If you’ve ever had to remove your bike’s rear shock, you know what a pain it can sometimes be. Reason being, you cannot simply use a rear swingarm stand because you need to take all the weight off the shock linkage. Sometimes rear stands even get in the way of removing the rear axle when servicing the rear wheel. Typical alternatives to a rear stand in this case include jackstands under the footpegs, or a floor jack underneath the engine; both very unstable options at best.
Enter the Redline Sportbike Center Stand. Featuring a sturdy two-piece steel square-tubing construction with welded junctions, the Redline Center Stand works by using the bike’s swingarm pivot to lever it off the ground. The vast majority of swingarm pivots are hollow (every single one in our test bike stable was), and the Redline stand comes with an assortment of adapter pins that ensure a stable fit to virtually any brand or type of sportbike.
Using the stand requires selecting the two adapter pins that best fit your bike’s swingarm pivot, and then sliding the stand underneath the bike. The stand is adjustable for width, using large set screws with wide plastic knobs for easy use; you fit the adapter pins into each side, and then adjust the stand’s width so that the pins fit snugly into the swingarm pivot.
With the bike leaning on its sidestand, on most bikes we couldn’t slide the whole stand underneath due to the support legs fouling on bodywork or hard parts; this required separating the stand’s halves, reconnecting them from each side, and then pulling the two halves together while ensuring a snug adapter fit into the swingarm pivot on both sides — a somewhat tedious task for one person. Once everything was determined to be snug and buttoned up tight, the lifting part was very easy. Supported by just the stand, the setup was surprisingly stable (and far more than either aforementioned alternative methods). The support point is close the bike’s center of mass, so simultaneous front-end work can be easily accomplished with a floor jack underneath the engine; because of its balance, there is very little weight on the floor jack when lifting, meaning you could put the floor jack underneath the exhaust system if you’re careful.
For those thinking of using the Center Stand in combination with a typical front-end stand (supporting the bike either by the steering stem or underneath the bottom of the fork legs), don’t — because of its balance point, the front-end-stands cause the rear tire to contact the ground. Swingarm stands also cannot be used in conjunction with the Center Stand, because they lift the rear axle higher than the Center Stand.
For those who do a lot of motorcycle servicing with both ends off the ground, the Redline Center Stand is a worthwhile option. Prices start at $249.50.
Details
Redline Engineering Sportbike Center Stand
Retail: $249.50
Redline Engineering
www.redlinestands.com
FMF Racing
FMF Racing is now manufacturing full exhaust systems, and we’ll be trying one on our GSX-R1000 as the next part of our Literbike Mods series.
R&G Crash Protection
Also for the GSX-R1000 project, Twisted Throttle has sent us a full complement of protection parts from R&G: engine guards, bar-end sliders, swingarm spools, frame sliders and fork protectors.