The lower parts of the main stand are curved to allow the big Trophy 1200 to be rocked up neatly into place. The idea is that, with a smooth pull and plenty of body weight pivoting through my right foot on the stand's little welded pad, up she comes. The result is that the bike's weight bears on the powder coated finish of the stand. This inevitably causes it to wear through to the metal beneath. It's the same story at the top of the stand where its top bracing tube hits a pair of stops. The metal work in both places was worn thin, but this was especially true on the lower section.
The main stand has a tough powder coated finish. Unfortunately, beyond the curved section at the bottom and the top tube, it was quite a bit tougher than the metal work beneath it so corrosion had started to creep up and down. So I decided to strip the coating off and then reinforce the damaged sections with weld.
It proved to be pretty challenging work with a pair of chisels and imminent danger of skewering myself. Thick gloves proved their worth several times over.
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| Stripped of its 'snake skin' coating ... |
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| ...the metal in the middle was pristine. |
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In a bath of rust removing stuff
(the bottle says phosphoric acid) |
I'm afraid my camera battery went dead just after I got set up to do the welding but this was just before I started grinding the top tube to shiny metal for rebuilding its thickness. It's not to hide the site of the horrible result, honest ;-)
It proved to be pretty challenging work with a pair of chisels and imminent danger of skewering myself. Thick gloves proved their worth several times over. 
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