Side stand indicator LED

The centre stand arm is a pretty good lever. Put the centre stand down so that it is touching the ground with both legs - the bike should remain balanced if you keep your foot on the foot lever. If you then stand on it and pull your weight down onto the stand while pulling the bike backwards on the bars and the flip-out arm, it takes much less muscle power and strain on your back. At this point, you have no feet on the ground. After overcoming the inertia, it just pops up onto the stand. Easier if you have heavy soled footwear, as all of your weight and more is being pressed into that tiny square of metal.

As for fitting a side stand down switch - the electrics / electronics are a little more complicated than your normal switch. For a start, the switch completes the circuit by connecting to earth - so it doesn't actually provide any switched power, as you may imagine that it would. Put anything in the circuit after the switch and it would be connected to earth whether the side stand was down or not. Put anything in before the switch and you risk completing the circuit, allowing the rest of the system to believe that the side stand switch had been turned on - so it would be like that all of the time.

Then there are the other components in the circuit, which are connected in such a way that the bike can only be started if the bike is in neutral, or the clutch is pulled in.

Then there is the rather non-intuitive logic that doesn't allow the engine to be started if the bike is in gear, the side stand is up and the clutch is released. Think about it. That's how it is when you are riding. So whether or not the engine is already running comes into play somewhere.

There are two opposing diodes in a cartridge in one of the fuse boxes. These prevent the 'signals' from some of the switches from being confused with the 'signals' from others. And at some point the signals are sent to the ECM so that it can decide whether or not to allow the engine to be started or to allow it to continue running.

I'm not saying it is impossible, but it would need very careful analysis of what the circuit is doing.

Neither of my ST1100s had an LED to indicate that the sidestand was down. Except when I accidentally blew the diodes. The Neutral light would then come on when the stand was down and also when I pulled the clutch lever in. I'm not suggesting this as a solution. I would suspect that the 1300 controls the circuitry more than the 1100 did. But that is just my supposition.

I'd not thought about it before, but thinking about it now, I realise that more times than not I stop the engine by flicking the side stand down. I think this came about because if I didn't do that first, I would forget to do it, and I prefer for it to be down when my pillion gets off.

jfheath said:

Neither of my ST1100s had an LED to indicate that the sidestand was down.

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I think the ABS models had a different set of indicator lights on the dash, did the sidestand light get replaced by an ABS indicator light or two? The non-ABS model definitely has a yellow sidestand down indicator light.

FWIW, here are the ABS and non-ABS lights on a post '95 ST1100. Both have the SS light. AFAIK, they are the same for pre '96.



John, you sure your ST11s did not have the SS light? I would assume the dash is the same for all models around the world.

Thanks John,
It was a bit of a lark thought. Appreciate your thoughts though!

I was broken of the habit of riding with the side stand down by my 305 Scrambler (CL77). I can't recall ever having an incident with any other bike. But then my Duc didn't have a side stand (center stand only) and the ST just doesn't go if the stand is down.

With the exception of the ST the aforementioned bikes never gave me any trouble with the side stand being partially deployed. And I felt it contact the ground quickly enough. But with 1) my left leg still giving me some trouble 2) the weight of the ST 3) the high CG of the ST and 4) what I perceive (maybe based on some paranoia) as a steeper lean when on the side stand— it's sometimes an adventure leaning it over and waiting... for it to plant on the ground. Even when I hear it hit the stop after deployment I almost always look down for confirmation.

Lark or not I like lights and a SSD light would be a fun farkle. If I were to attempt it maybe a magnet and bracket on the side stand and a reed switch and LED on the bike in a circuit separate from the side stand switch. I've never done anything with a reed switch and don't know if a relay would be needed as well. Maybe a mercury switch. Just a thought.

Or maybe a levered micro-switch. Just another random thought.

ST Gui said:

I was broken of the habit of riding with the side stand down by my 305 Scrambler (CL77). I can't recall ever having an incident with any other bike. But then my Duc didn't have a side stand (center stand only) and the ST just doesn't go if the stand is down.

With the exception of the ST the aforementioned bikes never gave me any trouble with the side stand being partially deployed. And I felt it contact the ground quickly enough. But with 1) my left leg still giving me some trouble 2) the weight of the ST 3) the high CG of the ST and 4) what I perceive (maybe based on some paranoia) as a steeper lean when on the side stand— it's sometimes an adventure leaning it over and waiting... for it to plant on the ground. Even when I hear it hit the stop after deployment I almost always look down for confirmation.

Lark or not I like lights and a SSD light would be a fun farkle. If I were to attempt it maybe a magnet and bracket on the side stand and a reed switch and LED on the bike in a circuit separate from the side stand switch. I've never done anything with a reed switch and don't know if a relay would be needed as well. Maybe a mercury switch. Just a thought.

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I'm with you on the lean aspect and looking down to confirm it's fully deployed.
I remember being very impressed with the side stand on the BMW GS as it snaps down with authority past about 2/3 of the way down.

I definitely am cautious putting STella on the side stand. I make sure the ground is stable etc before I fully commit weight to the stand.

I'd be really interested in something like what you're describing. Keen to help in whatever way I can.


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