* Side Stand Mod .................................. 2010 Suzuki C800 *

Well its time to get the dremmell out!!!
I have decided to modify the side stand lug.
I hate the way Suzuki have designed the side stand, it’s a bloody accident waiting to happen. My 18 month old grandson lent on the rear of my bike and if I had not been so quick the Fekin bike would have been led on the floor. Why have they not allowed the side stand to go a little more forward instead of being nearly bolt upright?
Ok so I did the side stand mod & and would say it took about 2hrs from start to finish, which is from laying my hands on the first tool to shutting the workshop door when finished. I hope this quick write up is useful & encourages others to do this simple but essential modification.

The first picture shows the side stand lug in it's original condition.
For this modification I removed a fraction over 2mm from the lug which allowed the stand in its extended state a to sit a fraction under 2 inches further forward.


As you can see the first close up shows the lug that the side stand rests against leaves the side stand nearly vertical!


The next picture shows the bolt that holds the stand in position.
The reason I have pictured this is because at first I thought it was stuck & momentarily thought about giving it a whack to release it, however this bolt is threaded through the stand before the nut is in place.


Here are all the parts that will be removed


Ok so this is where the best tool ever created comes in to play, the Dremel.
A large grinding tool was at first used to shave off the 2mm that I required to do this mod.
You will need to shave fractionally more off of the bottom of the lug than the top


Now it's time to get it nice & tidy so I have now swapped the large grinding tool for a smaller one.


At this point I temporarily replaced the side stand to see if I had shaved off the required amount & was happy that I had. you may want to take a little more off & there is no reason why you couldn’t actually take the whole lug off, which I know a lot of guys do after doing the lowering links mod.
It is really important to remember when grinding the lug to not cut straight up & down, you must grind at an angle allow the stand to rest properly when extended.
As I was happy that I had taken enough off I now sprayed the bare metal & allowed it to dry before greasing the area and replacing the side stand


And there we have it, cut sprayed greased & back together.



However good this mod is I would still park her in gear, just in case.

Really good thread Intruder, I have seen it in the past where people have ground the lug completely off. The way you do it is much better as the other way throws the bike over to much. And I also think that parking the bike in gear is a must, even after doing the mod.
I really gotta get me one of those little dremmells.

Yeah they are not cheap but very useful, and I think this mod should be done on quite a few bikes. If the C800 is on only a very slight incline it would roll forward very easily

Just done the side stand mod, really easy.
I followed your excellent and easy to follow instructions and bish bash bosh 120mins later my bikes a bit more stable

No worries Crash, glad you found the thread useful.

Nice mod My drive is on a slight slope and cant park the bike facing down cause the bike nearly fell over I think I will have to dig out the dremmel :)

the.parkerz wrote:

Nice mod My drive is on a slight slope and cant park the bike facing down cause the bike nearly fell over I think I will have to dig out the dremmel :)

Well worth doing, its no guarantee but its a little extra insurance.
I still always park it in gear tho'

Thanks alot. I never considered just removing half of the stop. Great idea. I'll let you know how it turns out.



-Tim

You can also take it all off without an issue!

Oo Oo just followed a link and I bet you can't guess where I ended up

A lot of people take the lug completely off when doing the lowering bones because the bike sits so much lower.

Dave a quicker way is to take the side stand switch off 2 small bolts,and wiz away the unwanted metal with a small angle grinder,I left a some of the lug on so it did not put to much pressure on the side stand switch,once it is been ground away it has gone,best leave some there.

Yeah I can see an angle grinder being quicker at grinding than a dremel but even then I would still have removed the side stand. I am not sufficiently steady with my hands and would have ended up grinder marks all over the place.

alfie92 wrote:

I left a some of the lug on so it did not put to much pressure on the side stand switch

I don't think it would touch the switch even if you took it all off

I'll be doing this mod when I can get a proper stand to put the bike on soon as possible I think! :-)

Nice Idea... just did this to mine... Love how it now takes a little more Omph to move it.

Glad to see members doing these mods as it takes very little effort to make the bike rock and go over from standard. 

I removed my stand and put a wheel on each side on the back. Don't even fall over.  

Good one Tex  

Good mod and instructable Dave,    good old dremels, worth their weight in gold, have a look on Ebay Crash some good bargains can be had,   found some of those wheels on Ebay Tex, good thinking, 

Hey Mr I. forgot to ask... do you have any play in your sidestand?  After I put mine back together (was really cruddy) I noticed that I had some play.  The play is only when the sidestand is out. I can grab the bottom of it and wiggle it away and towards the bike. (There is no play in it's normal direction of travel.)

This has me a little concerned because if I go to rest the bike on it's sidestand it drops a little because of that play... is that normal?

No that is not normal on later models at least, there is no play at all on my mine, just read your post and quickly went and tested it to be sure. I have also done another members bike & either adjusting the kick stand stopper lug or even totally removing it can not induce the symptoms you are experiencing. As they only change the final clockwise resting position of the stand. No interference can be made with the vertical/horizontal positioning of the stand with this procedure.

Any idea what could have caused it?  was looking at your pics and I didn't see any washers/spacers.. so I can't be missing any....

If the bolt that secures the side stand to the bikes main securing faces is done up properly, It could only be one thing causing it. That would be that previously you hadn't noticed that the side stand was doing the same thing but had only noticed it since doing this mod as your attention was drawn to it. In that case it would be that the three mating faces of the side stands internal and the external faces not meeting flush. Possibly putting the two top protruding mating faces of the side stand in a vice and closing the gap by a fraction could possibly overcome it as if they are splayed a little further apart than needed, they could be stopping you at a point that you feel is of a required torque.  However Extreme caution would be needed if clamping the faces a fraction. It would be more prudent to slide an extremely thin washer in between the faces.
Other than that I have no idea, as I can only visualise the two problems causing such an issue due to the simplicity of the design.
As log as the nut & bolt is of a satisfactory torque nothing could fail, If any doubt is in your mind you could just tighten the nut up and use a thread locker. There next to no reality that the bolt could then at any point come undone & your stand may still have a fractional horizontal movement as it currently has but will always be secure.
Sorry I can't be of further assistance.

Actually you were a big help...   in the spring I'm going to take a closer look at it and try what you suggested...

Thanks.

Glad to help.  

Hello CanadianCruiser,
I see you have A 2002 VZ 800 Marauder, You said " was looking at your pics and I didn't see any washers/spacers.. so I can't be missing any...." from dave`s pics,,,, their should be a washer in the VZ800 Marauder stand assembly,, it`s referred to as a shim in the parts manual. Hope this helps.

hmmm... when I called the dealer for one they said it was only for the V/W models... I have a K2 so it wasn't available..
I'll make a call tomorrow and see if perhaps I can order one.... I tried to put a thin washer in there.. but it wouldn't fit... did they delete the "shim" on newer models?

Hi,
The micro-fiche for motorcycles are available to view for free at Ronayres,,, I use them all the time for the exploded view diagrams you can see,,, really helpful if you aint sure of something, it helps see what you need to do to re-assemble or dismantle something,, I`ve had a quick look at the parts list and it shows the shim for the 2002 and 2003 bike, model number may come into it I accept, my 2000 VZ800 marauder has one and my uncles 2002 VZ800 also has one as I stripped it down for a snapped return spring,,, here`s the link to the fiche for the stand.

http://www.ronayers.com/STAND-C152667.aspx

Thanks for the link... I have that already downloaded but as I said it lists it for the V/W models... (don't know what the difference between those and the K2 is..) I'll make some calls this morning and see what I can get.. if not then I'll just order it online..

Just got off the phone with the dealership and that shim is not available for my bike... it's only available for models V (97) and W(98).  Mine is a K2(2002), It won't even fit in.  I asked why it shows when the year is selected and they said it's just a general diagram, that you have to look at the models...

They suggested that I take the stand off and hammer it a little or buy a new kick stand as mine is obviously bent slightly.

Two-Bears is it possible that you take a peek at your 2000 marauder and see if the "shim" is there... it would be much appreciated.

CanadianCruiser wrote:

They suggested that I take the stand off and hammer it

I would not do that if it has got bent, hammering it could fracture it or snap it. 
I would follow Mr Intruders advice of squeezing it in vice to put it back in shape. That would be much safer than hitting it as the dealership said

Just came back from doing some running around and popped into another shop.. they happen to have an 02 rauder in for winter storage and maintenance... so I explained to the mechanic what mine was doing and he took to the one there and it did the exact same.. turns out there is supposed to be a little play & no "shim"... so I'm worrying about nothing lol...

thanks though..

That's good to know  

Always good to get a second opinion,good of him to check for you.

Good to know.  

2nd opinions are always good especially BEFORE you get the prostate exam...   (sorry just had to)

Thanks to captain crash for bringing this mod to my attention. I had the misfortune of watching my VZ800 roll off it's side stand today, luckily there was no damage done. So looks like I'm going to have another session in the garage.   

Having read the above posts I may tackle it in a different way. The stand has to be removed, so why not grind the 2mm from the stand? It would save crawling around on the floor with a Dremel and could be done on a bench grinder.

Harry I have done this modification, as described by Mr Intruder and it is excellent. Doing it his way, rather than the way you have described, gives the desired result. If you do it the way you have described, the side stand is shortened only, rather than sitting further forward as described here. Shaving off the metal from the lug as described here, allows the side stand to rest further forward, which in turn  takes a lot of force to make the bike roll forward.

Not going to grind off the length of the stand Ken, was going to grind the area at the top left of the stand where it meets the stopper lug.

It'll be good to see the pictures of you mod as well, I like to see different variations of the same mod.  
However I would hardly describe how I have done the mod, as needing to crawl around on the floor with the Dremel like the guy in the picture though.
I managed to sit next to the bike & do it.

I did the mod a couple of days after getting my VL800 & have never regretted it one bit.
It did come to my eye though that you can remove the tag completely & the prop stand will go only a little further as it then hits the frame lug itself therefore stopping the stand going any further forward.
Have a look & you;ll see what I mean ok?

Always keep my bike in gear, after i dropped my last VL800 on a very slightly slanted drive. Handlebars turned, bike rolled forward and down she went.
Luckily the only mark on the entire bike was on the huge engine bars, otherwise it would have cost loads to replace panels.

Keeping the bike in gear is a must with any bike I think, something I have always done. Well it is since a bike decided it wanted to move on its on once before & cost me an arm and a leg to put right, doing Mr Intruders mod as well is a good idea as well. Better to be safer than sorryer

The bike is heavy & the side stand doesn't kick forward enough, doing this mod is a safety mod that really should be done by all.

I always found the side stand on my M800 gave plenty lean and it seems secure enough but having fitted a set of lowering bones I will be breaking out the dremil too, as the lean angle is a little straighter than I'd like.
Seeing this mod by Dave has reminded me I need to get my finger out ...I