Commando Mk3 Sidestand Warning Light

I welded the stops up so the stand does not go as far forward, if I ever leave it out then it tucks up on first contact with just a bump to tell me it was left down. Must park uphill or on the flat or the bike falls over but I can remember to do that, if not its only the bike and my pride that are damaged.

If you don't like the idea of a easy flip up stand as John has done (nothing wrong with that) and as you are happy with the wiring side of things,adding a universal brake light switch,such as one of these 

mounted so that that the switch is pulled on when the stand is down, off when up and connected to a warning light when ignition is on shouldn't be too difficult?

Either that, or look at any modern bike's side stand switch and see if it could be adapted to do the job.

My Morini came with a 'remove weight slightly and stand retracts' sidestand, since modified to a stays down until retracted one. Only needed a young oik to touch the bike and it was on its side. Once was enough...

Regards,

George

I owned my 1976 Mk3 Commando back in the late 70’s.

The Police had a few Mk3’s still in regular use (Yorkshire area) at the time, the trend was to remove the side stand completely as there was a well known incident with a Police motorcyclist and the side stand spring snapping off, resulting in a fatality.

I recently purchased a mint original Mk3 (cost me few Bob more than the ‘76 model that I sold) and the side stand is still on it.

I will be leaving the side stand on but will check the spring and mount on a regular basis.

Reading above 'interrupt the ignition' had me thinking of said action as the stand grounds!!!! No way Ho say. But then I realised that the interrupt the ignition would be active when the side stand is down. OK, but if there is yet another switch (Handle bar ignition kill-now stand switch) in the ignition circuit, then there is another weak point within the ignition system. Stand down switch, yes but perhaps coupled with a bright lamp if ignition is fired up at the same time?

Stand down-kills engine-ok. Come in to land, flip side stand out-kills engine. Forget to switch off-chatting to pals! Go back later to bike, flat battery or dead ignition due to left on ignition!

Al's point is a sound one. Of course, on modern machines the side stand switch is interconnected with a neutral detector switch such that the side stand only kills the ignition when a gear is engaged.

It's difficult to imagine someone coming to a halt with the engine in gear and holding the clutch while they deploy the side side.

Whatever you do, don't use it as a ground for the coils, with modern electronic ignition it would fry the ignition. On the MK3 it would be easy to wire the interrupt in series with the kill switch, or the feed to the ignition. 

Iain, as a MK3 owner, if you are loyal to the electric starter, a possible option is to wire a side stand switch in to the electric starter solenoid.

You can quite easily interrupt the WR (white/red) wire that goes between the starter button on the handlebar switch to the S terminal (switch) on the starter solenoid.

It wouldn’t give you the ignition system safety interlock, but it would be a nice compromise in my opinion.