They are nice for holding up the bike, but don;t try starting the bike on it, it will bend. I had one on mt Royce Union MB ( Now M.I.A. stole in Vegas) the mount bolt sheared and it was instant flat tire. Good thing I was only three blocks from home. Other than that I loved how it worked!
My centre-stand arrived this afternoon, just as I was mixing fuel, so I quickly bolted it on and tried kick-starting. Took a few kicks to perfect a technique.
Now, 1 kick if warm, 2 kicks cold - one on full choke then one with no choke. About 1/4-1/2 throttle.
(I should add that I can't turn the pedals one full turn, it's a matter of getting the RHS pedal at 45º forward, then one good kick, like a real bike. The moment it fires I whip the clutch in - Bob's your uncle.)
Mine is an 18-speed MB. At first I tried low range second gear and it was hard to kick over, so I dropped to low range first gear - beautiful, even with the billet head. It's great; kick-start in the garage, warm it a bit, then one turn of the pedals as I let the clutch out.
Had 5 rides now - no worries.
If I can kick-start it now, I might have a chance with a shift-kit, as long as I keep a nice small chainwheel for low kick-start gearing.
No bending Dan - this is a pretty sturdy alloy stand. The bracket is cast alloy and the 'n' shaped legs are about 1/2" thick-walled alloy tube.
The mount bolt is 9mm, needs replacing with hi-tensile and the pivot is a cheap M.S. rivet, 5-6mm - another hi-tensile bolt.
You're 140lb and I'm 110lb, so you might have tried a different stand.
I'm still grinning - this is
fun.
... Steve