Suzuki GSX650F Forum - www.GSX650F.biz

Hey all, I'm not sure if this is particular to the GSX650 or my specific type of front stand, but when I go to lift up the front tire the stand does not make even contact on both sides. It then forces the forks to turn slightly, sometimes the stand will slip off the one side and overall it's just an unstable setup. All of the weight sits on the right fork leg, the left one is shorter and therefore hardly gets any support.

I have both front & rear stands, the front stand uses those swivel type pads like this:


Now on the right (longer) side it will sit on the forks properly, but the left side will sit like the picture with the big X through it. Both swivel pads are identical and I've tried swapping them with no luck. On my rear stand I generally use the flat swingarm pads, but I also have the little spools attached to the swingarm and an accompanying set of forks/hooks to attach to the stand. I tried to use the hook type brackets on the front stand, but the front axle is too large of a diameter for them to fit over.

What setup are you all using for front stands? Any insight on a better way to support the front forks? I may just take the hooks from the rear stand and mill them out a bit to fit over the front axle.

It could be caused by your garage floor not being flat, as there are several areas on my garage floor that cause the same thing to happen. So I have picked out a level section of floor that just so happens to be in the right spot that I place my bike when I lift it completely off the ground on my stands. So move the stands around to different spots and see if that fixes it.

Nope, my floor is level. Take a look at the front forks and you'll see (looking at the front of the bike) that the left fork leg is longer than the right. The stand is level and both pads are identical, so when you go to lift it up the one fork leg makes contact before the other one. I can move the shorter side around with my hand, the longer side has 90% of the weight on it. Now that winter is over and I finally took care of registration it's not as big of a deal, it won't be sitting more than a day or two at a time and therefore I won't bother with the front stand. I was concerned about it because the motorcycle's been sitting for about a month on the stands with the weight sitting on only one fork leg, and I assume the previous owner had it supported like that for years. Seems like alot of torsional stress but what do I know...

I use the type of lift that goes under the center of the triple tree, much more stable anyway. The kind you are talking about makes it very hard on our bikes to remove the front wheel and you also encounter the problem you listed.

This type from T-rex racing: note if you have a T-rex front stand you can add the center brace to the other style of stand to lift with the triple tree.

And just where are these pictures your referring to?

I didn't see where he mentioned pics, I think he meant for you to go look at your bike from the front.

As I've never used one of these stands, I'm assuming that the front forks will both compress when the stand is put under them. If this is like other bikes I've had, one fork could be low on fluid so the other one will take up most of the weight and cause the unbalanced result. Otherwise there is something seriously wrong if one fork has 90% of the weight on it. The other thing to check is if one side of the forks is higher in the triple clamp. As is I wouldn't ride it until a Suzuki technician looks at it.

Ok when you do look at the bikes from the front the left fork is longer by about 1/2", this is due to xtra material for the front axle and the size of it. The axle on these bikes is larger on this side due to the hex for turning it into the threaded other side and there is more material to support it there, the axle is removed on this side when changing tires. So yea I understand what he's talking about now.

Thanks for all the info guys, yeah I wasn't referring to any specific pics but mcgruff has it right, there is simply more material on the one fork leg which makes it longer. This particular bike I bought is cherry, not a scratch on the thing and not a spec of dirt anywhere. I'm assuming the previous owner only took it out in very nice weather. That t-rex stand looks kinda crazy haha, but it does seem to be a better option. Seems it's just a little design/compatability flaw with the type of stand I have.

Like I said I probably won't use it again until the winter, but at that point maybe I'll just take a little block of metal or wood and 'shim' the one side so the fork legs are identical lengths. Then I can let it sit on the stand without worrying about it.

OK that makes sense on the fork legs, never saw that. I'm assume that the stand then can't be adjusted to account for the difference in length of the fork legs. As I have a center stand I was looking at just rock the bike back and putting blocks under the engine case to hold the front off the ground...or I'll just pay the dealer to replace things where I need to take off the front wheel...