05/20/2014
To celebrate this new Facebook site, I wanted to share how/why I made and designed the electric center stand.
I have made and produced the center stand since 2008. The idea came to me at Arizona bike week. We had been working like crazy getting ready for the show. I had my dad working for me at the time and the shop was crazy busy. We were always moving bikes around and my dad was always saying what a pain in the ass the kickstand was and how he was always so worried to walk away from the bike. When we got to the show we set the bikes up. At that time, the bike market was more towards custom bikes and the bagger market was not anything like it is now. We had a couple of customs and a couple baggers. We moved those bikes around so many times over the course of that show and they always looked like s**t because they were leaning over. There were guys that would use a jack under the bike and then put some type of table cloth of some sort over it. "Cheesy", I said to my dad, I've got this idea to make some legs come/swing down and hold the bike up. It would work with air ride bikes and that way the weight of the motorcycle is actually what makes it so stable. After the show, we went back to the shop and we were still incredibly busy. I had a few guys working for me at the time and my dad ran the front and tried to help us be more efficient. I had everybody working and for one day, I sat in a chair with a bike on the lift looking up at it. I looked at the bottom, the top and tried to take in all the variables. I drew up a triangle out of manilla folder and stabbed a pencil through it. I rolled that pencil back and forth, back and forth making the leg go up and down. I must have done this for days. All the while, my old man up my ass wondering what in the hell I am doing "drawing pictures" and playing with a pencil. (Love you Dad) I kept telling him to chill this was going to be great. Within two weeks, we had the first working unit. Everyone I talked to was not interested and/or thought it wouldn't work or wouldn't be stable. I was determined to make it undeniably stable. We tested the crap out of it. I have a picture of a 400lb man standing on one side of the bike, on the passenger pegs. I handmade every stand for the next 4 years. I didn't have to make many because for a long time I couldn't give them away. There was no market yet for this product. I went to countless shows and talked to so many people and it just wasn't there. Finally, in 2012 the bagger market started to become what it is today. I went to a local machine shop and sat with them to redraw all the pieces I had made by hand for years. After a lot of work we had designed an adjustable leg kit which helps everyone through install and availability. Today, all of the stands that we sell, we weld them, we box them and we assemble them. The stands that I offer on the market today are the same design from 2008 just made on machines to meet the demand of the product. Years of research and development have given you a product you can trust. With over 300 dealers for this product in the US, it can be found mostly anywhere. Like all things in life there are imitations, I would encourage you to trust the original.
"Cheap is sometimes good, but good is never cheap."
