Another lovely day yesterday - temps in the high sixties and some heavy breezes. But I no longer need to fear the wind blowing the Himalayan over. I shortened the kick stand by 3/4". I first took a look at my bicycle since it has a kickstand and is about the same height as the motorcycle. After leaning it over a few times and looking at the clearance of the stand with the floor, I figured 1/2" should do it.
I clamped a couple of pieces to the bench top to make sure I could get the foot on the bottom of the stand at the correct angle when welding it back on. There's a rod bent into a vee shape on the side of the stand that you use to push the stand down that had to be cut off and moved up also. I cut what needed to be cut, welded everything back together, primed, painted and reinstalled it on the bike. It was a lot better but not quite enough. I went ahead and cut another 1/4" out of it while I had all the tools out, repainted and reinstalled it. Looks to be perfect now.
I did notice while deciding what to do that it takes very little to compress the forks initially. Because the bike was nearly vertical when on the side stand if it straightened up at all, the weight would shift and the forks would compress just enough to allow the bike to become straight up. Then the slightest thing would allow it to go over center and hit the ground. Should be cured now.
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