dual star center stand follow up (long)

[Steve Anderson]

List, The timing of the recent threads are ironic, as I just got my stand back from Dual Star. I had posted a query for info about these guy's about a month ago, and had hinted at some problems that I would post later. Here 'tis.... This is an email I wrote about a month ago concerning my Dual Star center stand to a concerned lister/friend of Dual Star. I have edited it a little with []: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------- Ya know. I just hadn't heard anything bad about these guy's but.. Within two or three weeks, on the first stand I got, it was cocked forward so much; it wouldn't hold the bike off the ground. Dual Star replaced it; it took about three weeks though. I have set the bike on the new one maybe ten times. Last Friday [19 May], I placed the bike on the center stand and noticed it was sitting low. Close inspection revealed that the hinge pin had slid out on the rh side around 2". I put it back on the side stand, and fixed the pin. The rh spring is tweaked from the hinge pin interfering with it. The pin has drifted out again in about 300 miles. I called them this Monday; they asked my number, and said would get back to me. I wanted to know if the pin was supposed to be a press fit, and if so, are both sides press fits, or just the left [it is a press fit on just the left side], and should I just try to drive the pin hard into the left side to see if it would stay put. The guy I talked to (Jeff?) didn't know. I called them again today (Wednesday) [24 May] and they told me I might not get a response until next week. Whatever. The shipping charges (the thing is heavy) are a dud, we're starting to look at the cost of the stand just in those charges, and I'm not certain I'm ready for round three. It seems like it is taking a long time to get this right. I can't possibly imagine what I'M DOING to cause any of this. I put the bike on the stand by grabbing the rack and the handle bar grip and tossing the bike on it. I've had a couple of street bikes that came with centerstands, and that's how I've always done it. I don't really understand why Dual Star doesn't weld those little *steps* like on the stock ones on the street bikes, but I digress. Do we have a QC issue here or what? Am I doing something wrong? I would think that if these things are meant to handle a 400lb bike, they should be pretty stout. My faith is dashed.. I really liked having centerstands on my street bikes, and to be honest, I consider the KLR more like one of my street bikes with a big suspension. All of my bikes have been mostly dirt oriented, except a couple. I just don't know whether to try and make this one work, try again with another, try somebody else's, or just ship the damn thing back and figure my KLR was never meant for a centerstand, and go back to using jackstands, which really suck when you're on the road, and damn it, simply not as convenient when I'm in the shop. Anyway, I don't really want to post this on the list until it's resolved one way or the other, and I can present a reasonably objective report. Thanks for the concern, Steve Anderson --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------- They (Mike) asked me to send it back to them so the could weld the pin in place, and that this type of failure had only occurred once before. I mailed it to them the 1st or 2nd of June. I got it back in less than three weeks, which including the time to ship both ways; doesn t seem too bad. However, when I mounted the beast, I think that it is cocked forward more than when I got it initially, and wonder if it s not going to exhibit the symptoms of failure on the first unit I got. If it does, the thing goes in the trash, I m tired of dealing with this nonsense. Dual Star told me they would *analyze* the first one as to why it failed, but when I last talked to them (24 May), they hadn t touched it. I wanted to know the results, because now I m worried that this one will do the same thing as the first (why wouldn t it?), unless they could give me a reasonable explanation as to why it failed. Dual Star offered to pay all the shipping, but as far as I m concerned, that s not the point. I just want a center stand to put on the bike and forget about. I first ordered the beast early March. I have had little use of it in the three and a half months that I ve owned it, and have little enthusiasm for it anymore; I have no intentions of putting it in a box and shipping it a third time. It will need to prove itself before I take it on a long ride again, lest it become so much ballast . I will post a follow up in a few months (or sooner, if there is a problem). At this point, I will give the darn thing a chance, but the trash can awaits any let downs... Steve Anderson