Starting in '07, a Harley tour bike will not start with the bike in gear and clutch engaged. Jap bikes had this feature about two decades earlier..... (Your Harley may be different....Read your Fricking Manual ! )

Unfortunately, after a lifetime of Brit and Jap bikes, my first Harley was an '06. It starts in gear with the clutch out, and will turn 180 degrees on the jiffy stand before killing. But the jiffy stand holds.

 

excellent

 

huh. never knew that.

bikes on the jack, and looking/working at the mechanism, its pretty darn smart.

never was really worried, but didnt realized it locked so much.

 

Dont worry, its not going anywhere, pucker factor yes, tipping over no.

 

In my dealers warehouse all the bikes are stacked in within inches of each other with no room to stand one straight up. All the bikes are in nuetral, all they do is grab the front forks and drag them out to the isle then stand them up. When I asked about the jiffy stand they said they have been doing this for 20 years without failure. Since that day I've never worried about the movement in the jiffy stand.

 

If you can, get the bike on a jack and examine HOW the the stand works. If you do this you will see how with the jiffy extended it is impossible for the bike to come, "out of the kickstand". Knowing how it is designed should give you a confidence.

 

I always feel a little movement but the bike isn't going anywhere. Don't worry!

 

Yes i remember my first stab at the HD jiffy stand experience. just got back from my test ride at the dealer and put the stand down stood up off the seat and the bike started the forward roll against the locking tabs and I bout had a heart attack thinking this thing is going down and I haven't bought it yet! As I got used to it I can see it's 100 percent well made and it isn't going to fold up. JUST make sure when you throw the stand down...that it is ALL THE WAY DOWN and between the tabs before you start to dismount...you can imagine why I'm telling you this! Now i always check that the tab is locked in place and I roll the bike forward before I dismount.

 

Oh, yeah! And make sure if you have it on something like a J&S you confirm before releasing the hoist that the jiffy hasn't been bumped out of position.

 

I guess I'm the only one in the world who has had a problem with a jiffy stand. When I was shopping for bikes I sat on one at a dealership, it was outside and I noticed right away it was on a slight downslope. I got on it, worked the controls, checking the bike out and made sure to give the stand a nudge forward just before getting off. The bike must have been in neutral because the next thing I know the bike rolled forward. Fortunately I was still on the bike and close to a building support because the bike fell to the left and it took just about everything I had to keep it from falling harder than it did. It was at that moment I learned how heavy these bikes are once they reach the fall over point from straight up. The bike stopped falling only because of the building pole it was parked next to and I managed to muscle it back upright from that point. It was a real test for my reconstructed knee and shoulder, both on the left side where the bike fell. I shouldn't have lifted the bike back from the pole and instead wait or call someone over to help me out, but the ego took over from there. I was a little shocked but happy I saved it without my knee giving out, but for my next act I made double sure the jiffy stand was forward, bike in gear and I'll be damned if it wanted a repeat performance, WTF? Damn thing started to do it again and I stopped it from moving beyond the point of no return and it was not the normal slight movement forward that I'm aware of since buying a RK. This time I waited for a salesman to come by and take control of the bike. I told him what happened so he got on it and made sure it was in gear, moved it back and forth a couple times to make sure the gearing kept it in place then sat down on the jiffy stand. It was OK then. All I know if it fell the first time there must have been something amiss, even in neutral. However, I read in this post that the locking mechanism was in place on 06 and newer bikes? The bike wasn't a spring chicken, an older machine that looked well worn, I think it was a Softail. Out of that experience I just make sure the bike is in gear no matter what the level of the ground is below me. However, for a while after buying the RK the slight jiffy stand movement still gave me a little scare. Just a word from personal experience relating to kickstands. Make sure the road or parking spot you choose to set your kickstand down on is stable and solid, or at least try and check it out first because one time I stopped at a lake parking lot, near the edge of a not so good a shape lot and put the stand down on my Ducati 916. Myself and three others decided to go skinny dipping because it was blazing hot out so we stripped off the leathers lake side and jumped in. About five minutes later some dude is yelling at us from above asking if anyone of us owned a red bike. We kind of looked at each other and laughed because three of the bikes were red Ducatis. Anyway, he described a bike on it's side in the lot and turns out one of the guys went up there and discovered it was my bike. He yelled back and told me it was mine and I reacted very calmly and decided something like that wasn't going to ruin my cool down time. I leisurely went back to the bike and at that point I wasn't a happy camper because the bike's kickstand went through the soft asphalt and below that was a hole, so nothing slowed the bike down like soft asphalt will do and it fell like a sack of cement. The damage was worst than when I crashed the bike the month before at the race track, I mean it was major damage. Took me a few bucks to get that fixed. Anyway, word to the wise.