Norge bending side stand (PICS) Fixed.

[canuguzzi]

When the replacement stand comes in I will ask if I can keep the old stand or at least have it long enough to take comparison pictures and measurements.

Then it will be apparent where the bending took place. I have no reference right now to do a comparison.

No one else within 15,000 miles has a Norge for comparison.

[MGrego]

Thanks for the pics -- going to use them as comparison vs my stand.  I agree yours is bent, going to be watching mine closely --

[canuguzzi]

Thanks for the pics -- going to use them as comparison vs my stand.  I agree yours is bent, going to be watching mine closely --

I put this under things happen. I wasn't trying to make a big deal of this until I'm told it didn't happen, can't happen or that the reason must be over stressing the stand.

They either replace the stand or I get a new one, either way, that should solve the problem and I am ok with that.

Will I pay more attention to the stand henceforth? Of course and it would be wise for other to do the same. Just check it once in a while.

Guaranteed 100%, were the Norge to fall over there would be howls about why no one checked the stand. Well I did and this is what I found.

If it helps someone else to avoid a problem, if you read my OP, that was the intent.

[Xlratr]

I think I would avoid using that stand until it's replaced!
John

Edit: is it possible that your bike was sometime strapped down on a trailer with ratchet straps? Maybe somebody overdid the tightening?

[blackbuell]

Norge Pilot,

Your pics look familiar; I have the same problem with my '09 Norge; same type of stand. A dealership verified that the stand was bent, so I ordered a new stand, which cost about $85. I still have the bent stand on the bike with a 1 1/2" piece of wood fastened to the foot of the stand with gorilla glue and gorilla tape (yes, it looks pretty damn silly). My brother-in-law, a welder, has my new stand; will weld a 1" piece of metal to the foot of it to reduce the stress placed on the stand, so the same problem won't recur with the new one. After he mails the modified new stand to me, I will post pics of it alongside the old stand on this thread.

Unlike you, over the years I have used the side stand extensively, including when the bike is fully loaded. Without help, I have trouble getting the loaded bike on the center stand. The extensive lean of all Norges on USA side stands obviously puts much stress on the stand. However, the stand looks so substantial, that I wouldn't have imagined that it could be bent.

Jon

[canuguzzi]

I think I would avoid using that stand until it's replaced!
John

Edit: is it possible that your bike was sometime strapped down on a trailer with ratchet straps? Maybe somebody overdid the tightening?

Bike was brand new and not bent when I bought it. It's never been transported other than under it's own power.

I too wonder how such a substantial looking stand could bend. Maybe someone else would know better but if the welding of the metal tab along the stand to strengthen it at the curve were somehow done incorrectly when it was made, could it have been weakened?

What really caught my attention was that it has bent more after the last dealer visit. When the bike got home, I pulled in the garage as usual and swing out the side stand. There is a 2x4 block in place already. Left foot goes down first and I swing off doing the ankle grab on the right leg and pivot away from the bike. Stand goes up and then I put it on the center stand. Its after that that it continued to bend more so I can only think once it bent, it continued and after a certain angle bends faster.

Darn perplexing since I'll replace a bolt or screw if it gets even slightly buggered, won't reuse a crush washer and when making up an accessory will not drill into or cut any original part on the bike. When the bike goes in for service, I check everything before and after to the extend I'm able.

I had bikes with spindly thin side stands and the kind with a foot so narrow they'd push through concrete, something I always am careful about using.

Ah well, I'll put a thicker foot on the replacement when it arrives and see how it goes.

[Xlratr]

What really caught my attention was that it has bent more after the last dealer visit.

  Hmmm.

[canuguzzi]

Hmmm.

Only from a time frame perspective, not that the dealer had anything to do with it. It wasn't bent more than before it went in the shop, the time in the shop was a few hours, in and out thing which is how they always schedule for me. None of this drop it off and we'll see you next Tues stuff. In at 9 out by noon usually.

My meaning was since that time it bent more.

[LaMojo]

Now that you have the problem verified.   Take the side stand assembly off.  Heat the bending area cherry red with a torch while bending back to the original shape and then toss it into a bucket of water  (oil is better).  Reassemble when cooled.   You may be waiting months on a replacement.

[Chuck in Indiana]

Now that you have the problem verified.   Take the side stand assembly off.  Heat the bending area cherry red with a torch while bending back to the original shape and then toss it into a bucket of water  (oil is better).  Reassemble when cooled.   You may be waiting months on a replacement.

This could be a bad idea if you don't know the steel alloy. If it is high carbon, it will be brittle, and break. When in doubt, cool slowly.

[LaMojo]

I doubt that it would be bending as it is if it did have a high carbon content.  Maybe that's the problem.

[canuguzzi]

My interim solution is as follows:

I will drill into the foot of the sidstand centerline to line up with the tube. I'll tap that for a 1/2" bolt. I have some aluminum billet laying around, I'll cut a piece off slightly larger than the foot and 1.5" thick and bolt that to the bottom of the stand foot countersinking the bolt head.

I can make sure that the aluminum will sit flat on flat ground when the stand is extended. This will add minimal weight, won't require removing the stand or torching it. It's a stop gap measure just so when its necessary tonuse it for a short time the lean angle is lessened and therefore less stress is on the stand.

Any why nots?

[RinkRat II]

 By adding height to the foot will only exaserbate the problem as the bend in the stand is already compromised.

 Solution: remove stand, Heat and rebend as LaMojo suggests. Quench in hot water or oil to re-strengthen. let cool, Drill two holes in sidestand tube, one at point tube attaches to foot and the second at highest point on tube below pivot. Mix up a batch of two part epoxy and sand, place sidestand horizontally in vise so bottom hole is slightly higher than top hole. [lets any air bubbles out ] Fill with epoxy mix and let cure. Sidestand is now a solid tube and will not bend further.

 Paul 

[CalVin2007]

  I am assuming you want to or have to return the unmolested stand for warranty? Otherwise just remove the stand,straighten it with heat or bend it back cold (it got that way cold) and weld in a properly placed brace or reinforcing member. It's a simple fix,really. 

   Terry

[bad Chad]

I thought your Norge was still under warranty?  Am I mistaken?

[Chuck in Indiana]

It's a simple fix,really. 

Yep.

[canuguzzi]

I thought your Norge was still under warranty?  Am I mistaken?

Yup (warranty).  We're getting decent riding weather in between rain. It will take about a month for the part to come in. I was carrying around a 2*4 block but just trying to make it easier when stopping and before it goes up on the center stand.

I looked really close and the bend is actually the tab part, not the strut. At first I thought it was the strut but it isn't, it's the plate that the strut attaches to. At least that is what it looks like, I have no other Norge to use as comparison. I'm thinking the plate would be flat and the strut bent to get the necessary angle. The plate ( part that bolts to the frame and the strut in turn bolts to) is bent from flat.

Its a guess without seeing another good one. The parts put in for are the entire assembly.

[Cool Runnings]

Dang, gotta check out the 2014 sitting in my garage (200 miles on bike)?

[canuguzzi]

If mine leaned only twice that far I'd live with it. Mine leans over much farther.

[blackbuell]

If mine leaned only twice that far I'd live with it. Mine leans over much farther.

Ditto for my Norge. Not only that, but the foot of the stand is far from being flat on the ground; the inside part of the foot touches, but the outside (distal edge) is about 1/2 cm off the ground on a flat surface. Additionally, the "elbow" just above (proximal to) the foot also touches the ground.

Jon

[Cool Runnings]

2014 Norge.

[canuguzzi]

The Red Norge's sidestands were made on Tuesday mornings, the White ones Thursday after lunch. 

Replacement will solve it. At 165 I perfected getting it up on the center stand. Its more secure there. Side stand is just for short on the road stops. If its going to be parked for more than a few minutes, it goes on the center stand.

[Cool Runnings]

I'm not so sure yours is bent out of spec?

[canuguzzi]

I'm not so sure yours is bent out of spec?

What spec? Here is how I look at these things. It wasn't the way it is now when I picked it up. It bent. If someone wants to put up the money in case it falls over no sweat, I'm game. Somehow, if my Norge fell over because the stand eventually broke I bet there would be posts asking why I didn't get it fixed before?

However, in the absence of that, its my obligation to fix it or I am willing to accept mediocrity. Its an $80 or so part. I could just buy a new one but why? I already paid for better.

I doubt anyone with a bent stand will say anything or seek a new stand. Their choice.

I'm not trying to get anyone to replace their side stand. I just brought it up so in case anyone else had the same type of excessive bend, they knew someone else did too and what they did about it.

There is nothing wrong with having it replaced. How else are they going to know the stand bent unless someone says something?

I'm not telling anyone to do anything, you like your stand? Great. Mine is bent. MG will replace it or fix it.

[Vasco DG]

I find it deeply ironic that the person having the most problems here is the same person whose first reaction to anything is to go looking for some form of legal redress or a government agency to impose order on the chaos and disaster that seems to follow them around.

In the rest of the world most bikes, the Norge included, have simple, effective, straight side stands that work as intended and rarely, if ever give any problems.

The reason US stands are different and tend to have the moment inducing, stress raiser 'Bend' in them is a direct result of a design rule change implemented by one of the government agencies or as a result of a court case after some cloth-eared dolt didn't deploy the stand correctly and one assumes dropped their bike, perhaps causing injury or damage.

The problem isn't the stand. Everywhere else in the world people seem to get along quite happily with the stand as originally designed. Their stands don't bend or fail and they seem, as would most Americans, that if they park their bike poorly and it falls over? Well? Suck it up princess! I've done it myself on multiple occasions in my life but I've never felt the need to make a song and dance about it! Apart from anything else it just draws attention to the fact that I'd been a goose! Nobody likes being laughed at!

So in this case the problem is directly traceable back to not the designers who are now obliged to strictly adhere to a stupid design rule that is a product of legislation or legal arse-covering but to the actions and demands of an idiot or idiots who simply wouldn't take responsibility for their own actions.

If the OP wants a side stand that works properly? You have two choices. Build your own or modify the existing 'Safety' stand manufactured for the needy and 'Special'. Or simply buy the better stand used in every other market on the planet.

IT'S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE!!!

[canuguzzi]

Hogwash. I have yet to seek legal redress for anything, nor petitioned any government agency to do a darn thing. For others who should not have to pay for someone else's screw ups, yeah, I support their right to seek redress.

Maybe you need to read the OP and start there. It was simple. It will be simple too, a new stand.

Its always better for those who pay for something to pay twice, just to satisfy some idea that because its a Moto Guzzi, certain crappy designs are not only acceptable but desirable because then some can spend endless hours figuring out why and then come up with a fix.

No government agency designed the side stand. In fact, most everyone else seems to be able to make them but because its MG they can't?

My OP was short and concise. Now if you want to tell me that it didn't bend, save it, it did and I did not bend it.

Its okay for individuals to suck up for repairs but if a dealer needs to suck it up, oh no, can't have that. Please.

If the stand was made properly, it would not bend, period. The only reason there are seat belts in cars, air bags, ABS, tubeless tires and engines thatnlast more than 50k miles is because someone said something about it.

The only thing that gets fixed when the owner digs into their wallet is the recipients bank account. The original problem remains and that is why people have to sort out things, not because of any reason other that some false idea that accepting defective work is okay.

Show me the government mandate or regulation that requires the Norge's side stand to be designed the way it is? There is no such thing, that came out of thin air.

If my stand is the only one to bend, fine and I said exactly that.

[Cool Runnings]

GET THE EURO ONE AND BE DONE WITH IT. 

[Vasco DG]

GET THE EURO ONE AND BE DONE WITH IT. 

That's what I'd do too. Luckily I have a Griso which has a stand that looks like it was designed by I. K. Brunell! It appears to be made out of some late Victorian material too? Cast iron maybe?

Pete

[canuguzzi]

GET THE EURO ONE AND BE DONE WITH IT. 

No, let MG decide if they want to replace it. I am not in a hurry. Why should I go by a Euro stand? If this is is a one time bending issue, then the replacement will fix it.

I've already paid for a stand, why should I pay twice? Lest anyone forget:

"2013 Norge. Noticed the bike leaning more than usual. Everything tight. The actual sudestand is bending, slowly but surely.

Hopefully the replacement will not bend. It is not the pivot but the long portion itself. No longer using the side stand, it is questionable so center stand only.

Probably the only one bending like that. Never sat in the bike with the side stand down."

[Cool Runnings]

It doesn't look anymore bent than mine.