Motorcycle Centre Stand Pivot

This topic has 4 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 9 October 2026 at 19:58 by Clive Foster.

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9 October 2026 at 16:00 #868662
COLIN MARTIN 2
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@colinmartin2
I have been lucky enough to be given great advice from the forum in the past, so here’s hoping someone can come up with something this time.

I have posted in the past requesting help with my 50 yr-old Spanish Ducati that has had a hard life. I now have to deal with a centre stand problem. The stand pivots on two shouldered bolts which have dimensions of: 10 mm thread followed by a 12 mm plain shoulder that fits in a corresponding hole in the frame, followed by a 14 mm shoulder that the stand pivots on. This system was used by Ducati for 30 years without any problems except eventual wear on the pivot bolts which are easily replaced. However, my bike has been run with the bolts loose in the frame for a long period, which has enlarged the holes and made them eccentric, with the result that the pivot bolts gradually work their way through the holes and cannot be kept tight.

The only solution that I can come up with is to drill the holes out and thread them and make up threaded steel bushes to screw into the holes to bring them back to standard size. However, the frame is made of high-tensile steel and is hard; would I be able to drill this with a hand drill? Would the eccentricity simply stall the drill bit? Would I be able to thread the hole with a hand tap? Would mild steel be too soft for the bushes?

There is no room to fit anything between the frame and the stand. I did think of bushing the frame holes and threading them to 10 or 12 mm and turning up new bolts without the step, with just a 14 mm shoulder right across with threaded ends and screwing this into the frame, but apart from the previously mentioned problems, I am not sure that the threaded section would be strong enough and they would be bound to keep working loose. I am not a toolmaker and have rudimentary skills; I have a lathe and pillar drill though. The bike is in running order and I do not wish to completely dismantle it to address the problem!

All ideas will be welcome.

Thanks,

Colin
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9 October 2026 at 17:42 #868680
DC31k
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@dc31k
On 9 October 2026 at 16:00 COLIN MARTIN 2 Said:

However, the frame is made of high-tensile steel and is hard

That is most unlikely.

If you wish to do any machining insitu, with minimal dismantling, a rigid drill bushing/guide will give best chance of success. You can bolt bits of angle iron to the frame at strategic points, tack weld them where they touch, position the drill guide, tack weld it, remove the contraption from the bike (and petrol) and fully weld.

Please have a look at an early episode of Project Binky on YouTube, where they made a reverse suspension jig. The principle is the same.

Pictures of the relevant parts of the bike would be useful to generate ideas.

How thick are the parts you are thinking to thread/tap?

Measure the eccentric holes and 3D print in metal a bush that fits what is on the bike, with a round hole through its centre. Glue it in place with panelbond. Decide on a minimum wall thickness and make a new bolt with reduced OD to suit the ID of the bush.
9 October 2026 at 17:45 #868683
bernard towers
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@bernardtowers37738
High tensile or just good quality, theres quite a difference. as for your inserts i thought that stainless would be a better option ( all the dirt and water). I have done this on a few BSA centre stands and Harley side stands(big thick lug) so then you can bring it all back to standard. there is no reason why you cannot make your threaded insert from large hex top hat style, then make your stand bolt correspondingly longer to account for the top hat. best of luck..
9 October 2026 at 18:08 #868686
COLIN MARTIN 2
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@colinmartin2
Thanks for the replies.

I don’t think that any sort of adhesive would hold the bushes in place, as the nut on the end of the thread would be trying to pull the bush out, which is why I thought of threading it. Stainless would definitely be better, but I find it so hard to machine and thread. I will try to organize some pictures but I am not tech-savvy, so would struggle to upload them.

The frame where the stand bolts-to consists of a half-inch thick plate either side of it; the stand has two flat plates that fit between these frame plates, so there is no room for any sort of top hat spacer (unless it were sunk into the frame plate)
9 October 2026 at 19:58 #868698
Clive Foster
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@clivefoster55965
My fix for a similar issue on the BMW R 75/80/100 series air-cooled flat twins was to re-tap the hole with a first cut (taper) tap using the smallest fine thread that would work regardless of origin. Memory says 9/16 UNF for the BMW but, over 45 years later, may well be wrong. By stopping when the tap hit the sump, before it had gone right through, most of the thread was incomplete and not to full depth so winding the nut in crushed the threads eliminating clearance so things were effectively solid. Loctite for belt and braces.

BMW used a very ordinary bolt with a bobbin for the stand to ride on. The whole set-up was objectively way too weak for the forces involved when the big twin dropped over centre on the stand. I also loctited the bobbin to the lug.

So far as I’m aware all the machines I fixed stayed fixed. Although 10 years later the bloke I sold the first bike I did this to was quite eloquent when complaining about the difficulty in getting things undone to remove the stand.

I imagine something similar could work on your Ducati although, obviously, you will need to use a bolt’n bobbin rather than a shoulder bolt.

Clive
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