Sidestand after Roper plate

[emason]

Installed Roper plate in my '00 V11 Sport. I found that the threaded hole for the M6 bolt that secures the sidestand no longer lines up due to the thickness of the plate. What is the fix? Just elongating the hole in the bracket?

I searched this site for info but was unable to find anything, although I was told there was a recent discussion of this problem.

 

Thanks,

Edo

[Guest ratchethack]

Edo, this has been addressed by Greg Field and I think others. Greg's solution is to elongate the hole in the steel forging (yes, it is ) for the M6 bolt with a Dremel. I came up with another solution that works better for meself:

 

I've done suspension work at both ends, including raising the ride height. The sidestand now benefits from either a 1" block under the stand to keep it from excessively "heeling over", or a "non-standard" stand angle to hold the bike at a less steep angle. Semi-incredibly enough, the steel forging that mounts the side-stand actually flexes under the load of the weight of the bike quite a bit, and can be "flexed" to provide a better stand angle. I found that replacing the small bottom spacer between the steel forging and the sump spacer at the 6M bolt does the trick, and allows for the extra 2.5 mm or so of the Roper plate and extra gasket.

 

To do this, I substituted 2 ea. washers for the spacer, making the "stand-off" about half the dimension of stock. I tighten up the M6 socket-head bolt first, before torquing the large 19 mm hex-head bolt that threads into the timing chest cover until both bolts are fully seated and tight. This puts the forged steel stand mount in tension, and it actually "flexes" to fit when the 19 mm bolt is torqued down -- without Dremel grinding. It's a brutal, downright medieval solution that I'd hesitate to use on a more modern bike, but I figure the Guzzi Donk is over-engineered to the tune of 150 lbs. of war-hammer excess strength in many areas (this being one IMHO) that "modern" bikes ain't got. It's worked like a Champ since I installed the Roper plate, coming up on a year ago.

 

BAA, TJM, & YMMV

[BrianG]

I just finished that mod as well. My concern with the "under tension" situation would be a metalurgical one. While using the Dremel to elongate that 6mm hole, I noticed that the material ground away quite readily. This would tend to indicate a casting, as opposed to a forging. As you may know, static castings are fairly strong, but also fairly intolerant of tension loads. I fear for sudden catastrophic failure of that kickstand support bracket, my dear fellow. Hate to see your pride and joy laying on its side!

[Guest ratchethack]

Nah, it's no brittle casting. It's forged steel.

 

Even the locomotive of Sport Bikes, the Mighty Guzzi, has NO cast iron or steel on it anymore -- except for possibly a few items like valve seats. The days of ferrous castings on motorcycles were gone forever back when brazed-up, cast iron lugged, pipe-tube frames finally died a prolonged death in Old Blighty. . .

 

Only a steel forging would be resilient enough to flex and be strong enough. You can actually feel it flex when you put the bike on the stand. D'you think I'd risk dropping the Guzzi without having "bounced it" a few times to test it before walking away with confidence?? -- NOT LIKELY, m'friend! That was nearly a year's worth of road use ago. . .

[Richard]

Am I the only guy who hasn't had to "adjust" the sidestand mounting holes after installing the Roper plate?!

[Gio]

Am I the only guy who hasn't had to "adjust" the sidestand mounting holes after installing the Roper plate?!

 

Where did you install it?

 

(Sorry - couldn't resist that one. I had to file just a little out of the stock hole to get the bolt back in, but not much..)

 

Gio

[tikkanen]

Hi there,

 

here's Greg Field's instruction for fitting Pete's plate

 

As Greg states it takes a bit of drilling but not that much. I had my plate installed during normal maintenance at my dealer and they just followed Greg's instruction. Worked like a doddle, they said.

 

Good luck!

 

Cheers

Søren

[emason]

Well, I elongated the hole for the M6 bolt with a Dremel. Relatively easy, went back together OK.

However, I think I stripped the 19mm bolt without it ever getting tight. I don't understand.

[rocker59]

Am I the only guy who hasn't had to "adjust" the sidestand mounting holes after installing the Roper plate?!

 

installed my sloppage sheet today (it's been sitting on the shelf for a while). everything lined up fine. a couple of the outside perimeter holes were a tight fit, but the sidestand lined right up.

 

getting ready for a road test now.

[Pierre]

installed my sloppage sheet today (it's been sitting on the shelf for a while). everything lined up fine. a couple of the outside perimeter holes were a tight fit, but the sidestand lined right up.

 

getting ready for a road test now.

Mike, on the sport or the V-11? I had it installed on my sport i by my local dealership, so didn't get to see what they were talking about but I was told the plate needed substantial grinding to fit. No idea why.

[pete roper]

Mike, on the sport or the V-11? I had it installed on my sport i by my local dealership, so didn't get to see what they were talking about but I was told the plate needed substantial grinding to fit. No idea why.

 

 

This I find really weird? I've NEVER has to grind anything when installing them??? Because of minor inaccuracies in the lazer-cutting. I have had a couple of machines where a few of the perimiter bolts were a bit tight but as long as everything is installed *loosley* first I've not had to drill or grind anything. If the perimiter bolts are very tight though simply increasing the size of the holes with a 6 &1/2mm or 7mm drill should allow plenty of leeway for machining inaccuracies. As I said though, I've never had a problem and neither have I had to grind the sidestand mount either!

 

This isn't to deny that these problems can occur but I can't for the life of me see what could need 'Substantial Grinding' to make a plate fit????

 

Pete

[rocker59]

Mike, on the sport or the V-11? I had it installed on my sport i by my local dealership, so didn't get to see what they were talking about but I was told the plate needed substantial grinding to fit. No idea why.

 

I've got 'em on both bikes.

 

I installed the plate on the Sport 1100 over a year ago with no problems. The Sports have a different sidestand mounting than the V11 Sport / LeMans... The V11's sidestands bolt up to the block, not a bracket bolted to the sump bolts, like on the Sport 1100....

 

I installed the plate on my LeMans Nero Corsa today and the two sidestand bolts went in with no troubles at all...

 

A couple of the bolts that hold the upper sump ring in were tight to get in. A tap with a rubber mallett and they lined up fine...

 

I've ridden the Nero in some city traffic today and the sump seems to be oil tight...

 

 

Hey Pete, thanks for a great product !!! It's so nice to have vendors like you making limited runs of goodies for our Guzzis !!!

[Pierre]

This I find really weird? I've NEVER has to grind anything when installing them??? Because of minor inaccuracies in the lazer-cutting. I have had a couple of machines where a few of the perimiter bolts were a bit tight but as long as everything is installed *loosley* first I've not had to drill or grind anything. If the perimiter bolts are very tight though simply increasing the size of the holes with a 6 &1/2mm or 7mm drill should allow plenty of leeway for machining inaccuracies. As I said though, I've never had a problem and neither have I had to grind the sidestand mount either!

 

This isn't to deny that these problems can occur but I can't for the life of me see what could need 'Substantial Grinding' to make a plate fit????

 

Pete

Pete, don't worry about it. It's in and I don't know what he needed to grind. This wouldn't be the first "problem" this guy has encountered where no one else has problems.

 

Next oil change I'll have Sean at Classics take a look. See if he can detect an issue. But since no one else here has had to do "substantial grinding" then I'm assuming it was the guy with the grinder was the problem. I'd thought maybe some difference between V-11 and sport i iteration, but Mike cleared that up.

[Tom M]

I think some folks here are confused about which holes need grinding. The grinding that Greg recommends is elongating the hole for the 5mm bolt in the kickstand support because Pete's original run of plates were made from 2.5mm (?) thick stainless steel. Installing the plate moves the 5mm kickstand mounting bolt hole in the side of the sump down that far, so now there's and additional 2.5mm between the 2 bolts that mount the kickstand so the holes no longer line up.

 

I think I read that Pete's latest run of plates is thinner material so maybe the hole in the kickstand support no longer needs to be elongated?

[Pierre]

...

I think I read that Pete's latest run of plates is thinner material ...

Oh god. Do I need to upgrade? Will this never end?!!!