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1982 R100RT sidestand

ocoinji

New member
I wish to shorten the sidestand on my Rt after lowering the bike over the winter. I can either heat it and bend it or cut it and reweld it. My question - is the stock side stand made out of cast iron or weldable steel. The little tang that allows your heel to grab it is welded on so I assumed it wasn't cast iron. Anybody know?

Thanks,
Jim O'Coin
 
1982 side stand

It's made of crap. Whoever designed it should be slapped. :banghead Get rid of it and find a Brown side stand.
 
Crap you say?

Why do you say the material is crap? I'm not aware of any problems with the side stands although I hear a lot of folks don't like them. I'm all about function and not likes or dislikes so I would need a real reason to go and spend money on another stand. Could you please elaborate on why the stock stand is so bad? I just want to know if I go ahead and heat it to put a slight ben in it, is it going to weaken it or make it too brittle. If I cut it with the intension of welding or brazing a sleeve over the cut joint, will I run into a weldability or brazeability issue with the parent material?

Thanks,
Jim O'Coin
 
Crap I say

One day about twenty years ago when I had about 85k miles on my '82 R100 I pulled into my mechanics shop to discuss an electrical problem I was having with my carburetors.:scratch He warned me against using the side stand when I first bought the bike, but more often than not, I ignored his advice. That day as I came to a stop and deployed the stand and dismounted, I managed to take three steps towards the door when the stand suffered a catastrophic failure. That day I was lucky; the bike did not fall into the bikes next to it, and he had a Brown side stand in stock. What had occurred was not sudden, it took time for the metal to stress to the point of fracture. Every time I put the bike on it's side, the yoke at the top of the stand where it attaches to the pivot point slowly spread over time as weight was applied until it finally broke. I think it was made out of cast aluminum. There are others here who can speak about bending cast aluminum, but I never had any luck with it after it is bent. Perhaps there is a treatment for it, but to me, that is a lot of work to preserve a poor design. I like the Brown solution because it is simple and it works way better than the stock crap. I have also heard of balance issues when parking a fully loaded bike.
 
Have to agree on the side stands. I added Brown stands to all my bikes early in their life. Never like the stands not being in the deployed position without the weight of the bike on it and making sure it had the weight before getting off the bike.
 
To answer the OP's original question, it's weldable.

I shortened mine by about 1/2 inch and it works much better now.

Regards
 
Try a buying a Surefoot sidestand

I have a 1995 R100RT, and I have hated deploying the side stand ever since I bought the bike. Because of the lower fairing around the cylinder head, you need to be a contortionist to get the side stand down when you are sitting on the bike. Additonally, there is no Brown's side stand made for my bike, so I had to look else where. MotoBins UK sells the Surefoot. I took the leap of faith and bought one - best decision I ever made. SUPER EASY to deploy, the bike leans further over -- making dismounting a pleasure and providing more stability, larger diameter steel tubing with a much larger footpad, the side stand doesn't automatically flip back up, AND, it cost less that a Brown's, even though its being shipped from the UK. I even left my old side stand mounted on the bike, just in case I want to use it AFTER I get off the bike. For models after 1984, my Surefoot mounted to the frame behind the driver's foot peg, but for earlier models it mounts further forward, but still behind where BMW's side stand is mounted to the frame. The only problem is that mounting instructions did not come with Surefoot -- they must feel that they aren't needed (?).
 
For those interested, the Brown will work with mono bikes. It interferes with the center stand, that is all. You just put the Brown down first, then the center stand. Once the center stand is down it can be put back up. Reverse to retract the center stand. If you just use the Brown, it works fine. I had one on my 88 RS and 95 RT. You may have to wrap a bit of tape around it so it does not bang when both are up.

Wayne
 
In the 28 years I rode my '84 R100RS I deployed the sidestand by bending down and folding it out with my hand. I suspect with an RT I'd hold the left side of the handlbar with my right hand when doing this.
 
One bad thing about Brown....

Is I keep melting my boot on the exhaust when I put my foot down to deploy it. Oh, those pesky brown burn marks on my chrome. I added an extension and have now minimized the issue.

But, my bike seems much more stable on the Brown.
 
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