Arrgg the person I bought my bike from had it lowered, well I guess when they lowered it they also took off the center stand. I have tried to put it back on a few times but cant get the damn tension springs to attach again. Am I doing something wrong? Is there a trick to expanding both springs? Special tool maybe?

Maybe try hooking the springs up to both mounting points first, then maneuver the center stand so you can get the bolts through the mounting holes. That's what I did when I took my kickstand off and it worked well.

Well, I am vertically challenged so I lowered my 06' bike too. I left my center stand on but there are two problems with that.

First, it hits the ground when I lean as I do a sharp or quick turn. It's quite scary when one of your leg of the stand drags on the ground while riding, you know what i mean. I am very light and it still happens so it prevents me from leaning as much as I would like.

Second, I find my self never using the center stand because the bike is so low and heavy that it is very difficult to pull your bike up while kicking the stand. So I bought a bike stand instead which works great while oil changing or wranching.

I am really thinking about taking mine off at this point that it's my 4th year and would like to lean more...

Hope this helps.

Let us know if you figure a good way to get it back on. I took mine off for aesthetics and it was a real challenge to get those springs off. I'll be doing a bunch of work on the bike soon and would like to know how to put the stand back on. It would make my life a lot easier when I'm wrenching.

This is an old trick for refitting springs..................

Hook one end of the spring onto something heavy that wont move, I used a gatepost last time. Then slide a screwdriver or somthing similar through the other end and get a pal to pull on it and stretch it. While its under tension slide washers, coins, valve shims etc between each of the coils in the spring. Upshot is the spring wont contract when its released. Then place the stretched spring in postion between the stand and frame and pull the spacers out with a pair of pliers. Same trick works when you need to remove the spring, if you place spacers between the coils when the spring is at the point of maximum extension you will find it falls off when the stand is moved up under the bike frame.

Quote from: sledge on March 19, 2009, 02:09:37 AM
This is an old trick for refitting springs..................

Hook one end of the spring onto something heavy that wont move, I used a gatepost last time. Then slide a screwdriver or somthing similar through the other end and get a pal to pull on it and stretch it. While its under tension slide washers, coins, valve shims etc between each of the coils in the spring. Upshot is the spring wont contract when its released. Then place the stretched spring in postion between the stand and frame and pull the spacers out with a pair of pliers. Same trick works when you need to remove the spring, if you place spacers between the coils when the spring is at the point of maximum extension you will find it falls off when the stand is moved up under the bike frame.

Ahh I tried something like this yesterday after posting, I almost got it. Thanks

+1 for sledge when i did mine i had the bike gutted and just tipped it up on it's tail, i used pliers to put one spring on at a time worked fine for me