Hi guys, I've always been concerned about the integrity of the sidestand on my Ducati, it's not a great idea from an engineering point of view to bolt the sidestand directly to the crankcase, I realise because of the nature of the trellis frame that there's nowhere else to put it, and I was told never to even sit on the bike with the stand down for fear of stressing /snapping the bolts/crankcase, so I wondered how do you go on if you take the bike on a ferry where it is strapped down? I had a blazing row with the MOT guy because he wanted to lift the bike up on the stand to check the headrace bearings - I refused to allow it & fetched my own bike stand to do it safely. Am I being overly cautious? But who will pay if the bike got damaged in the process?
As long as the bolts to the crankcase are tight they are not a problem but the stand itself on most models isn't up to using it to lift the wheels up. I know of a couple of multi stands failing, possibly because of this. Some dealers use the sidestand to pivot the bike around when moving bikes in the showroom. A practice I was horrified to see. I've no problems on ferries where I've tied the bike down, a properly tied down bike doesn't need to have any load on the stand at all, but I wasn't so happy with CalMac who insist that there men tie the bike down by simply having it on the side stand with a strap over the seat. Not good for the stand and not very secure either.
I pivot my bike on the side stand all the time. I know its horrendous but I have no choice where it is garaged. I would think the aluminium stand would snap before any damage is done to the cases as long as the bracket is fully tightened on its mounting bolts.