Happy Trails Center Stand

I've had my eye on a Murph's Kit center stand (http://www.murphskits.com/), but he stopped carrying them (to his credit, he recently pointed me elsewhere, but I'd already purchased one elsewhere). With SW Motech and other stands coming in well over $200 (as much as $280) for my '08 Wee, I started hunting the forum. I came across a reference to Happy Trails (http://www.happy-trail.com/), which is located just north of me in beautiful Boise, Idaho.

I put my order in for their affordable center stand on Monday - it arrived today and was installed in about 20 min over my afternoon work break. Here's my report.

Installing is literally a snap. Four bolts, some spacers and a few washers. The directions are well-written and it's easy to follow along (provided you are even somewhat mechanically inclined). The only thing I recommend is to dry-fit each of the four bolts. My Wee had paint and grime in the lower bolt holes, which made threading the bolt a bit difficult. Also keep in mind that the top bolt on the right side is simply a beast to get to. Accept it--as the Tao says, take the path of water... Some patience and you'll get it.

The item was well-packaged and arrived without damage and with all of its parts. Unlike some center stand kits, the springs are pre-installed, making the overall installation quick and (relatively) easy. Once the bolts were sorted out (large 10mm bolt on bottom, smaller Allen-head 8mm bolt on top on both sides), I performed the install.

Oh--unless you like redoing things, I recommend some blue Thread-Lok on the bolts.

LEFT SIDE
The left side is the side recommended to start with. It went pretty easy, once I learned to pre-thread the bolts. I started with the top bolt, then installed the bottom bolt. Snugged everything up real tight.

RIGHT SIDE
Here's where patience comes in. Start with the bottom bolt, and add both of the extra washers for spacing. Snug it up, but not too tight - you want the bottom bolt to align the bracket, but not to hold it too rigidly.

Next, carefully insert your left hand into the miniscule space between the wheel and the exhaust pipes (obviously don't do this while the pipes are hot). Slide the 8mm bolt in through its hole, then carefully slide each washer and the spacer over it. Align the bolt and through some sort of voodoo, start threading it. I used a very long 7mm allen wrench. It didn't align well, so I went carefully. If you have a wobble-head (round-head) allen wrench, all the better. I've yet to invest...

As you can see, the "fit" is tight (it's not really a fit - had to pull the allen wrench out with vice grips). But eventually you'll get that top bolt tightened. Grab your torque wrench and torque everything down (BTW: 17 foot pounds is 23.5 NM and 34 foot pounds is 46.5 NM).

Next up: learning the balance point. It was a struggle to get this on the stand the first time. I'm glad I have it now - lubing the chain should be a lot easier (instead of chasing it all around the garage and driveway).