Honda's new kickstand design

[The A-man]

Hi guys, I just happened upon this article, and couldn't help but chuckle to myself. See, I had a tipover incident about two weeks ago - for the first time in nearly 50 years of riding, I simply forgot to put the kickstand down. No real damage, just some hurt pride when my wife saw me, and a broken clutch lever. So... I figure this new invention is just a plot by Honda to sell more clutch levers! Enjoy reading.

Honda patent unusual new side stand

 

[Cormanus]

Interesting. I wonder what Honda’s up to?

 

[Stichill]

That's OK A-Man. I have a friend who tells me, "Motorcycles are designed to be dropped." Funny thing is, that's true! Virginia Tech did a study of motorcycle accidents where they outfitted around 1200 (I think) bikes/riders with monitoring instruments. One of the (not so) surprising findings was that I think 50% of the riders dropped their bikes during the course of the study. I might be wrong in my recollection, but it was something like that.

I've been wondering when we would see power-operated side or center stands on the heavy touring bikes.

 

[LongRanger_imp]

The K1200LT had a power-operated centerstand.

"The technical highlight of the Luxury Tourer's (K1200LT) enhancements is an electrohydraulic center-stand with automatic push-up effect. Developed by BMW, this new feature enables the rider, even with a passenger and fully loaded, to automatically raise the motorcycle simply by pushing a button, without even getting off his seat. This is accomplished by an electric pump that builds up pressure in a hydraulic system and moves out the center-stand without any manual handling required."

 

[Stichill]

^^ Well that’s pretty cool!

 

[Cormanus]

The K1200LT had a power-operated centerstand.

"The technical highlight of the Luxury Tourer's (K1200LT) enhancements is an electrohydraulic center-stand with automatic push-up effect. Developed by BMW, this new feature enables the rider, even with a passenger and fully loaded, to automatically raise the motorcycle simply by pushing a button, without even getting off his seat. This is accomplished by an electric pump that builds up pressure in a hydraulic system and moves out the center-stand without any manual handling required."

I saw one once. There was a bloke riding a K1200LT at the second Wintersun rally I went on. He was (or looked) a good deal older than me. I can’t think why, but either Pterodactyl or I asked him how on earth he got the bike on the centre stand and he showed us: just pressed a button and up it went.

I don’t know how he got it off again. May well still be there for all I know.