More weight reduction.

Hi,

Has anybody looked at the lump of iron that's used to attach the side stand?  Couldn't it be redesigned and made from aluminum?

kolotour wrote:

Hi,

Has anybody looked at the lump of iron that's used to attach the side stand?  Couldn't it be redesigned and made from aluminum?

Yep.

How many ounces do you figure you might be able to save on a 300 lb bike???

There's been lots of discussion on slimming down the WRR in the past, particularly in the early years back on Thumper Talk. I think Deranged Hermit over there exercised his engineer OCDC compulsion to see how much he could minimize the bike's weight.

I think the short story was he found you could knock your brains out and you still wouldn't get a significant change in weight on the WRR.

its a trail bike don't forget not a full on enduro, its not that heavy to be honest I have a dt 125r and it doesn't feel much heavier than that I think its light enough and I do a lot of road work on mine and I find it nice and stable so im happy with it, If I was doing mainly off road id get a ktm 300 2 stroke exc .

I coated mine black with bed liner but before I did, I drilled a few holes to take some weight out for the hell of it. At least it looks lighter.  

Prob be easier to cut it off and use one of the aftermarket aluminum ones.
What I would like is a super light sub frame. Plastic or aluminum since im too cheap for carbon. That paired with a lithium battery would shave some lbs.

oic0 wrote:

Prob be easier to cut it off and use one of the aftermarket aluminum ones.
What I would like is a super light sub frame. :DPlastic or aluminum since im too cheap for carbon. That paired with a lithium battery would shave some lbs.

You don't have to do any cutting.  The side stand mount bolts on.  It's ARON. Very thick. If somebody goes to the trouble of removing the plastic guard on the muffler to save weight then there's many more ounces to be saved by tossing the ARON lump that holds the side stand. Who would build a very nice aluminum central frame and mount an ARON lump to hold the side stand? Must have been Mr. Yamaha's son.

You know some guy and his fat wife plus luggage would put all their weight on it one day. Easier for Yamaha to use a lil extra metal then get sued when fat wife hits her head on the curb and dies when the thing buckles.

I like having a robust kickstand, but yeah as a hiker I know that small weight savings throughout the bike will add up. I would start with non structural items like plastics, fuel tank etc. Where I live dual sport conversion bikes don't need turn signals so they could go.
Then I would look into rotational mass which makes the bike feel heavier. So lightweight sprockets, don't buy oversized tires which is real common, use stock sizes to keep the weight down.

I had a bolt on aftermarket kickstand on my dirt bike when I was a kid. I babied it and it still tore out of the aluminum swingarm. After having the swingarm welded back up it never was a problem after that. Personally I really like being able to get on the bike with the kickstand down. Makes getting on with tail bags much easier.

But anyway if you want, the easiest thing to do would be to add a universal bolt on kickstand and just remove the stocker.

Handlebars are typically really heavy as well. Can usually drop 1-2 lbs there. Battery, swap HD tubes for tubeliss, normal removal stuff...


I agree that I actually appreciate a hearty kickstand mount. I've had to weld quite a few of those over the years so its not a terrible place for Yamaha to actually spend some material on.

Wallrat wrote:

...
I agree that I actually appreciate a hearty kickstand mount.  I've had to weld quite a few of those over the years so its not a terrible place for Yamaha to actually spend some material on.

I agree with Wallrat, beee, and oicO
The Yamaha kickstand assembly and sub-frame are great. Occasionally I have to mount her like a horse (foot in stirrup, swinging leg up and over mountain of adv gear strapped on top of Pelican top case), which is a technique that commonly breaks weight conscious sidestands. As for the sub-frame, steel holds up better than any other feasible material, and is much easier to repair in the average shop (on the road). I could fashion a ti subframe, which would pretty much guarantee I was screwed if it broke somewhere in Chile.