KLE500 - A Centre-stand Solution

I cannot understand why all bikes don’t have centrestands!

Of course I can – pointless on a supersports bikes (but as they have nowhere to keep your sandwiches anyway they are pretty much pointless as motorcycles in the first place). I can undestrand why a Harley doesn’t have one either. I can also see why you wouldn’t want one on a purely off-road bike. But on a bike designed for (mainly) road use, a centrestand should be manadatory – and the lack of one has stopped me buying bikes in the past when I could afford to be fussy.

Even before I committed to buying the KLE500, I researched the availability of an aftermarket centrestand and despite a price tag representing about a quarter of the value of my KLE500 I knew I had to have one.

Internet research suggested that the SW-Motech stand was a quality product – and the only game in town anyway. The only possible problem was that the makers (perfectly reasonably) don’t guarantee that it will fit with an aftermarket exhaust. And my bike has a stainless steel Sebring system. Despite numerous posts on as many forums as I could find, I couldn’t absolutely confirm that it would fit my bike. But at least one member of the Facebook KLE500 community (thanks Richard) was pretty sure that it would – and the only set of photographs I could find of an installation seemed to support that view.

I bought it from Motohaus Powersports (www.motohaus.com ). Not the cheapest but the buyer of the LT’s radio had a friend who worked there and could vouch for them as a reputable retailer. It was a special order item and they quoted 2-3 weeks delivery – which they met. The stand is clearly a very high quality product. The fitting instructions are in German (bizarrely only the parts list has been translated but with a bit of help from Google and a look at the diagrams it’s all quite obvious – especially when you offer the parts up to the bike.

The left side bracket is a doddle. You just remove the passenger footrest bracket and the riders footrest bolt, place the bracket into position bolt it back up again with the bracket underneath the passenger footrest bracket. The result is very neat (Picture Left).

The right hand side bracket mounts to the footrest bolt and one of the frame bolts but it’s equally simple (Picture Right). With the Sebring exhaust, the bracket touches the pipe but there was no force needed to fit – I don’t envisage any long term problems (Picture Below).

The hardest part?  Fitting the springs. However fitting centrestand springs is a problem on any bike and in fact it can’t have been that much of a challenge as the whole job took less than ½ hour from start to finish. I simply hooked one end on and levered the other end with a long screwdriver round the spring hook – sliding it down the screwdriver

shaft onto the peg.

Once fitted, I was delighted. The bike is very easy to lift on and off the stand and a quick ride round the

block confirmed no rattles or graunches. Chain maintenance and rear wheel removal will now be a doddle. I guess it has reduced cornering ground clearance but I doubt the my riding style will challenge these limits. Most importantly, parking will no longer involve leaving the bike at an alarming angle.