Swingarm Spools

Some of my wife's family members tend to not be extremely creative (well, a few are, but most are not).  So when you ask for something for Christmas, you really need to specify what it is you want ... exactly.

That prompted me to I write a Christmas List website where one can specify what they want for Christmas, exactly, and one can almost guarantee that you will get exactly what one specifies on his/her list.

On my list this year, I added quite a few motorcycle parts/tools and knowing that her family would probably get me EXACTLY what I ordered, I felt confident enough to add a few links to things on Amazon or eBay that I really wanted for my shop and/or bike(s).

One of those little trinkets was a set of Swingarm Spools:
http://www.amazon.com/MIT-Motors-Universal-Swingarm-Hayabusa/dp/B00CW7BOD6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1382961021&sr=8-1&keywords=sv650+lift



While Suzuki didn't engineer a center stand for the SV650S, you can purchase an aftermarket one for about $300 if you so choose.  But, man, does it look ugly.  And it adds unnecessary weight.

Luckily, Suzuki realized that the core market for this bike would likely be people that recognized it's potential as a race bike, and they opted to add a place to bolt on swingarm spools. These spools are used as pivot points for a swingarm spool lift stand (See THIS blog post).

I asked for the blue ones pictured above to match my 2004 SV650S's paint scheme.  The bolts fit exactly as designed and a few turns of an allen wrench (sorry, I mean Hex Key) had these bad boys fitted to my bike.  I haven't had an opportunity to test them out yet, but I assume they will work just fine.  The only thing I'm unsure about is how BIG they are.  They seem to poke out way farther than they need to.

A couple of positive things here (notwithstanding the enormity of them):
1.  They are easily removed.  Grab an allen wrench, lefty-loosey, and store them in your garage until the next time you need to lift the rear tire off the ground.  At that point, righty-tighty them back on and hoist your bike up with a swingarm stand.
2. The are inexpensive. $20 with shipping.
3. If you're interested in frame sliders that protect your your swingarm, this might fit the bill.  OK, this benefit is probably not realistic.  ;)