Centre Stand 'Clang' When 'Rolling Off'

I'm getting a bit 'twitchy' every time I roll my SW off the centre stand.

The hammering type 'clang' of the stand retracting against the strike plate seems excessive. The housing looks OK, the spring was replaced a few years ago and the rubber strike wheel attached to the stand is fine. I put the bike on the side stand and 'flicked' the centre stand. The only contact I can see is the rubber strike wheel hitting the strike plate, just as it should.

All the centre stands on my bikes have made a 'clang' or some kind of noise when retracting but this does feel harsh. Is it normal or is there something more sinister going on down there

I can't STAND it!

Could it be that the rubber strike wheel has aged to the point that it’s no longer pliable?

Hadn't considered that. I'll give it a check over and try to soften it up with Floplast Plumber's Gel.

...and just when I thought I might have a day off from my SW winter maintenance schedule!

Maybe it is time to start looking for a replacement scoot. I know how attached we can get to our ride, but in reviewing your past posts, it may not be worth throwing more money into a SW that is as far gone as yours. I cringe when your photos show rust everywhere. It looks like it is starting to have increasing number of problems. Sorry if my post seems strong, it is not meant to be mean. The love for your SW may justify the cost to, I know. My wife tries to convince me to get rid of my 64 GTO rust bucket. That was my first car and is my baby.

Only a lottery would enable me to replace my SW! Due to being dealt one of life's curve-balls I have to run my baby on a shoestring. I'm not complaining but she's probably the last bike I will own and I want to make the most of her.

There doesn't seem to be anything obviously wrong with my centre stand but I wonder if anyone else has a similar issue or maybe it's normal behavior for the older SWs?

My SW came missing its centre stand. When I did eventually get one for it, I found it's at least a two-man job to get it onto the stand. I don't know how you'd ever wear one out.

Maybe just needs a little grease on pivot point bushings/collars ??, I removed mine to paint it and noticed some wear on mounting bracket holes, if anything more play makes it easier to pop up on stand, side play may be excessive for my liking, but no issues yet, next time around I'm going to add some thin washers, no rush.

It's funny you should mention the part about it being easier to pop up onto the stand. I was beginning to think that all those hours at the gym and the 10mile run every morning were paying off!

I'll pop the spring off and see if there's any play in the mounting holes,(and side play now that you mention it).

Mine is a 2013 with 12,000 miles and the main stand makes a hell of a loud clonk when it flicks up, I normally keep my foot on it and let it up slowly so I don't wake the whole street up when I leave for work in the early mornings.
The rubber buffer is still on it so I don't know why it's so noisy, the one on my motorbike is silent when it goes up.

The centre  stand on my 04 used to make quite a clang when it went up. I figured at least I knew it was up!

Maybe I'll just ignore it and start sleeping at night?

Loosemarbles wrote:

Maybe I'll just ignore it and start sleeping at night?

Well, that would certainly be out of character for you Loosemarbles.

I'm sure I don't know what you mean.

Mine, a 2005 makes the exact same noise when rolling her off the center stand. I even wrapped some duct tape around the rubber bushing to see if that would help and it did a little. I'm currently looking for a replacement bushing on the cheap. As I was typing this I just realized I might be able to use the rubber bushings from the trucks of my daughter's old skateboard! I'm going to look into this a little later tonight and be back to the forum with news.

Like you slandi, I've tried a few remedies but they had little effect. You've got me wondering, maybe one of those rubber door stops which you screw to the floor might fit in place of the little rubber roller?

Let us know how you get on with your remedy

A bigger rubber bung * / doorstop might do the trick if the clang is the stand hitting some part of the bike, but don't come crying to us if the stand now hangs down far enough to dig in at the first enthusiastic corner!
* this is not what autocorrect wanted to type 🤭

'Bung' is such an onomatopoaic word! I'm always scraping the stand when cornering anyhow, so maybe this bung could cushion the scraping on the tarmac.

Win Win

Or ping you into a high-sided of the likes unseen since the glory days of the 500cc twostrokes

Loosemarbles wrote:

I'm always scraping the stand when cornering anyhow.

I doubt that very much, do you have photos ?

OK...'always' might be an exaggeration but I have scraped the tarmac quite a few times on one particular left hand bend and I 'once' scraped the tarmac on a right hand bend. I'm not sure which part of the bike made contact but the right lower front skirting has some scrape marks. I do have a photo of that somewhere!

There is a lovely low speed switchback nearby which is somewhat irresistible.

So a quick update, I tried the rubber stopper from my daughter's old skateboard, but the consistency was too hard and it made a very loud noise, but different. Then I realized that the rubber grommet sits on a metal sleeve and there is quite a bit of play between the sleeve and the actual pin that holds the grommet to the center stand. I think what might be happening is the noise of the clanging of the space between the sleeve and the pin is amplified through the center stand itself. I'm going to try wrapping enough masking tape around the pin to make up that gap and see if that quiets down the stand when it flips up. The existing grommet seems to be ok and still pliable. I'm thinking, depending on the thickness of the gap, perhaps an old piece of inner tube cut and wrapped around might work as well to fill the gap.

Thanks for the update. Sorry that your plan didn't work. A few years ago I replaced all the parts which make up the strike roller and it didn't make a lot of difference. Try your plan B and let us know how you get on.

I'm suspecting some wear/play in the stand mounting collars.

Can someone supply a pic to the centrestand rubber, I have been replacing mine with a strip of old innertube ribber tie wrapped and glued to the mounting pin but tends to last a few weeks before it miraculously disappears !

I also superglue a strip of rubber where the roller meets the underside of the swingarm/belt drive housing. Hope that helps....

If it helps the OEM centerstand bumper/rubber wheel is 25mm outside diameter, 12mm inside diameter, 12mm thick, it really needs to be a very hard rubber, I've have used large rubber bottle stoppers on other scooters, you usually find them in hardware stores in misc. hardware bins. drill and trim to size, get a few JIC.

To drill a clean hole in rubber, mark the center, freeze the stopper overnight, quickly use a drill press with correct drill bit, etc. A sharpened tubing section works, but woodworking Forstner drill bit works best.

Fortunately SW oem parts are fairly cheap/available over here, paid $2usd for oem one

This post reminded me that my '03 SWing would do the same. I never tried this but you could try wrapping foam pipe insulation around the spring to deaden the sound.

Could be that the center stand bushings and stand pivot holes are worn. Seems as if that would be most probable on higher mileage Silverwings. Below are two photos posted by Dave Kitchenman Batter on the FB’s Silverwing 600 forum*:







*That post and comments are worthwhile checking out if you’re able to find it.