since you can indeed ride off with them still down. This means they are not necessarily better than stock, just in one way more convenient, assuming needing to remember something isn't inconvenient.

On BMW's newer than Airheads, the bike won't start with sidestand down and bike in gear and it will kill the motor if you start it in neutral and then put it in gear with sidestand still down. Since it's smart procedure to always leave bike in gear when on sidestand, this has become my method for shutting bike off after a ride (saves the kill switch). Deploying the new stands is a piece of cake and of course there's no spring-back action as safety is achieved electrically.
 
Here is how I modified my Brown. I posted this once before, but I made an improvement since then.

Drill an extra hole in the stand where shown. I used a 10mm drill and a 10mm button head bolt. This allows clearance for the shift linkage on bikes that does not allow adjustment of the shifter.

Fabricate a piece of steel stock to run from the extra hole to the front engine mount. Drill a hole where the carrier bolt goes, use 10mm here too since factory bolt is 10mm.

Flip the top hat carrier bolt around from its intended side to allow the shoulder hold the brown in place.

Move the tailpipe clamp back to the middle bolt and let it return to it's intended purpose, support the tailpipe. Let the Brown gets it's extra strength from the extension. This ends the stress put on the tail pipe and the clamp. Some clamps are known to have cracked due to the stress.
 

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Bolt the extension to the front engine mount. You will have to loosen the nut on the right side and tighten the one on the left side until more threads are available for the nut to tighten. Use a thin nut on top of the other engine nut with the bracket in the middle.

Now the stand is supported by the engine mount bolts, not the muffler hanger. I did this mod on three of my airheads and in each case the Brown was much studier and the tailpipe in not stressed.
 

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Here is how I modified my Brown. I posted this once before, but I made an improvement since then.

Drill an extra hole in the stand where shown. I used a 10mm drill and a 10mm button head bolt. This allows clearance for the shift linkage on bikes that does not allow adjustment of the shifter.

Fabricate a piece of steel stock to run from the extra hole to the front engine mount. Drill a hole where the carrier bolt goes, use 10mm here too since factory bolt is 10mm.

Flip the top hat carrier bolt around from its intended side to allow the shoulder hold the brown in place.

Move the tailpipe clamp back to the middle bolt and let it return to it's intended purpose, support the tailpipe. Let the Brown gets it's extra strength from the extension. This ends the stress put on the tail pipe and the clamp. Some clamps are known to have cracked due to the stress.

That looks like a great mod. I've not had any problems with my Brown but thought using the exhaust pipe to be a bit odd.

Thanks
 
I will be doing this mod as well because I have broken two left exhaust hanger brackets. This mod should help, thanks! Great pictures!
 
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