I think that the Dave Hills stands are wonderful but I also think that Dave does himself a dis-service by suggesting that they can be fitted in one hour. When I fitted mine it might have taken that long for the first fitting but I then spent many hours taking it off, filing a little off the stop and then refitting it until it had just the right amount of movement to ensure that it would not roll forwards and yet did not go so far back that the rear wheel was taking significant weight. If that occurs then that can also make the bike unstable when parked. All our bikes differ in small ways and care taking in fitting an item can be the difference between a pleasure and a pain.
Starting Vincent Life with a Backfire!
- Thread starter KennyNUT
- Start date
Here is the picture I promised
You can see the obvious difference in mine to yours, that was AFTER I cut a number of inches off the bottom....still way too high
That looks like one of the early Comet ones. Local Comet rider, Nick Wingrove, had an early one as well and had to saw a lot off the legs. He also fitted a folding handle into the sidecar fitting under the seat nose which allows him to get a good grip when lifting. Mentioning seats; either you have modified your seat or it has broken its back. They do not normally have that low point in the middle. Good luck.
Here is how I set the lengths of my stand legs:
- Take a straight edge from the point where the front tyre touches the ground to the bottom point on the rear tyre and then sight through to give you an approximate mark at which to cut the stand legs.
- Cut the legs a little below your mark so that you can still shorten them a little if necessary.
- Put some 1/4" or 6 mm approx steel plate under the cut ends and check the clearance between rear tyre and the ground.
- Adjust leg length until the tyre just clears the ground.
- When you have the length right right make two new steel plate feet, put them under the legs and tack weld them to the legs. (You could clean up the the original feet and use those.)
- Check the height is OK and If you are happy with it complete the weld.
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Unfortunately not with mine, Eddy. Being an early stand the footpiece is touching the ground when the stand is in use. If I used a more over centre position the footpiece would hit the ground before the stand was settled on its stop. On later stands the footpiece is at a more forgiving angle and is braced.
Dear Hugo,
It would be a few minutes job to change the angle of your foot piece and and a brace could be added at the same time. If you do not have the facilities or skills to carry this out for yourself there may be a local VOC member (come on you guys) or a friendly fabrication shop who could help out. (Alternatively get it to me and I'll do it for you.)
It would be a few minutes job to change the angle of your foot piece and and a brace could be added at the same time. If you do not have the facilities or skills to carry this out for yourself there may be a local VOC member (come on you guys) or a friendly fabrication shop who could help out. (Alternatively get it to me and I'll do it for you.)
I am trying a lower seat as I found the original a little disconcerting being level with tank and flat.
