yes well it's all very funny til someone gets their eye poked out...i seem to remember a little voltage problem aboard apollo 13 and they had the equivalent of a ride on Air Belgian Congo..

 

i've now found the ignition switch and harness on ebay at Hap's Cycles of sarasota FL. USD121 delivered, which is pretty good. i was quoted AUD270 for it and with the AUD138 i paid for the RR, i've now spent AUD274 instead of the AUD530 i would've spent here. what sort of world is this where globalisation benefits me and not everyone else. i know i'm specially deserving and all that, but

is there a gimmick for getting the hurricane onto the centre-stand ? i'm 54 years old and had an inguinal operation a year ago. i saw a youtube clip where the fellow had a technique for doing this lift, but it was a kawasaki 1000 GTR 1990. did that one have a handgrab right where you need it ? i was using the left footpeg and the luggage rack as grips and nearly got a hernia. it still hurts. i don't like any of the lift devices on the market because weaklings risk a big capsize with all of them. has anyone tried the Anderson T Lift Stand and reviewed it ?

 

i'm getting to like the sound of my own typing a bit too much i think. i want to clarify that the clip i spoke of on youtube was by KawaTony1964 and the bike was the 2002 Concours. this is relevant because his affection for the Throttlemeister friction controller caused me to buy one. i'm a bit sorry i did since you only get what you pay for and this is no cruise control. the problem is that your road speed keeps hunting as the gradient changes. it's really futile to set a throttle position because you stall out uphill and become a runaway train downhill. i can usually anticipate shortfalls like these but this time i was completely mesmerised by KawaTony's amiable endorsement. on the other hand, the 2 ounce endweights that come with the friction drive are absorbing more vibration than the OEM weights did, and i have to think about my osteoarthritis of the finger joints more these days than i did a year ago. i coupled the throttlemeister with Sidchrome vibration-absorbing gloves which i found in a car accessory shop recently.
the Throttlemeister was AUD230. i didn't mention that i was unemployed so it must sound like i have money to burn. i subsidise myself by obtaining everything else i need from St Vincent De Paul and the Salvation Army.

 

In a few days I will be 55.
These beast are heavy and the center stand lacks adequate leverage to lift the bike easily. I turn the bars full locked left and with my right foot and left hand start the bike rolling backwards. With the rearward movement, I press hard downward on the center stand as I lift and continue to pull back. It is tricky and sometimes it comes up easy and other time when my back is out I can't do it.

This subject has been brought up before and the general consensus was that these bikes are by far the hardest bikes that any member has lifted to the center stand.

 

I assume you have found that hidden handle right under the body work over the rear hub? The trick is to try to separate the stand from that handle. So you are really standing with all your weight on the center stand lever while pulling mostly upward (and back too) on the hidden handle. That makes it a lot easier. Oh, and it helps to have a thick sole on your shoe/boot to keep that foot lever from smarting.

And all I use is Google Chrome. It is great.

 

My two cents on getting the Hurricane up on the center stand. I am 60 and went through some serious physical issues that have left me not the superman I was. Heres my trick. The Hurricane wants to go backwards. House you are right in the techniq of rolling it backwards. What I do is handlebars straight,left foot pressing down on the stand,legs apart and while up agaisnt the bike(just in case) pull up and back biasing my weight to the left foot until shes up. HArd to explain what your body learns to do, but the techniq is more leverage backwards than strenght trying to elevate her. Let it go back,dont try to pull it up.
I also own a Concours. It is a major ordeal getting it up on the center but the difference is it wants to go up. Also,it came with a lock type cruise control, but I rarely use it. Ol'school, not sure I want the bike doing anything I am not directly and conciously telling it to .Its easy to foresee that I may not have time to tell it to stop in an emergency.Just my own phychosis

 

Suddenly I'm feeling so young and spry.

 

Me too!!

 

No comment.....................except:
I still have the blueprints for the Ark, somewhere....................

 

thks for these reactions. Jhouse, i didnt think of that hidden handle as a handle. so you're saying the plastic has to be off the bike before you can really make use of it. so you'd be doing work anyway to get at it....

i'm going to try all suggestions. i hadnt thought of rolling the bike backwards. the driveway to my garage runs downhill at about 15 degrees. i thought of using that gravity to let the bike plop onto the centrestand but then i'd have to straddle the saddle while somehow holding my left foot on the stand and retaining friction between the steel and the paving blocks. then, the steel would have to grab hold and not slide across the pavers. and i wouldnt want to scratch the pavers, cause i'm an old woman like that..

then if this mechanical system worked, i'd have to make a takeoff ramp for the rear wheel hanging in midair when i wanted to get off. the motor would have to be running and i'd have to clutch carefully and not go careening like evel knievel.

then i'd have to brake quickly and not lose balance and fall sideways because i've found i can't lift the bike up when it has fallen over. i used to have a CX500 and thats the deadweight i can lift. i think its the lack of grabhandles thats the real problem. theres nothing to hang onto -- not counting the hidden handle, which is no use when the bodywork is on.

if i could weld, i'd like to make a long lever that clipped onto the centrestand and simply tumbled the stand into place, by hand. the lever would have to be about 6 feet long -- but it would only be for home use, so you could store it. a lever that long would only have to travel an arc of about 12 inches to achieve sufficient movement down at the ground. and the leveraged-advantage would make the bike's weight irrelevant. you could lift half a ton this way.

if honda made the centrestand with a steel ring ready to receive the 6 foot long lever, they could sell the lever as an accessory. but now the problem is they've dispensed with centrestands. and for what ? to save 2 pounds of weight on the 1000RR ?

so they force you to buy 2 racing stands for each end, to get the bike completely off the ground. i'm reluctant to use a rear racing stand because of capsizing. the last time my bike fell on its side, it was 2am, in the garage and i live alone. i had to beg the n.r.m.a. (the auto club) to send help because i only had car-membership with them. there was petrol running all over the garage floor and i was in a geriatric panic. some call this a senior's moment but i really was in a bit of bother. i'd already done hundreds of dollars damage to the body plastic. plastic welding and painting of one crack had cost $200 previously.

grendl, this is my version of fear-aversion. i don't blame you for not trusting cruise controllers. my groin muscles are too important too me to care about cracked bodywork such that i would risk not walking again just to 'struggle' the bike up. so i can't let it capsize in the first place.

vigorous young cowboys on bikes may decry this as they load their rifles and tell me to git outta Dodge but they too will be searching for osteoarthritis cures one day soon.

(there is no real cure by the way but i have a list of 8 things you can do to arrest the destruction before it progresses to irreversibility. i won't give them now in case i've exceeded a wordcount or anything and am changing this from a forum into a collective blog.)