[magnets]

Hi All,
So this is a very simple guide, which might be of use for a beginner or someone who hasn't had a bike without a centre stand.

Bobbins?
They are called Bobbins, Pickup Bolts, Swingarm Pickups, Paddock Stand Bolts, Paddock Stand Sliders or pretty much any combination of that

What do they do?
They let you use a paddock stand to securely hold your bike with the rear wheel off the ground.

A Paddock stand?
One of these:

and lets you do this:

Why?
Lots of reasons, It makes lubing the chain really easy and cleaning the bike...

What do i need?

• You will need the bobbins, I picked mine up from Aliexpress for $5 delivered . They arrived quick and were well packaged.
  (I don't make any money from this link, buy from whereever, I'm not your supervisor)
• A very large allen key in Imperial for no good reason. 5/16's to be exact.
• Loctite 243 threadlocker (go for the blue liquid, medium strength, you don't want to have to use a blow torch to remove them)

What do i do?
With the bolt through the bobbin put a single small drop of threadlocker on the first 2 or 3 threads

find the corresponding bolt hole on your swingarm, it is there and doesn't have a cap, screw it in hand tight, not hulk strength, less than a jar of pickles. If you want to get specific, around 6NM of torque.

Your done!
If somone knows a better was of getting inline images without using an external host that would be great (only 6 images to an album!?)
I'll be adding more as i do them, hopefully tomorrow the engine protectors and the new levers.

 

[Fastfred]

Alternativel just buy a stand with u shaped brackets and no need to modify anything as it just hooks under the swingarm. Cheap as chips on evilbay..

 

[magnets]

That is true, my Paddock stand came with the U bars too. However my paddock stand is cheap and it never felt as easy to use as the bobbins, especially when it was one person.

 

[Chic]

Excellent write up Magnets!! lol

 

[QCS]

Thanks magnets!

 

[jimmyp]

Do you know the bolt size for these. The ones I bought came with M10 x 1.5, which doesn't seem to fit. Got some 1.25's and they don't seem to fit either. Don't want to force it and bugger things up.

 

[magoo]

I purchased the ridiculous overpriced OEM ones but would not recommend them. They have very narrow lift channels (almost too narrow for my old style race stand) and the metal is quite soft. They almost started to round out with a standard Allen key tightening and l’m no Gorilla on the tools. The Orange colour is nice but wears off easily too 👎👎

 

[magoo]

Word of warning. The OEM bobbins are made of very soft alloy (nearly rounded out the Allen slot) they are also very narrow in the channel (barely fit my old paddock stand lifters) and very expensive

 

[magnets]

Do you know the bolt size for these. The ones I bought came with M10 x 1.5, which doesn't seem to fit. Got some 1.25's and they don't seem to fit either. Don't want to force it and bugger things up.

Hi Jimmy, I'm pretty sure they're M10
perhaps make sure the hole is clear of debris and it's not cross threading.

 

[barbagris]

Bobbins - Do not leave them in. The 790 has an ali swinger - fall off and those steel bolts can rip a hunk out of the swing arm.

Very quick and useful for track teams (with sponsors to buy new swingers). But (imo) not so practical for the home mechanic who treats their bike with more love and care.

 

[J D]

Bobbins - Do not leave them in. The 790 has an ali swinger - fall off and those steel bolts can rip a hunk out of the swing arm.

Very quick and useful for track teams (with sponsors to buy new swingers). But (imo) not so practical for the home mechanic who treats their bike with more love and care.

I disagree.

I have a regular rear stand for my 22 year old VTR, (it doesn't have the tapped screw-in points), and I effin despise that I have to use that stand. It feels like I'm going to drop the bike every time I lift 'er up, granted, they are shite stands that came from the PO.

Most all my motos had bobbins lifted with a PitBull stand, positive contact, I could even sit on the bike, it wasn't going anywhere, I wouldn't do it any other way.

Most all swing-arms are Aluminum/alloy. If one hits hard enough to wreck the swinger, than that's what insurance is for.. :smile_big:

 

[dma]

I added bobbins when I got the bike but ended up getting an ABBA stand so never used them in the end - so much easier to use than paddock stands.

 

[barbagris]

Best workshop aids I have found in a while is one of these. Or similar.

Push bike in - get rear stand and "hup".

 

[QCS]

Best workshop aids I have found in a while is one of these. Or similar.


Push bike in - get rear stand and "hup".

Prefer over a front stand? Why?

 

[J D]

The ABBA stand looks pretty neat, def. a European bit, I've never seen one here in the States.

 

[barbagris]

Prefer over a front stand? Why?

Ease of use - I have a head stock front lift too for fork stripping. But the flippy front thing is just so easy.