Bent center stand lever?

So I got home from the grocery store this evening, went to put the '91 up on its center stand and the pedal just bent straight to the ground. I've got it bent back up out of the way so it isn't likely to hit the ground when turning left, but it's now entirely useless as a center stand.

Pardon my newbness, but the ST1100 is easily the heaviest motorcycle I've ever owned so my questions may seem a bit dumb:

1) Is the side stand sufficient for 24/7 usage? I'd been using it only when parked at the store or other quick trips and parking it in the garage overnight on the center stand under the assumption that this was better/more stable/stronger.

2) Is the bent center stand pedal a common issue? Haven't come across any info about it online, so I'm guessing "no." Basically curious if I'm going to keep running into this issue if I replace it with a used OEM unit off of eBay, or if I should take it to someone to have it repaired/rebuilt out of stronger materials.

-Lee

First I've ever heard of it. OEM should be fine. A picture of the failure would be helpful and most interesting.

I tried to take a pic from underneath to show where the tube had bent, but camera phone + low lighting in the garage = less than stellar results.

The tubing on the lever collapsed where the red dot is:

Deviate said:

...went to put the '91 up on its center stand and the pedal just bent straight to the ground...

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Most likely the tubes have rusted inside out over the years, basically due to lack of cavity protection...

If you give the second hand part some treatment with WaxOil or ACF-50, it should last for a few more decades...

I only use mine when doing maintenance in my garage but, would be lost without one. a local welder could have it repaired quickly but the remainder of the ctr stand would probably be in a similar state of decay. with a used part you could inspect, paint and treat with acf50...that would be the route I'd go... your posting has me thinking that I had better look at my own 2 stands, during this winters maintenance session.

the_gr8t_waldo said:

I only use mine when doing maintenance in my garage but, would be lost without one. a local welder could have it repaired quickly but the remainder of the ctr stand would probably be in a similar state of decay. with a used part you could inspect, paint and treat with acf50...that would be the route I'd go... your posting has me thinking that I had better look at my own 2 stands, during this winters maintenance session.

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Yeah, the bike came from your neck of the woods too. I picked it up in Auburn last month.

They're cheap on eBay, so I'll snag one there at some point soon, give it a good once-over, find this acf50 stuff and go from there.

+1 on the inside out corrosion.... either that or the ST put some weight on as it got older.....

Deviate said:

I tried to take a pic from underneath to show where the tube had bent, but camera phone + low lighting in the garage = less than stellar results.

The tubing on the lever collapsed where the red dot is:

Click to expand...

Hmmmm.......definitely not normal as that portion doesn't carry any weight so to speak once up on centerstand........makes one wonder if bike got rocked over onto left side of centerstand for whatever reason.

I'm not an expert on this sorta thing but, I would expect to see the bend in the opposite direction, if the bike had been tipped over. The bend does look like normal foot pressure/direction. Areas that are well hidden often get over looked, maintanence wise. A bike with 15years would , naturally develop some rust. But, I am beginning to suspect that mother Honda didn't pay enough attention to protecting such areas.

Is there a possibility that the bend point is actually an impact point from some piece of road debris that may have made a small dent in the tube (deflected upward), resulting in a weak point with repeated use of the center stand? That's the only way I could think of the bend being localized like that.

Erdoc48 said:

Is there a possibility that the bend point is actually an impact point from some piece of road debris that may have made a small dent in the tube (deflected upward), resulting in a weak point with repeated use of the center stand? That's the only way I could think of the bend being localized like that.

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Anything's possible. It's a 23 year old bike. I definitely don't remember hitting anything in my short ownership of the ST, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened.

Seeing as the old stand is for the scrap heap, how about cutting it open to see what caused the problem and posting the pics.

Maybe some uneducated person tried to lift the bike onto the stand by just pushing on the lever only ( must have been a big guy)..

Avtrician said:

Seeing as the old stand is for the scrap heap, how about cutting it open to see what caused the problem and posting the pics.

Maybe some uneducated person tried to lift the bike onto the stand by just pushing on the lever only ( must have been a big guy)..

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Sounds like a good idea. I'll take a hacksaw to it once I get its replacement in the mail and installed.

I think any good welder ( or even me ) could do a decent repair, cheap.

BTW, I bought a wire welder about 8 years ago. I wish I had done that earlier. You could do a repair in practically no time, if you had one.